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Race You to the Top

Rob Howard / 18.06.2009

The athletes in the teams are competing against each other for the title of ‘King of the Mountains’, given to the pair of runners with the fastest aggregate over all 3 peaks. For the past two years Martin Beale of Team Vasque has held this trophy. In 2007 he raced with Tasmanian Josh Southen on ‘Flapjack’ skippered by Ken Fitzpatrick, one of the event’s most successful sailors. Then in 2008 he was back with Ken, this time on EADS Innovation Works, skippered by Geoff West, a multiple race winner and record holder.

This time Martin was with Andy Rankin and the pair arrived in Fort William 35 minutes behind the race leaders, who they just failed to catch on the mountain. They finished second overall in the race, but still won the ‘King of the Mountains’ title in a total time of 14 hours and 30 minutes.

This year Martin is back for the hat-trick of wins and to try to win outright on EADS Innovation Works again and he is running with a third partner in 3 years! (Seems he is hard man to keep up with!) This time he’s partnered by Martin Indge, but the two Martin’s know they have tough competition this year, in both the overall and running races.

They will be watching out for last year’s nemesis ‘Journeymaker’ who are racing again, but with a very different team, but still a very competitive one. Gordon Baxter, one of last year’s winning runners is back and says he’ll be chasing partner Niall Riddell up the hills. Niall is a 3 peaks first-timer, who has always wanted to give the race a go and the pair have also been training together for an Ironman triathlon. They say they are looking at winning a running trophy, at least the fastest time on one of the peaks. (There is a trophy for each.)

Another fast boat is Nunatak, with runners Richard Ludlow and John Taylor on board. Ludlow has competed in many races and is known for his competitive nature so won’t be beaten easily. He’s a multiple trophy winner and former ‘King of the Mountains’ and race winner. His partner holds a more dubious record as he’s entering his second race and has not yet set off up a peak in competition!

There is competition too from the world of adventure racing. On board Penmaenmawr SC. are Nick Gracie and Warren Bates from the Aberdeen Asset Management AR team, two very experienced Endurance races who have competed all over the world. They are on board one of the biggest and probably most comfortable yachts in the race (only Ezra is bigger), so this may give them an advantage when they come ashore.

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