Gatesgarth, Buttermere, where many competitors took shelter overnight in 2008
This year’s Original Mountain Marathon will move south to Wales.
Entries are now being taken for the event in autumn, with interest expected to be heightened after the event found itself at the centre of a media storm last October when torrential rain and high winds hit the marathon and its base in Borrowdale, in the Lake District.
The closing date for entries for the two-day test of navigational skills and fitness is 29 July, but it is likely to fill up before then.
The exact location will not be revealed to competitors until just before the event, to stop runners and walkers doing recces of the route beforehand.
The OMM, which started life as the Karrimor International Mountain Marathon, will be held on the weekend of 24 and 25 October. The event was first staged 41 years ago.
It found itself the centre of television and newspaper attention with claims that 2,000 runners were ‘lost’ on the Lake District hills. The marathon was ended a few hours after it began when the field serving as the event headquarters flooded.
Many ill informed commentators chipped in with lurid quotes, yet the vast majority of runners and walkers taking part arrived back safely.
Mike Park, team leader of the Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team, who took part in the truncated event, said afterwards: “I participated in this event and I knew what it was going to be like because I had competed in the OMM in the two years previously.
“The organisers notified mountain rescue about the event a month before they were going to be up here. They were fully aware of the weather forecast and it was their call on whether the race should go ahead.
“People who go out on the hills regularly will know that they can make mistakes. It’s from these mistakes that they learn. Ultimately, the mountain rescue teams were called to deal with a number of separate incidents which we did effectively.”
In the end, Lake District mountain rescue teams benefited to the tune of more than £8,000 from donations to a justgiving website set up after the event and to which many grateful competitors contributed.
See also
All back safe as media storm follows OMM weekend
Colin Jones
11 February 2009Thank fully the Jonathon Ross/ Russell Brand incident occured on the same weekend and stole the media spotlight, otherwise the whole incident would have received a lot more media scrutiny.
It was after all an unfortunate occurance involving many experienced fellsmen who were able to cope with the conditions. From what I am told and saw the whole thing was blown out of context by a few people.
The Piglit
11 February 2009I sincerely hope that Ross and Brand will be competing in this years event.