This was an 11 mile run with approximately 3000 feet of ascent and as with all mountain races navigation and local knowledge are essential skills. This particular route and terrain is vulnerable to poor visibility with mist and poor weather in otherwise decent weather conditions.
Mark Weir continues on his transformation from a track athlete to all round mountain runner and is learning the trade extremely well. It only takes one of the factors involved in mountain running to be malfunctioning for the race to become daunting and when Mark lost sight of the group in front and the mist was down he suddenly had a formidable task on his hands. By keeping calm and trusting his compass Mark eventually found his way to the finish, some 45 minutes after his scheduled completion. Finishing 33rd was a great achievement on an intimidating environment and once the dust settles the lessons will be learnt and hopefully the next mountain race will be more straightforward. And maybe the track wasn’t so bad after all.
