Karrimor International Mountain Marathon 2005

The event takes place on a suitably hilly and exposed location in the last weekend of October, this year in the Lakes on Ambleside. In our class (C), we were given a map at the start of the day with numbered check points we had to visit in order, before heading to the overnight campsite.

We were advised we needed a light pack to get the competitive edge.  We were proud of our hardiness getting our 45ltr packs down to a smidgen over 10kg’s, after removal of both wine & beer (only joking),  but seeing our competitors throwing around their children’s size, 4kg packs certainly made us question our research, and the need for both loaves of ‘Soreen’.

We headed off at 9.43 Sat morning, in fairly good weather (our speed slightly hampered by the uphill walk to the start line we were still recovering from). The first point went pretty well, but we picked up our first navigation lesson on marker 2 - since there are different courses, it is not advisable to follow someone with all the kit because they look like they know where they are going – our guides were heading to an entirely different place!

We had a challenging run down the river to 3 which put the ankles to test, then a very steep climb to 4 which killed off our calves, followed by a big down and then up to 5,  finishing off our quads and any remaining leg muscles. Despite our deliberations on routes, there was no way of avoiding the big hills, had it been a weekend jolly it would have been time to head to the pub.

The hardest and most intimidating part of the day was then getting to 6, taking in a very steep and long climb. As a confidence booster, this hill had a large number of people calling it a day at the bottom. Crossing the bog before dark was our next aim, and after a few sinking moments (up to the hip), we made point 7 at 6:30pm as light disappeared. Reading the key on the map that night revealed that there were two types of marsh land, normal and dangerous…we managed to cover both!

Day 1 has two cut off’s, before 7pm to keep your Sunday start time, after 7pm you join a mass start. Any finishing after 8pm are not allowed to compete on the Sunday. Knowing this we made a bid for the finish in a torchlight procession down the hill, and decided to save time by wading across the river in the dark, a little risky as we couldn’t tell how deep the next step would be! We came out no wetter than we went in and made the last check point with time to spare - 6:59.38pm.
 
The camp site attracted a fair wind throughout the night, and made us feel quite comfortable about our heavy packs as we took out our traditional 2 skin tent next to a rather cold looking competitor in a slim bag with a single pole at one end.

Dinner was a couscous dish with a spaghetti sachet and Pepperami. Unfortunately my partner, and stock provider for the trip, has a taste for spicy food. After a few bites I felt like I was in a curry house with a runny nose and burning top lip – although the lovely warm feeling inside was perfect. The only thing I might do differently next year, would be to wash out the pan before breakfast; the chocolate muesli with chilli couscous flavouring took the palette a bit by surprise!

Sunday morning at 6am brought mixed news, a megaphone announced that due to severe bad weather we were to do the shorter, safer course. Well, the shorter course was a blessing, but after seeing all the experienced, gnarly people in the camp site – how bad must the weather have to be for organisers to think they wouldn’t be safe?

We set off at a little after 8am, and other than sideways rain and 65mph gusts on the way back, Sunday went smoothly. We were checking our last marker before 1pm and heading to the finish.

Having started out with the competitive aim of not coming last, come Sunday afternoon we were just pleased to have completed to course. The results gave us 175th out of 184 finishers, with 101 teams not completing the course.

For the full results see the link below:

http://www.joelee.co.uk/2005/kimm/kimm05resc1.html

The event had a great atmosphere for hardened fell runners and weekend walkers alike. And it is nice to be able to say I’ve done the original race, as this year was the last race with that name. Next year’s race will be the Original Mountain Marathon (OMM), I’ll see you there …….

Alex