Fancy a weekend of shivering, zero sleep and getting soaked, all whilst testing your physical and navigational fitness over the UK’s toughest terrain?
If you do, you’re probably some kind of sadist, but you’re in luck. The Original Mountain Marathon was made for people like you and I – it’s the ultimate definition of Type Two Fun. I can guarantee mid-race you will question your life decisions. You will hate it. You will long for the end. You will hurt, a lot. But somehow you’ll struggle on to finish and stubbornly tell yourself “Never, ever again”.
Shortly after, for some strange, strange reason you forget the miserable moments. A little voice starts to itche away in your head, “Where are we racing next year? When do the entries open? I’m gonna do it again”. Because what that irritating voice knows is that, actually, the OMM is one of the most rewarding tests of endurance you can put yourself through. If nothing else, it’s a chance to enjoy yourself in the hills with a mate.
After winning the (old) B course last year Ali and I had a hunger to challenge the Elite. We wanted to see how we’d fair against the best in the game. There were a few times in the summer when the thought of the OMM got me up an hours climb when the legs were not enjoying life. It had become more than just a sideshow bit of fun – it was what I was training for.
Unfortunately for me the Ring of Steall Skyrace had other ideas. I decked it mid-race and my knee has been a nuisance ever since – no OMM for me. Luckily Tam willingly stepped in at the last minute. Dalkeith Road would still be bossing the Elite.
This year, the 50th anniversary, was held over the Langdale fells of the Lakes.
A mountain marathon wouldn’t be complete without some tough conditions to contend with, and Saturday duly provided. Strong winds and low visibility put competitors’ navigation, energy and warmth management under significant pressure, with many deciding to finish their weekend early. Those who battled through were rewarded not only with an extra hour of lie in, but a beautifully clear day in the Lake District.
Ali and Tam fought hard, finishing an impressive 4th place. They bossed it.
Once they’d got back to the flat, eaten some of our humungous pizza and recovered enough energy to speak, we had a little chat about the weekend. Here are their thoughts:
Guys, top work to come home in 4th place, how are the legs feeling?
AM – Cheers. Last night I was hobbling badly and in a fair amount of pain all over. A sleep on a comfy bed seems to have helped but I have some quite swollen feet which are giving me troubles walking on, along with a long list of minor pains.
TW – My body doesn’t work anymore. I can barely walk.
You both took a substantial step up to race the elite, was this end of season ‘fun’ or an important aim for you?
AM – Last year I ran the (old) B course with Tim and since then I think we both had doing the Elite in our minds as an important aim. We both knew it’d be very challenging but we were very up for giving it a go and seeing how we’d fair on the elite. It was gutting for Tim not being able to run (due to a knee injury) and I was also deflated when he let me know, it was an aim that had grown through our success last year and so to not be running with Tim was a right bummer. However, I was very lucky to find a willing and strong partner in fellow flatmate Tam and in the last week leading up to the OMM I couldn’t help but feel excited.
TW – Tim having to pull-out was pretty sad, but having seen what the boys did last year, I was keen to step up and give it shot. Having never really done anything like this before, I guess my aims were to get round and not die too hard. Any good result on top of that would be a bonus.
The longest we race for as orienteers tends to be 90 minutes, so did you find the length of the courses intimidating or were you fully prepared to make yourselves hurt for that amount of time?
TW – A few days before, I saw that the OMM website said the Elite was 85km. I found this a little daunting, but Ali assured me this was just something they said and there was no way it would be that long. But actually in the lead up to the weekend I was mainly worried that my knee was giving me some issues, and I feared it was going to be sore from the off. That kind of helped me forget about the real pain to come.
AM – The course lengths were a little intimidating but the race is a very different ball game to your standard orienteering. It’s difficult to know how the body is going to react after hours of hill munching so I think you just have to accept that it’s going to hurt and keep hurting, no matter what happens.
Every year the top end of the results list is stacked with orienteers. Clearly solid navigation is key to have a successful weekend but it’s a style that’s different to standard orienteering. Did you make any tweaks to your technique to suit the format or did you just adapt as you ran?
AM – I think the approach is very similar but being able to adapt to the scale and (lack of) detail on the map is important. I guess that the process and techniques are the same though. You still make a plan, take a bearing and so on.
TW – It took me a while to get used to the lack of detail compared to orienteering. I was looking for orienteering sized streams and hills on the map that weren’t there and getting confused. Ali has done a lot more of this type of thing than me and was more on top of things. He kept me right.
From various reports I’ve seen, Saturday threw some challenging conditions at everyone. How did you deal with this from both a navigation perspective and energy / warmth management?
TW – Navigationally, it meant you could see almost nothing once you got over about 600m. We just had to be really careful in the fog. We still made a couple of blunders, but I think everyone was messing up. It was rough.
AM – Physically, we just kept wrapped up and tried to keep moving. There were a few real cold points on the tops but we just kept going, and after a while you drop lower or get out the wind and you warm up a bit.
Looking at the splits it seems you had a relatively stable race. Perhaps talk us through a couple of controls you nailed and any mistakes you made.
TW – On day 1, we lost time to 8 when we contoured round the north of Kirk Fell on a scrappy little path in the fog. We ended up dropping too low and running too far and came round the side of the hill to see a large valley filled with trees spread out below. We fairly quickly worked out what we did, but turning around and slogging back uphill to the saddle wasn’t fun. By far our biggest mistake of the weekend
AM – On the flipside, we were clean to 9, a control a lot of other teams struggled on and proved to be crucial in the overall results. Here we just slogged up the hill to about the correct height before contouring round. Running in the clag, every pile of rocks looked like the sheep fold we were looking for and just as I was losing confidence we stumbled right onto it. That made me happy, and apparently we got the fastest split.
To do well at the OMM it’s important to nail some of the route choices. What were you considering when making your decisions and how did your routes go?
TW – After a while it became clear that avoiding the loose rocky areas was key. Asides from that it was mainly just the classic climb vs distance trade-off. Even now just sitting with the map I don’t know if we made some of the correct calls.
AM – I think on Day 1 we chose better routes, while on Day 2 we hadn’t anticipated how rocky and slow some of the paths were, meaning running straight might have been quicker.
It can be a little nerve wracking when you’re out there and not sure how the other teams are doing. Were you aware that you’d be challenging for the podium or was it a pleasant surprise when you reached the camp on Saturday?
AM – It was a surprise, I expected us to be a lot further down, seeing as we had taken over 8 and a half hours, so to be 4th and within half an hour was unexpected. It clearly proved a very difficult day for everyone.
TW – Yeah, it was a nice motivation boost to get through the night.
Being half an hour down on the leaders meant you were in the chasing start the next day. Was the prospect of head to head racing and first-to-finish format something which excited you after close to nine hours of running in the legs?
AM – At the overnight I was hopeful that my legs might be feeling better on the Sunday so we could contend for the prizes but sadly this wasn’t the case.
TW – No, not even a little bit.
Aside from the running and navigational aspects, it’s vital you eat well and stay hydrated. How did you approach that side of things? Did you nail it or would you tweak anything for next time?
AM – Previously on Mountain Marathons I have adopted an eat every hour approach along with taking in water (sometimes with electrolyte powders) as often as seems necessary. I don’t think it was enough for me this time though as on Day 1 I had a serious bonk about 6 hours in and ended up diving into my rations for Day 2! I do think we must’ve had a good amount of water/electrolytes though as neither of us were cramping too badly.
TW – For me, the every hour seemed to work about right. Neither of us had really anticipated the first day being quite so long, so I guess next time I’d take a bit more food for on the go.
On a similar point, the kit you carry is all you can rely on for the weekend. One of the favourites to take the Elite title, Nic Barber and Jim Mann, went for an all or nothing minimalist approach but struggled to stay warm when the pace slowed. Did you follow a similar philosophy of shaving as many grams as possible or did you take a more balanced approach with the conditions in mind?
AM – Yes we went minimalist, the only thing that we brought which wasn’t on the mandatory kit list was a thin bit of foam to use as a sleeping mat. We were lucky in that when racing, we never got so lost that the pace slowed dramatically and despite the at times apocalyptic weather on day 1, we kept just about warm enough. The overnight was wet and windy but we kept warm enough to both get at least a few hours sleep.
TW – In the end I actually slept pretty well and only had to get up once in the night for a bit of re-pegging. Ali’s dad is a bit of an OMM veteran and so not only has all the lightweight kit, but knows all the tips and tricks to save every last gram, including a special lightweight stove device of his own making. My special request for a change of socks was shot down.
AM – There was a point on the 2nd day where I almost slipped and fell of a wooden bridge into a pretty fast flowing river. I was literally half dangling off the side of this 3 to 4 meter drop into the icy rapids. I dropped my map but luckily it caught on the bank and I managed to rescue it. If I had gone for a dip, things could have got pretty miserable here and the minimal kit might have backfired.
TW – That was one of the most simultaneously funny and scary things I have ever seen.
Any weight saving tips you’re willing to share? Perhaps something about those fresh trims?
AM – Haha, the trims were a necessary requirement before we left to keep the hair out of our eyes and as EUOC barber I went for the staple short back and sides.
TW – Basically the last thing we did before leaving our flat on Friday was Ali giving me a haircut. Every gram counts when you’re running for 16 hours.
AM – I do think we made a weight saving mistake though. When we finished and had put the tent up we both changed out of our soaking running top into our dry extra thermal and then just left our wet tops in a pile. It’s hard to judge exactly what’s best in the circumstances but you want to avoid carrying around a soaking wet top in your bag on Day 2, like we did. I think putting on the dry thermal then putting the wet one over, then the rest of your warm layers so the wet thermal will dry might be the best way to go.
TW – I guess so, but at the time I was just desperate to get off all my wet kit and warm up. I suppose we weren’t thinking ahead enough. Remember, cold is temporary, OMM glory last forever.
Ali, your dad came 2nd on Medium Score with fellow orienteer Will Heap. Is there a distinctive Masson Mountain Marathon approach or do you have your own methods?
AM – Dad has a lot of experience when it comes to mountain marathons, he has done over 20 OMMs, along with plenty of other mountain marathons. Having done the Saunders MM with him four times I’ve definitely adopted his way of thinking when it comes to mountain marathons which is in general a minimalist one. He helped us a lot with the preparation making sure we had all the right gear so thanks dad. Not sure what I’d do without him.
TW – Yeah, thanks Keith.
AM – Unlucky for him though, his best result ever in the Elite was 5th, so already best in the family. Maybe next year?
Something seems to be working for the orienteers. Do you think it is purely the navigation which suits us, or is there more to it? In my opinion the tougher the conditions the better for an orienteer. Would you agree?
AM – The nav is definitely vital, especially when the clag is down, but the terrain must make a difference too. Orienteers are more used to rough and steep terrain than your standard fell runner so its not that surprising that we perform well.
TW – When you spend almost every Sunday bashing through rough terrain navigating to find controls, spending a weekend bashing through rough terrain navigating to find controls doesn’t come as such a massive shock to the system. Obviously it’s much longer and harder, but I guess it’s a step up on most people.
You’re both members of the Edinburgh University Performance Program, have spent your junior years in the Great Britain Talent Squad and have two walls in the living room plastered with various maps. This background must have come in handy over the weekend?
AM – Yes for sure, we’ve both gathered a lot of orienteering experience though our junior careers so it definitely came in handy navigation wise.
TW – I guess so. We love running and orienteering; what can I say?
The all orienteer pair of Duncan Archer and Shane Ohly returned to successfully defend their title. Did you speak to these guys at all over the weekend?
AM – We actually had a large encounter with Duncan and Shane out on the course on Day 1. After Tam and I made our biggest mistake of the weekend, we caught sight of a pair going up the death climb we were heading up. As we got to the top I realised it was Shane and Duncan and tried to get this message through to Tam. After a careful bit of nav into the control we punched just after them.
TW – I was stopped waiting at the control for Ali when he shouted who they were, as I still hadn’t realised, and to try and keep up with the, so I put on a burst and caught up to just behind them for a bit.
AM- However, it didn’t matter too much as when we hit the road at the bottom, my bonk really hit and I was reduced to a walk along the flat road.
TW – After a while jogging behind Shane and Duncan with no sign of Ali catching up, I realised this was stupid so slowed up, let them get away, and waited for Bonky McBonk-face to return.
AM – After getting out of the bonk hole though we picked up a fair bit and they then came back past us an hour later where we had a quick chat with them. They said they weren’t having a great day, which we could relate with. They pretty quickly dropped us again after that though.
TW – However after another hour they appeared again from behind and this time we stuck with them much better. In the end we only lost a few minutes to them in the final 3 hours of the course despite only running with them for a small amount.
We haven’t discussed the map too much. Talk us through some of the main differences between your map this weekend and those we’re more used to as orienteers.
TW – At 1:40,000 and 15m contours, anything on the map is pretty huge. I struggled with that. Even with a control to go on the second day I never quite got used to the scale. Things just go by so slowly on at that scale.
AM – A lot of things are a bit of a gamble. It’s hard to know what paths or the terrain are actually going to be like underfoot. You just have to try and pick the best lines with what you have.
As the brains behind the viral Instagram account @path_or_crag (a fun weekly game for the all the family), will we be seeing an OMM special?
TW – Although the Lake District is the home of @path_or_crag, I doubt it.
AM – Sadly not, the game doesn’t really work on the Harvey’s 1:40000 maps. Do give us a follow though. It will improve your navigational skills no end.
Finally, we have a gym session tonight. Predictions for how much you’ll squat?
TW – I’ll be impressed if I can even get to the gym, let alone squat anything.
AM – A broomstick if you’re lucky.
Next year the OMM will be in the south of England. Keep your eye out for the Dalkeith boys, we’ll be there.
Further Faster Higher 