Hi folks.

In the interest of transparency, I need to put a post about medals for Marabank next month.

Like many events, we use a local company to manufacture our medals. They have a 12 week lead time, and a minimum order of 100, and they require payment in full on order.

Before Maravan, we were nowhere near 100 entrants to Marabank. In fact, we still aren’t. Only half that many, in fact.

The intention was, therefore, to use up our existing stock of “crest” medals for Marabank rather than ordering a bespoke 100. The crest medals are designed like the Vigilantes Maravan company logo, the badge used as the logo for this page. This is a less “event specific” medal as it doesn’t contain the image of a hulking great caravan on it.

Each medal would have a new ribbon for the Marabank event, so it would be a uniquely Marabank medal.

(If the event proves a success, we’ll make a special set of nesting medals for our next two events.)

We had a number of very late entries to Maravan in November, and therefore to ensure sufficient matching supply for each event, I dipped into the stock of “crest” medals, in the knowledge that I’d probably not need them all for Marabank.

So, anyway, I did a stock check this morning and found that I’m about a dozen “crest” medals short. The nature of the event means I’m not anticipating many no shows. I can’t order any more in time for the event.

So that leaves me with a conundrum. I have well over 100 medals with a caravan, Lincolnshire flag and Vigilantes logo on, but not enough that don’t scream “Caravan park”. Each medal will have a Marabank ribbon on.

I realise that some folk don’t cherish medals as much as others, so I’m going to give you a choice of which to take.

I thank you for your understanding.

Congratulations to everyone who took part in the Maravan this weekend.

Full results are here.

  

Final details are here

It’s getting quite exciting now, we’re really looking forward to our favourite weekend of the year!

Long range weather forecast is looking acceptable – our biggest worry was frost, but it looks like we’ll be getting rain instead; it’s not like that something we haven’t had to deal with before.

Darren is going to make a lap of the course this weekend to set out arrows and double check that Haven haven’t put any caravans or fences up on the course (it’s happened before!). Once he’s checked all of those arrangements, then he’ll let you know the final details for the 25th and 26th; by email, on this website and on social media.

Excited? 

We don’t like to stay too quiet in the run-up to an event, but as we’re nine years into organising the Maravan, we know, pretty much, what to expect.

The team are in place, all the various things that we need to buy in are booked and paid for, so all we’re waiting for is you.

 Entries are still open, and will be for a while yet. Darren’s got an appointment with the New York City marathon first, though, and he’s had hurty feet for a few months so he’s a bit nervous!

It would be helpful to us, if you’re planning on entering the Maravan, if you could get your entries in this month, that way we can get stuff bought before Darren goes to New York, so he can have as relaxing a time as a man can have who is going to run a marathon on two long runs of 15 miles!

Enter The Maravan 

We know that some people like to wait until an event definitely has more than 15 runners before entering – for 100 club “counting” reasons.

Happy to confirm that both Saturday and Sunday’s Marathons are over 15 runners, and, in fact, Saturday is getting close to selling out.

The Relay on Saturday is always amazing fun, and we’d like some more teams to join us for then, there’s still a few spaces left – and there’s also some space in the half.

Enter soon to be 100% certain of your place, I’m capping total entries at a hard limit of 200 people this year to avoid wastage of our medals.

Enter The Maravan

Often, people like to wait until an event appears on the 100 Marathon club list before entering. It gives added reassurance that, if you’re counting these sorts of things, completing a marathon distance at Marabank will count as a trail marathon for the 100 club, and completing an ultra distance within the seven hour cut off will count as a trail ultra.

Here’s the list.

Of course, if you only want to do one lap, you still get to go home with a medal and the pleasure of having spent some time in pleasant company and beautiful surroundings. 

Just been chatting with Matt at Timing Monkey, who tells me that we’ve got 20 entries so far for the Marathon.

Still loads of space for those who want to run.

I have to place an order (and pay) soon for medal ribbons, and seeing as how it’s payday weekend, you might like to get in early.

Still plenty of team relay places available, too. Every year I have to turn teams away from that because they’ve entered too late. For now, I’ve got 20 team places up for grabs, so if you want a fun end of season social, now is the best time to get in.

Entries are now open for this exciting new event on 24th and 25th February 2024.

Find out more here.