RAB Mountain Marathon Prep

A few weeks ago a work colleague suggested doing one of the fell events organised by Dark & White. It didn't take my fancy but noticed a Mountain Marathon advertised on the same weekend we were going to do pre OMM (Original Mountain Marathon held in last weekend of October) training. One thing led to another and we eventually entered this as a two man team with the intention of it being a good training event. Its a two day mountain marathon held in Coniston, Lake District with a score format - 6hrs day 1 and 5hrs day 2 with a self sufficiency camp in between.


From Thursday onwards I was getting the various bits of kit together, forgetting how much preparation is required. Foolishly I was tasked with getting the team food for the event. For the Friday pre-event camp I settled on Hot Dog Rolls, sausages and onion. Except I forgot the sausages. So I went to the petrol station and got some bacon. Unfortunately I then left that in the fridge at home so it was looking like a meal of hot dog rolls and onion. Unsurprisingly we opted for fish and chips on the way to the event in Ambleside.


At the event centre I tried wearing my orienteering shoes for the first time in ages having left them in the garage for a while. The fit was not comfortable to say the least so had a look at the Innov8 shoes at the event shop. The first pair called the Mudclaw 330 had far superior grip but were way too narrow for my feet so settled on a similar pair called Roclite 315 but sacrificing some grip in the process. On the plus side they were some of the most comfortable fell type shoes I've ever worn.


I then visited the SIS stand and had a chat with the bloke leading it. I told him about the MdS and he seemed to know a lot about the event and he said that they get a lot of queries. He basically advised that the GO Electrolyte stuff is the best. I tried the Lemon & Lime flavour and thought it was very palatable. He then suggested using Rego at the end of each day to aid recovery. We then talked about the other products on the market and I feel that he gave a fair opinion on whats out there. Basically he said Lucozade is good stuff but only contains basic sugars and little in the way of minerals. I cant remember what he said about High5, but I think the stuff is minging anyway. He said NUUN tablets were very good but lacked carbs. I suggested a possibility of using GO Electrolyte in one bottle with a NUUN in the other for the MdS and he thought it would be a good strategy. This is probably what I will go for but I need to try NUUN first! I then bought a packet of Rego to try at the end of Day 1 and a caffeine Gel which was new to the market.


Finally I went to the Rab stall and bought a new fleece for £32 as a replacement for my KIMM fleece which seems to have disappeared on me. It was then just a case of having a fairly early night ready for a 7.15am wake up the next day.

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