OMM

Borrowdale Recollections 2008

My son Andy joined me for his first mountain marathon in 2007, when my partner for the previous 22 consecutive OMM/KIMMs was taken ill 3 weeks before the event. As usual, the weather was not brilliant, although he was delighted by the experience. I told him about the wonderful weather we had at my first KIMM, Langdale 1985, and so we were cautiously optimistic about Borrowdale 2008.

As usual, the weather turned out to be more dramatic than hoped for, but we were happy with that as well; I like the navigation, and poor visibility usually gives me an edge over some of the faster runners. Actually, the weather that weekend was by no means the worst I have experienced. The Howgills in 1998 saw nearly half the competitors retiring because of the extreme weather, some of them actually on the way to the start! In the Lake District in 2000 we experienced ice on the slopes of Scafell before crawling on hands and knees across a ridge in deep snow buffeted by high wind. So a bit of rain was par for the course.

The problem, as we quickly realised, was the combination of high wind and driving rain on the higher ground. Within half an hour of the start I was fastening the hood of my cagoule when the wind whipped my map out of my hand, I thought never to be seen again. Astonishingly, I discovered it shortly afterwards, lodged under a boulder about 100m behind us. That bit of luck started a good day for us. Doing the long score, we had a good choice of route, and decided to stay as low as possible, picking up some middle scoring controls around Esk Hause, Broad Crag and Lingmell before skirting Kirk Fell to Black Sail Pass with a reasonable score. The conditions here were considerably kinder, so rather than head straight for the finish, we decided to go for some higher controls around Gable and Brandreth. This is where things got a little more serious!

We met several teams battling through the high wind and very thick mist and rain, although nobody was actually lost (despite the later inaccurate media reports). A little later, these became groups of people speculating on the best places to cross the rapidly deepening torrents which small streams had become. It was crossing a relatively innocuous one of these that my son slipped and started to be carried downstream, only halted as I flung myself across in front of him to create a human barrier. After that it was definitely time to head for the finish, as we were running to risk of incurring penalty points for being late. In a hurry, and with very restricted visibility, we couldn't find a 20 point control on the flanks of Brandreth and had no time to relocate. So we arrived at the finish slightly disappointed, but optimistic that we would catch up some points on the second day.

We were astonished to hear at the finish that the event had now been cancelled and that there would be no second day, the first time in the events' history. I won't go into the misleading advice given my third parties unconnected with the event, or the subsequent distortions by the media. But what I will say is that some of the views from the valley - wind whipping river water across the road, flooding, waiting around in the cold for a lift from my wife etc - were rather worse than we experienced on the hills. Up there we know where we stand (or run) and have the right gear for the conditions. It might seem odd to outsiders, but we enjoy the challenge and don't push beyond our limits. That's why I have been competing for the last 26 years in remote parts of the country, in October, which is not generally regarded as the bringer of good weather.

I did take Andy to do the Saunders in July, to show him what it's like to do a mountain marathon in decent weather. It turned out to be the wettest July on record!

Anyway we were back at the OMM the next year, and the year after that, on both occasions winning the father and son category on the long score course. And we will be in Scotland this year. 

Dave Marr