what the well-dressed runners wear at The OMM
Paul heading for "Drygarn Fawr" to bag our Welsh 2,000 footer for the weekend
YC ran "The OMM" at the weekend. The Original Mountain Marathon is a 2 day event run in teams of 2. Competitors have to carry all their gear for an overnight camp. This year it was held in The Elan Valley, mid-Wales. YC ran with Paul Hainsworth, his partner from The LAMM (The Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon in June - keep up). The initial rain and mist gradually cleared out to give good visibility and a little bit of sun at times.
Paul had elected that we enter the medium score event. This is akin to orienteering, with competitors navigating to checkpoints which each had a different score - 10, 20 points etc. On Day 1, we were too ambitious and mis-judged the run-in to the finish down a long and very winding lakeside road. At times, YC even said "oh dear me" as he slogged along the road, trying in vain to avoid a points penalty for finishing over-time.
We learned our lesson for Day 2, running a more tactically astute course and finishing with the second highest points score of the day. There was a fantastic run-in from the last hill - much better than the previous day's road bash.
There will be lots of mountain marathons for readers to enter next year, so don't all rush at once.
more photos