The Original Mountain Marathon
Top Bananas on the Long Score
Chris Morgan (Team Top Bananas) / 27.10.2009
The one thing that's pretty much guaranteed about the OMM is that the weather will never be dull, and this year looked like it was going to be no exception, with a forecast of heavy rain and strong winds on the Saturday, with conditions moderating on the Sunday. As we drove down from Edinburgh on the Friday evening there was no hint of any of this, with a warm sunny autumnal afternoon. We made good time almost all the way down (even past Manchester - surely a first!), arriving with plenty of time to register, and chat before turning in.After last years washout the event centre was located at the Royal Welsh showground in Builth Wells, and we were to be bussed to and from the course. In previous years we've been bussed to the start of events, but never back from the finish, and we were interested to see how the organisation would pan out.
From Team Top Bananas Both AJ & Jon, and Anna & I (Chris) had entered the long score, for a bit of friendly rivalry. Once again Anna & I had an early start on the Saturday morning, and a late start on Sunday morning (every time we do the event we seem to have it this way around, which results in a very long night at the overnight camp!).
So Saturday morning arrived far too soon, and we had to get out of bed and get ready in the dark. Fortunately it seemed that the poor weather predicted hadn't arrived, and whilst there was the odd spot of rain, it was hardly the torrential downpour predicted.
So we headed down for our bus and were whisked away into deepest Wales for the start. At this point it was still dark, and during the 30 minute bus ride dawn broke to reveal mist shrouding the hills. This did not bode well, as we'd been told the terrain was pretty featureless. However it still wasn't really raining, which was a bonus!
The bus deposited us in a non-descript lay-by, and disappeared, leaving us with a 15 minute walk up to the start. We could see Red Kites circling above - clearly waiting to pick off any competitors lagging behind... The organisation was flawless (as usual) at the start, and we got away at our allotted time. The start was right at the North-East corner of the map, with checkpoints covering an area 17 by 14 km.
Rather daunted by the scale of the challenge, we weren't really sure how to proceed - there was no chance we were going to be able to collect the checkpoints at the far West, so we were going to be leaving a lot of high pointed scores. So we chose a route that would take us across the North side of the course, leaving us with options for the 2nd half of the day.See All Event Posts
