RAB Mountain Marathon organised by Dark & White Challenge Events
Jeremy Sainter & Adrian Boyes / 05.10.2010
The 4th RAB Mountain Marathon turned out to be another fantastic event with nearly 600 competitors enjoying the fabulous fell running terrain on offer in the North East corner of the Lake District around Haweswater and bounded by Ullswater and Kirkstone Pass. The scenery was complimented with some great weather for the whole weekend something for which the event is getting a bit of a reputation that said it was a bit on the cool side overnight at the mid camp.Bampton Village Hall proved to be an excellent venue for the event HQ with the Friday night camping field being directly behind the hall and the Saturday car park in the field at the side. Competitors began arriving on Friday afternoon and the event shop courtesy of Up & Running was in business before they had even finished setting up their display. There was a steady flow of entrants registering up to the 10 p.m. closing time and there was a palpable air of excitement in the hall as the competitors chatted and browsed for last minute kit requirements and to replace essentials left at home on the kitchen table.
Saturday morning dawned bright and cold with a fresh northerly wind. There was a relaxed calm as Dark & White waited for the expected early influx of competitors at 7 a.m. but things were strangely quiet as competitors took advantage of the relaxed start which was open from 8.45 to 10.30 a.m. deciding to have a bit of a lie in! But it was not long before the car park was filling fast and Wilf’s Catering (now Scott’s) were doing a roaring breakfast trade.
The start for this year’s event was a 30 minute/2km walk out on to the open fell just to the west of Bampton. On arrival at the start competitors punched the start control and received the 1:30,000 Harvey’s event map showing all the weekend’s controls along with the control description sheet showing the 28 controls (with a total value of 660 points) which were live on Saturday plus their relevant points values.
