The RatRace Man v Mountain is an epic 22 mile, 5055ft event which I have had the pleasure of photographing for the past 4 years and each year it continues to give something new and exciting for all involved.
I have had all weathers on this event from 70mph winds, horizontal rain, glorious sun etc. I thought I had been out in all the weathers the UK could throw at me. But, this year I experience something new “fog”. Having arrived at the summit via train (very lazy of me I know but, in my defence, I did have two heavy kit bags) I entered the very thick soup of fog that was covering the summit.
Due to the dense fog I had to walk quite a way down the mountain to get a good location as I needed to find somewhere that was below the fog. What goes up, must come down!
By the time the competitors had got to me they had just run up Mount Snowdon and were looking very wary, yet still they had the energy to give me a smile or a wave some even managed a jump. Even those who were struggling a little more and were walking surprised me – as soon as they see a photographer their energy comes back, and they start to run for the camera.
One thing I noticed this year, which was different to previous events, was the number of competitors taking selfies on the mountain, seems the selfie bug has reached the OCR.
As the last runners came through I packed up my kit and took a deep breath and started the long walk down the mountain with one kit bag on my back and the other on my front. Top tip – walk backwards – trust me it works!
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