OMM Elite 2007 - Lowther Hills

The weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday 28th/29th was bad. High winds and rain. The only silver lining was it was due to be mild, so at least I wouldn't freeze on the overnight camp. I had been nervous about the event for the past couple of months and it felt strange lining up to register in the elite class. After a beer with some friends I retired to the tent only to be woken by my running partner arriving at midnight.

In the morning with the sacks already packed we had nothing to do apart from eat and get to the start line for 8.23am. Again I felt nervous but by now was pretty much pysched up for what lay ahead. Picking up the map at the start it looked such a long way so I just folded the map to split it into managable sections The first couple of control points were no problem and the running generally good, at least on the downhills. The hills were all very steep and we were concious of saving legs and stamina for the later stages. Despite our beta the ground was very rough with tussocky grass covering much of the hillsides. It seemed all a bit too wet for heather too. A minor cock-up in the clouds, which were lotering around the 500m mark, meant we dropped a few places but by then we were into the flow of things. I was finding the uphills tough especially as my partner was running strongly about 20m in front. A long road section (well 3miles) got us to the furthest-most checkpoints. A whole bunch of faster teams sped past at this point at an unbelieveable speed and we were soon back on our own. The ground underfoot seemed to be getting worse and I didn't seem to have any energy. I was desperately trying to keep on eating but a long slog up towards Green Lowther finished me off. At the summit I was knackered and the rain by now was lashing down and the wind was viciously cold. Strangely there was a tarmaced road on the top of this hill, with white lines and everything. Runners were huddling behind buildings everywhere. Even running downhill was hard. Dropping off the path to the next checkpoint I suddenly lost all co-ordination and was staggering rather than running. Feeling very light-headed I stuffed in a Mars bar and pulled on all the spare clothing I had. I gingerly made my way down to the marshalled check-point. I really had had enough and told the marshal and my partner that. However after a quick jog down the road, with the aim of finding somewhere to camp, I felt much better and decided that in fact I could continue relatively safely. I was very aware that I was leaving the only short-cut behind, and with some trepidation we set off back up the route. The rain came and went but was never dry and finally it was only 5km to go. A couple of controls, where we lost loads of time, and then we were in the camp. We were both soaked through and quickly set up the tent in a relatively dry area. We jumped into our sleeping bags, had some soup and the both crashed out. After a couple of hours I managed to convince Henry to don wet kit and fill up the water bottles so I could cook our food. I snuggled back down in to my bag for some more sleep. Vesta meal beef curry and rice went down well but neither of us could face more food and just wanted to sleep. Suddenly at 2am Henry starts cursing about wet feet. Sure enough there is about an inch of water in the tent. I start bailing and after about 5l got it relatively dry. The survival bags come out and we lay them down to keep the sleeping bags at least a bit dry. An hour later I am bailig out again and this time when we look into the porch there is running water from underneath the tent. The pan is actually bobbing up and down. Inside all my clothes are soaked through. We both huddled on my Therma-rest and tried not to think too hard. The rain gradually lessend but was replaced by stronger wids that whipped the condensation into our clothes and sleeping bags. Everything was damp and we contemplated setting straight back to the base camp when it got light. Meanwhile I got siome fitful sleep.

The morning dawned clear and after some oats and hot chocolate starting didn't seem too bad. I wrang out my running kit, put it on and then headed up to the start bang on time. With clouds still threatening I was a bit undescided especially as the distance given was 33.5km. Thankfully the day stayed fine and the kit gradually dried out. We began to enjoy oursleves and had a good run, making up a far amount of time of the others in the class. Not enough to make much of a difference but a moral boost all the especially as I seemed to be keeping my own with Henry and the other teams. I began to tick off controls anticipating when the final refolding of the map would reveal the finish. At last it was all easy ground and the adrenalin from being so close to home gave my tired body a boost. The finish was superb. I for one felt a real sense of achievement. I had pushed myself hard mentally as well as physically and we had completed the course in good style. I turned to Henry grining slightly manicaly and asked about next year to which he replied ' LAMM Elite?'. Well, if he can put up with a slower runner then I'm game for it.

DAY 1: 40km 2600m 9h 36min
DAY2: 33.5km 1800m 6h 30min