The Original Mountain Marathon
Changes at the 2009 OMM
Rob Howard / 19.10.2009
The 2009 OMM is fast approaching and there have been some significant changes to the organisation of the oldest and most prestigious mass participation outdoor event in the UK. The storms and floods at last year's race in the Lake District, which caused the event to be abandoned for the first time in it's 42 year history and resulted in inaccurate 'news' headlines across the world, have lead to some operational changes, although the fundamental principles and ethos of the event remain the same as they always have.
The floods in 2008 isolated race HQ (and flooded some competitor's cars) and this communications black-out contributed to the media frenzy which saw the story of "thousands lost in atrocious conditions" flash around the TV and computer screens of the world. Reuters and PA carried this 'news' as facts and Monday morning there were 2,000 internet media articles world wide. In actual fact everyone was safely accounted for by Sunday afternoon and all were skilled enough to navigate themselves to safety and equipped to survive overnight on the hills if they needed to; (<a href="#" onClick="javascript:newsitewindow('http://www.theomm.com/event/eventNews/pressRelease041108.html')" class="main">see final report and statistics for 2008)</a>.
The emphasis on being self-reliant and well prepared remains the core philosophy of the event, but this year the race HQ has moved to a more substantial location, with sufficient hard-standing to park all of the competitors cars and state-of-art satellite communications provided by a new sponsor.
The venue for the 2010 event in the Elan Valley is at the Royal Welsh Showground in Bulith Wells, which offers adequate (dry) parking for 3000 competitors, buildings for race HQ and secure communications. Competitors will register there before the competition on the weekend of October 24/25th and will be bussed to the start/finish areas, which is a new departure for the event.
The start and finish locations will still be in hills and countryside surrounding the Elan Valley and the overnight camp(s) will as always be at a remote location.
As a result mobile and radio communication around the course can still be unreliable, however, this year additional race communications will be provided by a new sponsor, the <a href="#" onClick="javascript:newsitewindow('http://www.spectra-group.co.uk/page.php?id=14')" class="main">Spectra Group (UK) Ltd</a>. Spectra specialise in deploying satellite communications in remote locations and have worldwide experience working on defence and government contracts.
Spectra will be deploying <a href="#" onClick="javascript:newsitewindow('http://www.spectra-group.co.uk/page.php?id=58')" class="main">SHADE</a>, a self-contained, rapid deployment network infrastructure that will deliver voice and data communications throughout the event. It will include the installation of portable satellite systems at three sites providing full telecoms capability using standard handsets. SHADE also provides access to the internet using laptop PCs.See All Event Posts
