The Original Mountain Marathon
Unlucky Number 11
Rob Howard / 24.10.2009
After running in to finish day one the competitors had a short downhill walk to the farm where the overnight camp is based. Everyone was directed into the barn to download their timing chips and as I walked in through the mud Al Powell and Jon Morgan were arriving, having set a very fast time on the Elite course of 5 hours 22 mins (approx.) Although its unconfirmed this is almost certain to be winning Elite time for the day and the pair knew too that they'd stolen a march on their main rivals, Steve Birkinshaw and Jethro Lennox.
The two pairs had been running close together towards the end of the day, approaching checkpoint 11 on their course, which is on the hillside above the finish. Birkinshaw and Lennox were 50m ahead ... and they ran straight past it! Powell nipped in to punch it unseen behind them and it was only when Birkinshaw arrived at CP12 that he realised what he'd done. The pair had to run back to get it, but in such a close competition it could be the decisive mistake. Birkinshaw and Lennox finished 10 minutes behind the leaders, and it had taken them at least that to recover their mistake.
Understandably Birkinshaw was upset and angry with himself. "We must have missed it by 10m" he said, banging his fist into his other hand in frustration and shaking his head when he heard they now had a 10 minute deficit to make up.
He wasn't the only one to make that mistake either, although CP11 was probably one of the easiest on the course. Oli Johnson did the same thing, and he's an international orienteer. (He said he felt it was in the wrong place and took it up with the planner.)
Another potential winning pair who'd had a bad day were Chris Near and Tim Higginbottom, who came in with a time over 6 hours. "We started at a pace we thought could win," said Higginbottom, "but then my wheels came off. I've had a calf injury for the past 8 weeks and done no training so it's no great surprise." When I asked him about the course he said it was quite runnable up to CP9 after which there was a long leg across bog and tussock. "You could force a way through," he added, "but only if you were running strongly."
Having checked in the pair withdrew and sat at a picnic table in the barn, surrounded by straw and pecking chickens, waiting for the Glossop Scout team to produce some tea, and for the OMM bus. This has 4 stops and runs at half hourly intervals to ferry retiring runners back to HQ.
As they waited the rain showers returned and the flow of pairs downloading began to build as the number of finishers increased, gradually filling the field below the barn with their tents and settled down for the night. The marshals are currently trying to chivvy all the recent finishers out of the barn but they'd prefer to wait until this heavy rain shower is over!
Another official on a mission is Planner Andy Creber, who is planning kit checks on illicit mobile phones and unsuitable footwear later on ... probably when it's stopped raining as well.
[There will be another mid-camp report later this evening and a round up the results of the other classes.]See All Event Posts
