Karrimor International Mountain Marathon
The Leaders Pull Away
Rob / 26.10.2003
Steve Birkinshaw was stamping his feet and clapping his hands trying to keep warm before the 7am restart Sunday morning. There was a frost on the ground and some small pools of water in the middle of the campsite were frozen over, but it had been nowhere near as cold as the previous night, there was little wind, and the skies were clear of yesterdays heavy shower clouds. Once the early morning chills and aches were overcome it promised to be a perfect day for running. Birkinshaw and Morgan Donnelly were set off first, and with another 6 minutes until Mark Seddon and John Hunt gave chase they would be well out of sight of the start before the race was on. Bjorn Rydvall and Simon Bourne would start a minute after Seddon and Hunt, and this chasing start ensures the first across the line is the winner. The 4th pair, Alec Keith and Adrian Davies were 21 minutes behind the top 3, and they took a direct route, straight over the hills to CP1, while the first 3 ran down a track to skirt the hill by the campsite.
The Elite course for day 2 began by heading East towards Hermitage Castle, passing over Din Fell, and the first 4 checkpoints were close together on hills split by deep gullies, which were best avoided. After leaving checkpoint 4 the route crossed the road to the castle and by this point one and half hours into the race, Birkinshaw and Donnelly were pulling out a stronger lead. They were 10 minutes up on Rydvall and Bourne. Seddon and Hunt were a further 2 minutes down and didn’t find the bridge, so they waded across Hermitage water to continue.
By this time the latest starts had only just finished, and the bustling overnight camp had returned to being a quiet farm field in the Border hills. The presence of so many people was, not surprisingly, disturbing the farm hounds who bayed furiously during the morning. Sunday morning is always one of the hardest parts of the race, packing the wet tent, pulling on damp clothes and shoes, and feeling the aches that have stiffened up overnight. See All Event Posts
