Karrimor International Mountain Marathon
A Big Operation
Rob / 24.10.2003
Even without the signposting the KIMM event site is hard to miss. It’s in a very large field, right beside the A7 Carlisle to Hawick trunk road, a collection of marquees beside the Ewes village hall where registration is taking place. Beside the tents the bulk of the field is set aside for parking and camping.The weather today has been clear and crisp with only wisps of high cloud, and early arrivals saw the scenery at it’s best, hopefully a taste of what’s to come. The event centre is in a valley, surrounded on all sides by the deceptively gentle gradients of the Border hills, the woodlands on the lower slopes now showing their autumn colours.
There were plenty of early arrivals too, some even turned up Thursday night and when registration opened at 15.00 there was a queue of 20 or so waiting to go in. From then on the cars pulled in with increasing frequency and registration got busier and busier. (It will peak late Friday evening and will be open again Saturday morning.) As they came in teams collected their electronic scoring tags from a row of a dozen marshals gave instructions and ticked them off the list of arrivals.
At the end of the hall Jen Longbottom, the event organiser was matching up racers who’d lost team mates and dealing with very late entries (one of which had come in from Spain). She’s pleased with the venue. “It fits the KIMM ethos of finding new areas. We been all around here, in Kielder, the Cheviots and in the Southern Uplands at St. Mary’s Loch before, but this is a new country for us.� And it is increasingly hard to find suitable new venues.
Steve Willis, the race controller and coordinator was on hand, as the were the planners, John Tully and Robin Sloane. They were busy much of the evening briefing the checkpoint volunteers on where to go. Willis began planning straight after last year’s race as the venues are fixed more than a year ahead, and has been in the area for 15 days already in his dual role of liasing with the local land owners and checking the courses. “It’s been great, I spend the morning talking to the farmers and the afternoon on the hills checking the courses. It’s worked really well. I can’t praise the local farmers enough, they’ve been really helpful.�
“The terrain is similar to the Cheviots, a mix of heather grouse moors and rough sheep grazing, some of it runnable, some not so. There is little bog though, the farmers say this is the driest it’s been within living memory. The disappointing things is there are so many new fences since foot and mouth, and we’ve had to plan with that in mind. I can say the weather is variable though, as last Wednesday I was out in 6� of snow and dense fog. It was all gone by the next day.�
Both the planners are local. John Tully’s farm is on the edge of the course map (which competitors won’t be given until they start in the morning). He’s an international veteran orienteer for Scotland, and has been planning the x-country Elite, A, B and C courses, while Robin Sloane, who also lives locally, has set the score classes. Both are members of the Roxbrugh Reivers orienteering club so there is no doubt they will take racers to all the best spots in the local area. “They will find it heavy going in places,� said Tully, “and there are deep valleys, but the main thing we’ve tried to achieve is lots of route choice.�
Outside as darkness fell numerous generators were started up and floodlights came on, as a continuous stream of car headlamps came along the main road and turned into the parking field. Various other groups of marshals were all working away at their tasks, answering questions and directing people. They are well wrapped up as the temperature fell below zero before darkness fell, and they need to be as they will be on duty up to midnight and again before dawn, making sure the race runs smoothly.See All Event Posts
