Manx Mountain Marathon & Half
13/04/2010
Manx Mountain Marathon and Half Marathon
Over the Easter weekend, a group of runners and some of their families travelled to the Isle of Man to take part in the Manx Mountain Marathon and Half Marathon.
Definitely not a race for the average fun runner this challenge would see the athletes running 31.5 miles and climbing over 8000 feet on 11 different peaks.
Opting for the early start, Julie Wyant, David Rose and Mark Deighton set off at 7.30am from Ramsay and settled into the first big climb of the day up North Barrule. Half way to the summit, the cloud came down, reducing visibility to around 50 metres, but this failed to deter any of the athletes who continued onwards to the next peaks.
The next two summits were climbed in horizontal sleet and snow as they crested the highest mountain on the island, Snaefell and pushed on still further through incessant bogs and tussocks which numbed the feet due to the melt water running from the snow drifts through which the racers were battling at times.
Those who opted for a later start set off at 9.15am and missed the blizzards encountered by the early starters, but still had all the bogs and water to contend with as they pushed on to try and catch those others already on the course.
Noel Hogan, John Taylor and Sandy Mackenzie set off well with Darren Graham, Lisa Garside and Glenn MacDonald Jones not too far behind them, keeping up a steady pace and encouraging each other along the way.
In the meantime those ahead were facing their own challenge as David Rose, in his first event of this type, was beginning to suffer and slow a little before the 18 mile mark at St Johns and there was still a long way to go.
The really steep climb up through the forest after St Johns slowed everyone to walking pace, but at least there was now a bit of sunshine to encourage the runners and allow windproofs to be packed away.
Pushing on over the next few hills towards the finish some of the ground became a little firmer in places which made the running easier until the last sharp climb up to Bradda Cairn before the cliff path and the last couple of miles to the finish at Port Erin.
Conditions underfoot did not make for a fast race and no-one achieved a best time, but Noel Hogan did well to be 32nd in 6hr 54m with John Taylor only a mnute behind him in 36th place. Sandy Mackenzie kept up a steady pace to finish 43rd in 7hr 23m with Darren Graham 55th in 7hr 36m.
Lisa Garside and Glen MacDonald-Jones accompanied each other for the duration of the race to finish 62nd and 63rd respectively in 7hr 58m with Mark Deighton 74th in 8hr 33m, Julie Wyant 79th in 8hr 48m and David Rose 89th in 9hr 53m.
However, all the runners deserve to be congratulated on achieving a finish in this most testing of fell races.
Manx Half Mountain Marathon
The Half Mountain Marathon set off at 1.00pm from St. Johns, the 18 mile point of the full marathon and the runners then followed the same course to the finish at Port Erin and seven more Newport club members were involved in this event. Again some of them were new to either the distance or the type of terrain or in some cases, both, but the challenge was on and they were determined to conquer it.
Sandra Pattinson and Sandra Dainty were well matched and ran together to be 61st and 62nd in 3hr 26m with Paul Dainty chasing his wife to the line and finishing two minutes behind in 63rd place.
Andy Coombes did well with some encouragement from Richard Guy and they finished in 3hr 33m to be 65th and 66th.
Jo Coombes wasn’t too far adrift in 70th place in 3hr 55m and Benita Guy stuck to her task well to be 72nd in 4hr 02m.
The whole weekend was a resounding success for the town’s running club, who even got a mention and thanks from the organisers at the presentation of the prizes and certificates for the size of the party they took to the island.
