OMM reflections

When six times winner Steve Birkinshaw asked me to run in the OMM with him earlier this year it was an offer not to be turned down. Traveling down with him I joked that the pressure was on him as I had already won two mountain marathons this year! We managed to overcome the tussocks, bog and running past a control and came out on top of the elite class at this years OMM held in Elan Valley in mid-Wales.

The first day started with a bus journey to get us to the north of the area and into the heart of the Elan Valley. Our first couple of checkpoints did not bode well for the rest of the weekend as we did not take the greatest of lines. I was trying to push the running a bit hard. Fortunately we hit checkpoint 3 spot on partly because there was a nice trampled line through the grassy tussocks which were getting bigger as we got further into the area. A great bit of downhill running got Steve back into the flow and we started to work well together and could see Al Powell and Jon Morgan ahead who had started a couple of minutes ahead of us. It was not long before we caught them and ended up running with them for most of the rest of the day. On our way up one of the worst hills for tussocks we were joined by another team and could not quite shake them off. This was not helped by the fact that the going made it impossible for running. The hardest part of the day was a long stretch along the tops of the hills between checkpoint 8 and 9. By now 8 of us (4 teams) were all tussock/bog running together which made the long stretch quite enjoyable with usual good natured mountain marathon banter. Suddenly we started heading downhill and towards a forest and it seemed that no one had been looking at the map. Al gave a call from behind and we all headed back up the hill. Steve claimed he had also just noticed we were going wrong and was about to call out. Was still of Al to give everyone a shout especially as they were just hanging on at the back of the group. Looking at the map it looked like the last few checkpoints were fairly straightforward and I was keen to get away from the group so Steve and I pushed on ahead. I was slightly ahead of Steve and with the increase in tempo we managed to run within 20 metres of a checkpoint (this time Al kept quite) and onto the next one. There was nothing for it but to run back much to the delight of all those teams we had just past including Tim Higginbottom and Chris Near (Tim later dropped out with a pulled calf muscle). The sprint down the last hill was filled with frustration - just as well it was a two day event. I was still very pleased to be 2nd overnight and within 8 minutes of Al and Jon. Steve was slightly more anxious as he had never won the OMM elite after been behind on the first day - time to change that.

The second day started with fast run along a wet/rough track into a stiff wind. Steve had said he would just run his own pace so my plan was just to slick behind him and let him take control. I did occasionally go in front just to give him some shelter from the wind. Steve's own pace is pretty fast and after hitting the first checkpoint spot on we got our first glimpse of Al and Jon. After more tussock jumping we were only around 30 seconds behind them. After a brief chat about tactics we decided to sit in on them for a few checkpoints and let them do the work. This was quite hard as we were running very well but fortunately they picked up the pace when they realised we were so close to them. It was not long before we were on their heels and suddenly the good natured chat from yesterday was replaced by heavy breathing and concentration. This was top level mountain marathon racing at its best. After around two thirds of the day we were all working together up a steep climb. Al stopped to tie his lace, Steve glanced at him and suddenly he was away and fortunately I had the legs to stay with him. This was the break that we needed and from then on we really pushed the pace and Steve’s awesome nav meant we hit the checkpoints exactly. With tiring legs we hurtled down the final decent and along the final farm track to the finish very happy with ours days work.

Inov-8 athlete Heather Dawe was running with Scottish hill runner Andrea Priestley and finished an impressive 27th (1st female runners ahead of the mixed teams) out of 48 finishers in the Elite class.

Results
Route Gadjet
Photos