[Photo credit: Moddey Dhoo Media]

From Daniel McKeown…

We had two Harriers at the Manx Mountain Marathon on Easter Saturday: Dave Rees and I had braved the vomitous ferry crossing to the Isle of Man and were ready(ish) to face 30-plus miles of Manx fells, navigating from Ramsey in the northeast of the island to Port Erin in the southwest, with Storm Dave (no relation) also awaiting us.

Although none of the summits were too high (the highest on the island being just proud of 600m), the climbs were steep, plus we were starting from sea level.

Coming over the brow of the first hill, we were greeted with the sight of the island’s peaks laid out in succession before us, each rich with misty promise.

Then the weather closed in, we were buffeted with storm winds and spells of horizontal rain, visibility went down the toilet, and a quarter of the field DNFed.

While conditions were – to put it mildly – suboptimal, the race had a lot to recommend it. The fells tended to be green rather than rocky, someone had very kindly trimmed a line through the one descent that went through gorse, and there were plentiful entrants from the local club, Manx Fell Runners, so you could generally latch on to someone who knew the way.

I buddied up with one such runner for the latter portion of the race, who was combining his fell running with a spot of geocaching – he had stores of energy gels and whatever squirreled away in dry stone walls along the course. Apparently his wife would ordinarily be providing support and handing out the jelly babies, but she had chosen this year, of all years, to have a crack at the race herself.

For my own sustenance, I’d brought along a bottle of squeezy honey, a hot cross bun and a Tesco BLT. While this may not sound like a great deal, my energy levels were good throughout the race and I was even able to pick up a couple of places in the last few miles.

Coming down the last major descent and seeing Port Erin and the Irish Sea was a rare treat. All the more so, because the bad weather fallback route had excised one last sharp climb, which would have had runners picking their way round a narrow cliff path in gale-force winds.

Despite the race’s high attrition rate, Dave and I finished with a bit to spare: I was a hair’s breadth inside seven hours, Dave – even with no proper fell shoes to speak of – was home in 8h 20ish. Neither of us had any major difficulties with cold, nav or nutrition, or any particularly nasty falls. I may not make the Mountain Marathon a regular thing, but I’d love to go running on the island again – in better weather, if possible.

Results

33 Dan McKeown 6:59:31

76 Dave Rees 8:21:45

(113 finishers of 157 starters)