Today we got up at a stupid hour, not for once to race to the Lakes for the privilege of queuing to climb some falling down ice, but instead, to get to Bakewell in time for the final round of the Dark & White Mini Mountain Marathon league. We missed the first round, but won our class (mixed pairs) in the 2nd – and since the event is the best 2 scores out of 3, we had to win today to be certain of at least a share of the prize.
The event was moved at the last minute from Eyam to Bakewell, due to the loss of water supply to the original event centre. The revised area was all at a relatively low level with no access land involved, which meant sticking to rights of way and roads throughout. Nevertheless, there were many route options available, and though we stuck more-or-less to our original rough plan, we changed the details several times through the run.
The weather was fantastic once again – cloudless skies and frosty valleys, very cold in the shade or in any slight breeze, but pleasantly warm when in the sun. Unfortunately there were hardly any hills, which meant few excuses to slow our pace, so we ran far more than we'd intended (or are used to). One poor route choice at 2 hours in lost us a possible 15 points, but we made these up with 2 short detours later on, and finished in just 3 minutes over our alloted 3 hours 15 minutes, with a score of 207.
One young whippet had managed an incredible 305 points, only 15 short of the maximum possible (even with hindsight I can't work out a route to achieve this), but luckily he wasn't in our class. At the time we left, we were lying 2nd – the leaders got 240 points, but they hadn't entered the previous 2 events, so we were lying 1st overall. But the pair who'd won the first event were still out on the hill – would they beat 207? A nervous wait until the results are published early in the week…
Vital statistics: 25km, 550m ascent, 3 hours 18 minutes. This morning's challenge was walking downstairs.