Original Mountain Marathon – Borrowdale area of the Lake District

Saturday (& usually Sunday) Oct 25^th/26^th 2008

Wells City Harriers were out competing hard across Britain this past weekend. Seven Club members were caught up in the media frenzy that matched the gale force conditions at the Original Mountain Marathon (OMM) being held in Borrowdale in the Lake District. The race was abandoned on Day one of the two day event. The event is rightly regarded as one of the toughest orienteering and fell running events on the calendar, with all competitors having to be self-sufficient and experienced to cope with whatever the weather can throw up.

As with the vast bulk of the competitors, all of the Harriers taking part have been competing in this event for many years. Helen Rutter, Liz Green, Gary Tubridy, Norman Wright, Helen and Chris Kelsey and their son Ben Kelsey were all competing in pairs in the various score classes where competitors have to navigate around the fells to visit controls to score points. Conditions started dry but very windy on the Saturday morning and became increasingly wet and gale-force by the lunchtime. Soon afterwards the event organisers decided to abandon the race.

All of the Harriers, as with most other competitors, were able to either walk back to the start area or to find shelter in their tent or other building for the Saturday evening. A number slept in their cars on Saturday evening before being part of the well rehearsed arrangements for extracting cars when the flood water receded on the Sunday morning before heading back home. Norman & Gary earned lots of points for their car-pushing efforts!

Helen Rutter taking part in her 12^th such OMM said “Conditions on the Saturday were probably no worse than one or two other occasions at past events, but quite rightly the event organisers decided to abandon the event this time. The small number out of the 2000 plus taking part that received treatment for ankle injuries or hypothermia is also not unusual. We’ll be back next year and hope for better weather then. Unfortunately the media coverage of the event over the weekend has concentrated on the drama – perhaps it was just a quiet news day?”