OMM 28th-30th October 2011 - Breadalbane, Perthshire, Scotland

So it has been a busy two weeks, first with the Original Mountain Marathon (OMM) in Scotland. The event area, Breadelbane, covered the mountainous terrain between Loch Tay and Earn. It was my first mountain marathon and also a first for my team partner, my brother James. As it was our first one we didn't want it to be too difficult but we wanted a good level of challenge so we decided on the 'C' course. This course is a transition between a linear, (where the checkpoints are given in a set order) and score, (where the course is decided upon starting incorporating differing value checkpoints). So we had 5 linear and then had to choose four out of six checkpoints and results would be based solely on time. We started off fast and were knocking off several checkpoints and what seemed like we were overtaking lots of other C course pairs. Some very effective nav and we avoided some easy mistakes which several others had made. Between our 6th and eighth checkpoints we started to slow, perhaps as a lack of food and water intake throughout the morning. The thick fog on the tops added a biting cold wind and a visibility down to 10m. We picked up in the afternoon once we got a bit more warm and out of the fog. We finished the first day in 6 hours and 39 minutes in 36th position. The second day started off cold and damp and we woke to the sound of the piper on the video. Again we set off fast and learnt from the first day to get enough food and drink in regularly. We held a steady pace for the rest of the day with the same format of a few linear checkpoints and then deciding our own. Slowing towards the last couple of checkpoints before I got a sudden burst of energy as we got the the bottleneck of the last 3 checkpoints and several other pairs of all the courses followed the same route to the finish. We finished in a total time of 13 hours and 50 minutes in 36th position out of 103+/- who started. Overall, several lessons were learnt, navigation was tested, equipment reached its limit but it was fun, we took in a little bit of the Scottish scenery. Until next year.