UKC

Myself and OnebeardedWalker (of this parish) are on Long score. 

If you're interested doing Long Score, congratulations! You won't be last as we'll be dead bottom due, in no small part, to my ongoing broken ankle recovery.

Thanks all,

BB, excuse maker in chief. 

I like the cut of your jib fella...its all about attitude!!

I would normally be in there with you, as we've done long score the last 4 events. Instead,  me and Wainers junior are Medium Scoring this time. Best worst event of the year. Can't wait 😁

B-line this year, partner made faces at me after Long Score last year and my mild "humour failure" due to him refusing to go get another control  

Lazy git.

First timer this year on the short score, very excited! bring on the cold, wet and mud 😃. 

A course this year after a successful B course last year. 

I'm still waiting for them to offer a solo class

best of luck, A class is a big step up. Me and MrsABlackett didn’t get round A class last year so are doing long score this year.

Jolly best of luck to all of you

Didn't get my shit together and find a partner again this year. I really do miss the OMM (formally known as the KIMM).

Good luck to you all. Enjoy the pain and the cold.

I'll be there too, so if anyone of you do see me - be sure to say hello.

We're doing the Elite, which should be 'fun' 😬

OMM first timer here, medium score course. Most at home on category AS fell races. Prone to cold hands and being nesh even on warm days when dry.

Aiming to finish without hypothermia!

Reading this makes me miss mountain marathons! Maybe next year, but like a poster above, I want solo classes like inthe good old days of the SLMM and the Rab.

Anyone know why Saunders got rid of the solo class?

back for my 2nd time and I’ve gone from short score to medium score. Really looking forward to it. Anyone attempted to guess the overnight camp location so far? 

Not me, but have the Fell Relays the weekend before where I'll be in charge of the Silva. Lord help us.

You can only go so wrong with everyone else around Steve  

I’ve got away with it for years, due for a fall

For what it's worth my guess is somewhere near Llyn Cowlyd, as it looks vaguely flat and has road access. I am discounting over the hills towards Llanberis as its just too populated.

It’s been a good few years since I have done one of these and I am in medium score this year [I liked the way autocorrect called it ‘modicum score’….]. 

What are the rules now with smart watches and phones?  I see from the rules you need a phone in your bag for emergencies, but what about non-GPS use of smartwatches to know your time?  Can you pull out your phone at the overnight camp to keep your instagram followers up to date?

We've always read it as such:

Phone only comes out during race time if you need to make an emergency call - then you should be DSQing yourself.

Midcamp outside racing time. But I'll mostly be talking to my race partner and finding friends anyway, so I'm unlikely to take it out. I also don't want to run the battery down as I'm not carrying a powerbank. 

Normally my phone goes into Airplane mode before we start, then stays there until the end. Having the rugby world cup final on the Saturday evening...sort of scuppers this. If Ireland are in the final I'll want to watch it! 

They altered the rules a couple of years ago I think as so many people now have GPS watches. The rule now is not to use them for navigation. So I turn mine on because I want to be able to look back at the event afterwards and see where I went wrong, but I don't look at it during weekend except to check time remaining - the map navigation is kind of the point of doing it. So basically they rely on honesty - if you're going to use GPS what's the point in turning up to a navigation event.

I do wonder how much longer this will last. Times are changing.

You can use the altimeter on the GPS watch right? I’m sure I checked this last year.

The rules were very poorly understood by a lot of teams and we met one team on A Class who were using the maps on their watch and simultaneously googling “what’s a re-entrant”? They didn’t do very well.

You are right, rules do specifically allow altimeter (on watch it seems?). Shame really I think. 

Can't recall whether the maps did have many contours with heights on them or not. Rules say they may take them off.

Of course people can cheat,  but having paid to play the game, it's a bit odd to rock up and play a different game, with yourself, as it were?

Not too many days now, and my half baked training run in the Lakes today, just serve to remind me how much it will hurt!!!

Altimeter depends on the race:

KONG MMM - Use of GPS devices or watches for navigation, measurement of distance of altitude is NOT allowed. 

OMM -  An altimeter can be used but please note: we may remove the height data from the maps.

SLMM - Barometric altimeters are allowed.

Mourne - barometric altimeters are allowed.

So technically, it depends on the watch and where it's getting the altitude data from for the SLMM and MMM.

Traditionally frowned on in quite small tents

I asked the Saunders last year and they said their rules were the same as the FRA, I asked the FRA and they said that gps altimeters were allowed, so they are in the SLMM.

As to removing height data from the map, that always seems a bit silly, I’ve not seen it for a while but I just wrote them all back on during the first climb.

Not long now! Waterproofs or wetsuit you decide! 😂 how is everyone’s last minute preps going? 

Weather is looking ok-ish at the moment, but I'm still preparing for the worst - mostly so anything other than the apocalypse would be an improvement.

The Kong rule is actually:

Use of GPS devices or watches for navigation, measurement of distance of altitude is NOT allowed. A barometric altitude meter is allowed.

I'm not aware of any events that ban barometric altimeters and why should they? They're a traditional navigation device and require some skill and experience to use well in a mountain marathon.

Hope you all have the weather you want!

Good: we nailed the navigation in last week's Fell Relays
Bad: we nailed the navigation in last week's Fell Relays. We more or less straight-lined between the penultimate checkpoints, traversing an awful heathery featureless slope. Unless you count gorse as a feature. Cleverer people took a longer route, with a bit of extra climbing and a decent path. I recommend doing that. Good luck folks!

That sounds like an absolute adventure, wonderful! 

Experience has led me to believe its quicker (in most instances) to go around on a decent path than it is to heather bash direct..!

Well I know that now😁

An extra complication is I can no longer map read without specs. Glasses on, check, glasses off, run!

From orienteering I too should have learnt that 2 easy sides of a triangle is easier (and often quicker) than a bastard 3rd side of the triangle. Even if it's not quicker, it won't feel so frustrating because you'll be moving properly rather than struggling and cursing yourself for being an idiot (again) and you won't feel so knackered on the following legs.

When orienteering I use cheap reading glasses and a neoprene glasses strap and sort of tension/balance them towards the end of my nose so that I can see over them. Started off (once I needed reading glasses) with those "bottom half only" specialist orienteering glasses but they are more expensive and don't necessarily last that much longer. I also go up half a dioptre which makes the map larger and easier to see little features 😁.

I have heard of people who orienteer (and/or mountain marathon) with just one contact lens; but I believe it takes a bit of getting used to.

Is that just to save weight? Wow, intense (intents?)!

😁

Single lenses work well, but aren't as good as glasses until it rains. Problem with multi day events is lenses are daily disposable, so you need to be competent at taking in/out in less than ideal settings (I'm hopeless), plus a need for clean fingers. 

A few years ago on the Shropshire hills, I was in group that went 3 different ways. We came back together in a really similar order …but some more grumpy than others 😁

That was my setup with old prescription, but around the neck when running.

Our women’s navigator just showed me that. Good tip!

I was more that I realised that I was missing properly seeing some detailed stuff on the map with my normal strength reading glasses - although they were ok in retrospect when looking at the map afterwards, seeing detail when running/shuffling 😁 is different to seeing detail when stationary.

Hope everyone had a great weekend, as a first timer we had an amazing weekend! Big congrats to our very own Rob Greenwood for his first place in A Class! 
 

my highlights were being stood behind Jasmin Paris in the portaloo queue on Sat morning and only realising after! 

the massive bum slide down the hill after getting the second check point this morning! 
 

laughing far too much at my ability to find the deepest part of every big we crossed! 
 

I also spent far too long running round like an excited Labrador puppy! 😂

One very happy but tired camper this evening! 
 

Hope you all had a good time too! 

Ryan
 

Matt and I are still in shock about this. I don't think either of us can quite believe what happened...

Which category did you do? It really was an amazing weekend for it!

Godo result Rob, saw you having a very animated (arm waving wide eyes) conversation back at the tent at the end

We had an ok weekend, partner had Covid two weeks ago and hasn't run since July, but still ended up top 18th in Male B. Happy with that, and nice to drop down from the longer courses and have a "relaxing" weekend. For me anyway

We only did short score as it was our first time. Had a better day 1 than day 2, spent far too long looking for and not finding a sheep shelter! What is the difference between a shelter and a fold anyway? 😂 . My partner picked up an ankle injury on day one, so that slowed us a bit, but a couple of nav errors meant we were 25 mins late back on day 2 which really hurt us. 
 

we had an amazing time though. Really enjoyed it and will defiantly be back for more! 😃👍

Ryan

This is my modus operandi 😂

Well done Rob. Only the best(ish) win A! E from now on though!

Spent the weekend not really realising OMM was on, but by 2pm on Sunday I'd already nailed down my partner for next year and. Up for everything but the kit faff!

Southern Highlands - Arrochar was meant to host in 2020 so there? Or did they state that as 'Argyll and Bute' A friend has suggested Trossachs area.

Back to the Trossachs would be nice. I really do hope its Arrochar.

Just a heads up for anyone who bought one of the very nice OMM2023 mugs: they're not dishwasher proof. All the writing vanished from mine after its first wash. OMM were fine about replacing it and the new one arrived today. But it's obvious now that the writing is a transfer, and we found the shrivelled remains of the old one in the dishwasher drain. So handwash or shelf ornament only.

Short score, grandfather and grandson, not last 🙂