Rab Mountain Marathon, Howgill Fells

Race: Rab Mountain Marathon, Day 1
Peaks: Arant Haw, Calders, The Calf, Green Bell
Time/Position: 265 pts in 5:40/8th after day one
This is rapidly turning into my favourite event of all. It seemed much bigger and more serious this year, with around 500 runners, but it still managed to retain the low-key, relaxed ambience that made last year's event Back o'Skidda so pleasant. The race began in superb weather on Saturday morning, a cloud inversion clearing the Sedbergh valley as I marked up the map and headed up Winder - the little hill that shelters Sedbergh. Picked up a control on its shoulder then headed to the col to drop into Ashbeck Gill - not entirely convinced this control was worth the effort, but lots of teams did the same thing. Followed the stream up to Arant Haw, picked up more points before contouring just below the summit of Calders and The Calf (highpoint of the Howgills) to get the first big value control at the top of Calf Beck. An exhilerating steep descent into the enclosed valley of Middle Grain through broken cloud gained a tricky-to-find control hidden in a dry re-entrant (map detail of the streams here was insufficient). I opted to contour north round the peak of Cobbles before heading up West Grain and the obvious, brutally steep climb to the col below Simon's Seat to gain another control in Churngill Beck. The scenery here was surprisingly dramatic, the hills surprisingly steep. I was now committed to the big value, remote controls at the far north end of the Howgills - a long way from the overnight camp. So I ploughed quickly up the 468m hill east, with a control at the trigpoint, flew down to Langdale and up to a 30-pointer on a remote knoll. Then came a huge (5k?) leg across boggy wilderness east to Pinksey Gill. Only one other competitor visible for most of these controls, so I suspected I was doing quite well. I was then able to head for home up the obvious bridleway heading up Green Bell, passing another control below Knoutberry before easy running gained an obvious col giving access to Bowderdale Beck. One final long climb up to Hare Shaw gained a tricky to find control on a vague spur, before a steep descent past Cautley Spout waterfall to a sun-drenched campsite in the Rawthey valley. Wonderful to unwind with views back up to Cautley Crag and Yarlside. Even managed a dip in the river! When the day 1 results were posted, I was in third place initially, although had dropped to fifth by the evening.