Original Mountain Marathon

OMM 2015 Location Revealed

Press Release / 04.08.2015

­With only a few weeks to go until 2000 competitors head into the mountains for the 48th edition of the Original Mountain Marathon, and it’s time to release this years event location.

The OMM is a test of endurance, navigation and mountain skills. Teams of 2 choose the difficulty of their course and over 2 days visit a series of checkpoints spread out over 400sqkm of Scottish wilderness. Held in some of most remote locations and at a time of year when conditions can be extremely challenging, the OMM is meant to be hard, it is hard!

An overnight wild camp at the end of day 1 adds a unique element to the mountain marathon format, with teams carrying everything they need including tent, kit and emergency equipment. Their success depends on being fast and light and ‘what to pack’ becomes a serious consideration.

This year we're taking the competitors to the Tweedsmuir Hills in the Scottish Borders. Stuart Hamilton events director said; “This years location provides an exciting mix of challenging terrain, interesting route options and a spectacular overnight camp. The OMM hasn’t visited these mountains before and we look forward to seeing which routes the competitors choose.”

Dave Chapman race co-ordinator has this to say; "It’s 21 years since we were last in this area, when the event was based on the edge of St. Mary’s Loch, and it’s been too long. The land hasn’t changed greatly in that time; much of the land is quite runnable although the heather can be tough in some areas. This is a fantastic area with beautiful hills and good running terrain.

The overnight campsite is in a fantastic location in the midst of the hills, so get there as early as you can to absorb the beauty.

We have been fortunate to be able to extend the event area further south – into the hills south of Megget Reservoir as far as Grey Mare’s Tail and Loch Skene, to the northern edge of the Carrifran Wildwood project owned by Borders Forest Trust . In fact a good part of this map extension has been recently acquired by Borders Forest Trust and will be returned to wooded wilderness in the coming years. The whole southern extension has allowed us to give the longer courses a quite different challenge each day."
    
OMM ENTRY FEE INCREASE 11th AUGUST

Remember the OMM entry fee will increase on the 11th August from £55pp to £65pp. Once you have secured your place you can login and edit and change your entry as many times as you like up to 3 weeks before the race.