UKC

Looks like classic OMM weather forecast, I have been convinced to try the Elite class for the first time so i'm pretty nervous. It looks like a lovely competition area though, so hopefully there will be some good running and not just tramping through heather/bog/tussock.

Not many races do I enter just hoping to get round. Fingers crossed!

In reply to ablackett:

Have a good one. Don't die.

In reply to ablackett:

How did you get on? Pretty much the only good running we found was along the road by the reservoir, the rest was the usual mixture of bogs tussocks and knee deep heather

In reply to Simon Caldwell:

I slipped and twisted my knee a couple of hours in, thought I had run it off but it seemed to have a knock on effect, my groin tightened up and my knee seized up a few hours later. Hobbled into midcamp in 10:40 but missed out the last few controls.

I thought the terrain was great, really good mix of grass, path, tussocks and heather. We didn't bother attempting day 2 as we hadn't finished day 1, so just walked back to the start, which was tough enough, turns out i'm not good enough for the elite course.

It's bloody tough.

In reply to ablackett:

Just looking at the map for elite made me feel tired!

In reply to ablackett:


Well you didn't get that wish!

Disappointingly little running and far far too much heather bashing for my tastes.

In reply to DaveHK:

I didn't do this year's but I remember the Langholm one as being one of the toughest underfoot of all the MM I have done.

In reply to pog100:

Just not my cup of tea I think. More of a walking event than a running event on that terrain. Are they normally like that?

In reply to DaveHK:


It depends. I did the one in the howgills which was superb fun. Lots of tussock but lots of very fast running. That was the elites.

The day 2 on that was pretty easy, day 1 was a big old day out.

I really miss them, not a pure running event at all, but in the elite especially you have to be running chunks to get through. I didnt find it that hard to complete within the time limits but the speed of the top guys was super impressive.

In reply to Roadrunner5:

The general consensus was that they'd cocked up a little on the timings for the elite. The gossip was that the winners were an hour slower than expected and that if they'd applied the cut offs only 9 teams would have finished.

In reply to DaveHK:

They advertise it as 12 hours for the winners of the Elite, but it was more like 13h 30m. So for the slower people (like me) that made it about 2 and a half hours longer than expected, which is a long way. Also it is advertised on the website as 4000m+ of climbing. We did 3300m on Saturday, and would have done 3500m if we had finished the course. Sundays map shows another 2700m of ascent, making 6000m over 2 days.

A course was won in 13h 30, advertised as 11h.

B course was won in just under 12 hours (advertised as 10h)

C course was won in just under 12 hours (advertised as 9 hours) and more than half the field didn't finish (this was due to a last minute access issue making the course longer, but surely it could have been adjusted to miss out a checkpoint??).

D course was won in 9 hours (advertised as 8).

So it looks like most of the courses were overplanned. Makes me feel a bit better for my failure to finish.

In reply to ablackett:

We finished 11th in just under 19hrs. I clocked it as 88k and just shy of 6000m of climbing.

In reply to ablackett:

Also... why do they have cut offs based on time of day (rather than race time) then set the fast guys off first? Surely the slowest should go off first to give them the best chance of making cut offs?

In reply to ablackett:

Good blog post on the Hangar 18 website about Andy's first time in the elite and from the third mens team in elite.
http://h18-orr.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/stories-from-omm-2015.html

In reply to sam.sam.sam.ferguson:

"Which course are you on? Elite. Ah, you guys are elite, No, but we have entered the elite course. This became a familiar conversation over the course of the weekend of the OMM."

Ha! We had a few of those conversations. Not elite just stupid/confident/over confident (delete as appropriate) enough to enter the elite!

In reply to ablackett:

Hi, I was one half of the D winning team, and like you I twisted my knee on day 1 (luckily near the end). we would have retired, but we had a large lead so I strapped it up, took a load of painkillers & gave it a go. Had to walk most of day 2 but we managed to hold onto our win. I reckon we'd have been 8½ hours had I not been hobbling.

It was really tough this year, with even B & C course competitors taking hours longer than they'd anticipated. I thought we'd breeze the D but in fact we were broken (I'm an experienced runner/ orienteer)

Having said all that, it was an amazing event, my 1st MM since 1981 (!) and the crew and fellow competitors were all very supportive & created a great atmosphere. The 1st aiders I was treated by were also brilliant! ROll on next year.....!

Phil

In reply to DaveHK:

Dave, I have entered the Elite quite a few times in the past, but I am certainly not an elite runner..... maybe an elite hill basher.

With regards to running, they vary wildly, the best for running in the past I have done, have been Howgills, south Lakes, Brecon Beacons and the worst....by far.... Galloway!! Tussock hell. I tend to do better when it's more hills and less running.

Cut off times: hmm, I had a few times when I just made them....then I was glad I didn't have to set off too early in the morning.

In reply to ablackett:

I overheard one "old hand"on Sunday saying to one of the "new brigade" that they should have used the bad weather courses on day 2 due to the times on day 1. Perhaps they had a point! I certainly can't think of an OMM with terrain as unremittingly tough, and this was our 11th year I think.

We did long score as usual, and was pretty impressed with the course (though not during the last hour of Saturday as we waded through knee deep heather for over an hour between AC and the finish!). Plenty of choice as to where to go, and even the winning teams didn't come close to clearing the course. And we chose much the same route as the winning teams which is always satisfying (though of course they had the legs to add on an extra mile or 10).

The only caveat to that was that there seemed to be very few options for the slowest teams, who basically had to had straight for the finish and all did variations on the same thing. But I think that was partly down to the last minute access issues - the original course would have given more options to access the NW area.

Overall, after a poor year last year, things seem to be back on track for the OMM.

In reply to ablackett:
"Tidsoptomist". A person who is habitually late despite always believing they have enough time.
Score runners will recognise this.
2 mins late on day 1 LS with 34km done. The last few km from the east also took a time haemorrhaging hour from AC, you were not alone Simon Caldwell! Some of the deepest heather it has been my misfortune to encounter. Had to ditch that penultimate control.
Day 2 saw us pick an ambitious northern route, but with lots of good tracks to finish. Ran further than day 1. Climbed more too. Unsurprisingly came in 23 mins late, so many points lost, not enough gained. Tidsoptomism at its best.
From the comfort of home I planned an alternative route to the south that was 6km shorter, 300m less climb and 50 more points.
Would have brushed a top 10 overall with that.
Hindsight, where were you?!

In reply to ablackett:
Thoroughly enjoyed the event though, but did pity the poor souls starting early on Saturday morning's deluge, and those pouring off the hill in packs of tired and demoralised pools of torchlight, well into the evening.
Next year we will plan and execute the perfect route. Hindsight will be packed in the sack, no matter how much it weighs!

In reply to Phil Murray:

Hey neighbour, glad you found a whistle!

Alan

In reply to Tim Sparrow:

You can normally check peoples routes, do they still do that?

It's really interesting seeing peoples route choices.

In reply to Roadrunner5:

http://www.omm.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/

In reply to Reaver2k:

Hi! I got TWO whistles and took both of them with me on day 2!

I still can't walk down stairs properly .....