The Original Mountain Marathon 2006
Into the Wilds
Rob Howard / 27.10.2006
“It’s a fantastic area, an absolute wilderness,� said the event controller Steve Willis as he handed out maps to the race marshals and staff and briefed them on their tasks. “I’ve probably spent a total of 15 days on the hills working on the event and in all that time I saw only 3 other hill walkers.�“It’s rough too. Most of the northern part of the competition area has no grazing animals so it’s difficult going underfoot and the rivers will be high. We’ve not made any changes to the courses due to the high water levels but will check the weather forecast at 5am to make a final decision. We don’t anticipate using short courses though.�
The race planning this year has been made more complicated by the special nature of the competition area, part of which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and also a Special Area of Conservation. While the Forestry Park was happy to give the event open access, Scottish Natural Heritage placed some restrictions on the planners which affected where the courses could go.
“There is large part of the course where we had to limit numbers and agree that checkpoints would only have one course visit them�, said Willis. “It’s the main reason we have so many controls – there are 104 this year! It’s also why we have to bus the B and C competitors to a different area to start, so their courses will not go into the restricted area.�
Competitors on these classes will have to get the event HQ early and will be getting onto buses from 7am. With the difficult parking situation (all the fields are saturated so forest roads are being used), and the fact some accommodation is an hours drive away (there are not many B&B’s nearby), B & C competitors will be getting up very early. The other classes will still have to allow an hour to park, and there is quite a walk from the HQ to the start for them as well.See All Event Posts
