What a bloody brilliant weekend!!!
OMM October 2015 Tweedsmuir |
When Stu asked me a
while back if I'd like to do the OMM short score with him I had a look at the
website, thought 'Great!! 5 hours Saturday, 4 hours Sunday, maps, find as many
controls as possible - what a fantastic way to get into mountain racing and with
an experienced navigator / fell runner, no chance of getting lost, I've run in
the Lakes plenty, all I ultimately have to do is keep up with him". Ha!
Rookie error #1. Luckily (for me) he was competing with a bad back, otherwise
he'd have gotten at least twice what we got done. Thanks for your patience Stu!
Control points marked on map |
Arrived up in Moffat
Friday evening, checked into our B&B, then went out for the most lush chips
n gravy I've ever had. Went up to the event centre to register - where a dibber
was attached to my wrist, not to be removed until the end of the event on
Sunday - Stu and various others gave a talk, I'd some beers with the lads, then
back to the B&B for more beer and an earlyish night.
Saturday morning we
were up and out by 7.30, a half hour drive to the start and the buzz began. We
dibbed, got our maps and off we went. It'd been raining through the night and
everything was soaked. Within the first hour I knew this was going to be the
toughest race I'd ever taken part in. Those Scottish hills took the Lakes hills
and raised them a dozen. Two hours in and my lungs were burning, my calves were
burning, I'd given up looking at time or anything else apart from just keeping
in motion. I had intended to do my fair share of nav, I'd revised and swotted
up on my nav manual and been out in the Peak District getting some practice in,
but when Stu flew off over a crest and I realised that as he was flying he was
taking a bearing, running on the bearing, checking the bearing and all without
even breaking pace I thought “fucking hell, fucking fucking hell, just
watch and learn and keep the fuck up as best you can".
Most of Day One is a
blur now, it was so fucking hard. The terrain took whatever I've run on before
and laughed at it and spat it right back out at me. Really wet technical steep
bracken/bog/hummocky stuff, very very hard to get any running rhythm going for
long at all. Highlights were the views on one of the many tops (it was mostly
long climbs up then long steep descents, I got to the point where a gentler
uphill became a 'flat bit'). I saw a winter hare, that was awesome. And the
mountain views were amazing J Lost count of how many shin/knee deep streams we crossed. The
feet were wet from the start, deal with it!
We got 130 points on
Day One, quite a respectable score when checked with the others we spoke to
that afternoon, got back to camp around 2 and started to get the tent up. My
first ever night camping J
Stu and our tent |
I think in all there
were around 3000 competitors across the various classes, all camped in this
massive field. It was very cool to be sat outside our tent chatting with Kim
Collison and having a cup of tea J Then a bit later it pissed it down so we went up to the barn
shelter where I was quite starstruck to be stood there chatting with Jim Mann,
Kim and Adam Perry about the race. Hardcore guys, I'd freeze to death if I
carried the lightweight gear they carried. Helene Diamantides and Wendy Dodds were also
there but I missed them.
I was bloody hungry
yesterday, I had thought "ah, 5 hours running, that won't take too much to
fuel". Rookie error #2 I was bloody starving by about 2.5 hours in. But
the uphills were so steep that I couldn't breathe plus eat on them, then the
downhills needed so much concentration to stay upright with the backpack on
that I didn't eat then either. Got to a point where I was swaying around and
after I'd fallen about 5 times in 10 minutes I stopped to eat. One of those
times I went knee deep into a rabbit hole or summat on a descent at speed,
which just couldn't be helped, but the others were partly my fault. You just
can't imagine the effort that you'll be expending when you haven't done one of
these things before. I was easily as tired at the end of Day One as after a 40
mile trail run. Possibly more actually. I brought packets of dried cup a pasta
or something, which was great as you could just chuck it in a cup and boil
water on the stove but to be honest I'd have eaten at least 6 packets
afterwards if I'd had them. And I got through almost 2 bars of Kendal mintcake
over the 2 days racing. Unheard of. I'd usually get through half a bar in a
weekend of Lakes running.
Stu'd tipped me off
to bring plastic bags for my feet to use at camp, as my shoes would be too wet
to wear comfortably. We had to carry all of our kit with us and be totally
self-sufficient, this meant carrying clothes, food, tent, stove, sleeping bags
and all the overnight camp stuff with us whilst racing. Unfortunately, after
swapping out for my one pair of spare dry socks, I discovered that my plastic
bags were fucking leaking. Cue wet feet for 2 days J Next time I'll bring proper posh M&S ones!
Overnight camp |
There was a brilliant
atmosphere at the camp, a massive field full of muddy excited knackered runners
- what could be better! Beer would've been nice but we'd have had to carry it
all day. Feck that!
Runners coming down the hill |
Properly dark now, though probably only 8pm, it was an early night! |
How many layers? - longsleeved race top, Icebreaker base layer, Tog24 layer, Montane Prism jacket, Montane Minimus; Skins, race tights and waterproof trousers - all just to wear in camp to keep warm! |
I slept in a
brilliant sleeping bag and bivvy bag but still needed 2 pairs of leggings, my
longsleeved running top, a base layer and a fleece and a woolly hat to keep
warm. It's flipping cold outdoors up there at night! Had a fairly decent sleep
on and off, then a bagpipe player woke us up on Day Two at 5.45. Bastid. We
were starting at 8 today so we got the stove going, had a brew and some food,
then packed the tent etc away and got ready to race.
The first hill really
nearly fucking killed me. So so steep. I couldn't look to the side or behind me
because I was getting dizzy from the height of it. And it went on forever. "Breathe
and not fall backwards" was all I could do. The controls on Day Two were
quite spread out and there was a large out of bounds area due to some deer hunt
and men with guns. We got to the first control then had a look at the options.
I knew I was too tired from Saturday to climb down to what was option 1 and all
the way back up again so we bypassed that and planned a different route. Thank
Christ!
This was much more
like running in the Lakes, lots of rocky tracks and runnable knee deep bracken.
My ITB kicked off about 2 hours in, I could only be thankful that it at least
waited until the 'easier' day to be a bollocks! I was still fucking wrecked by
the end though and so so happy to see that finish line. I just had nothing more
in me! 100 points today, which again turned out to be quite good as a lot of
people we spoke to settled for a 70 due to the restricted area and strung out
points.
I didn't take any
photos while racing, the phone stayed in a dry bag, but no doubt there'll be
loads on FB / the OMM website.
Brilliant race,
atmosphere, people, setup, event etc etc - I'll definitely be back for more
next year, and now that I know how fucking tough it is I can prepare properly!!
Thanks a million Stu for having me along, it was great fun (though at the time
some of it definitely wasn't!!) and it's something I'll certainly be doing more
of J
Very happy to be finished, but already looking forward to the next one |
The Serious Stuff
Clothing:
The effort expended
on the uphills on Day One meant that I just wore a cap, longsleeved top, tights
and shorts, with gloves from time to time. It didn’t rain heavily enough while
we were out to need waterproofs on. Very
reassuring though to know that I had all of the right kit with me in my pack in
the event of worsening weather or emergency.
Day Two was much
windier and colder and I wore the above plus my Minimus and gloves for all but
the last few kilometres.
A rookie error and
leaking plastic bags meant that out of 3 pairs of socks 2 were soaked through
and 1 were damp. Not a biggie for Day Two as my feet were wet as soon as we got
going anyway but dry socks in bed would have been nice. *Bring strong plastic
bags and guard dry socks preciously!
Fuelling:
As mentioned
previously I had no idea of how tough this was going to be, and really could
have done with eating more, and doing so more frequently. This is a common
problem of mine in races, but on something like this it’s definitely important
to get used to eating regardless of whether you’re going up or down hill as,
unlike in a trail ultra, there is no time to stop to eat.
I also could have
done with more food for the overnight camp, in future I’ll soldier the extra
weight in order to have a full belly! My emergency rations consisted of half a
large bar of Fruit and Nut chocolate – about 500 calories worth. There probably are lighter options but I’ll
find that out for next time.
Gear:
As this was my first
mountain event Stu loaned me a sleeping bag and bivvy bag, and we shared his
tent and stove. Very useful to put this into practice in a race situation and
how to pack/unpack efficiently and quickly.
And also to find out where to source decent kit without spending
megabucks. Running with this kind of
pack over rough terrain is very different to running with, say, an S-lab with
mandatory trail ultra kitlist. Another thing to practice J