Mourne Mountain Marathon 2011

In September 2011 I once more donned my day-sack and pulled on my mountain fell running shoes to attempt the two day Mourne Mountain Marathon. This event is held in the small, but perfectly formed, Mourne Mountains in the South East corner of Northern Ireland. It is the major mountain marathon event in the Irish calendar and followed on from my participation in the Highlander Mountain Marathon in April near Ullapool, an event that included a marquee and folk dancing at the overnight camp. As I had done the Mourne Mountain Marathon I knew that no such treats lay in store for t

his event. Although the scenery is stunning the weather can be unpredictable and a training day in July had disappeared in mist and rain but September had been great in previous years - it was not to be so this time.

My partner for the event, Johnny, and I had entered the B course this year. As this is one below Elite it has a certain element of competition about it. Day one was a hard slog of 24.5 Km and 1300m with a few particularly steep climbs involved along with a cluster of check points with the option to choose different routes so the route selection and navigation was fully tested. The weather stayed fine until about 1400 when it started to pour down in torrential bursts for 30 minutes or so. This was to continue for the remainder of the day and night making for an evening sheltered away in the tent during bursts and nipping out to cook and chat in the dry spells. That night's camp site was at the base of the Spelga Dam, which thankfully held firm despite some engineers drilling holes in it when we arrived! We were sitting 8th at the end of day 1 so in a good position to do well.

The next day we awoke to more rain, low cloud and fog. This, as strange at it seems, was exactly what we were after. For what we lacked in fitness due to age (combined age of over 80) we made up for in experience and navigation ability and low visibility gave us an advantage. After breakfast, taking down the tent and putting back on the wet clothes from the previous day we headed down the stream from the dam to the start. Day 2 as we hoped proved to major on the navigation ability of the teams as we were tasked with covering 20 Km and 900m making our way between hard to find check points in visibility of about 30 m or less. Thankfully this went well for us and we romped home in third place at the end of day 2. Over all we came a respectable 6th place. If anyone out there is interested in mountain marathons you must have a go at the Mourne event. I'd only be too glad to provide any help if I can.

Alan Elwood, Regional Representative - Northern Ireland

alan.elwood@icpem.net

northernireland@icpem.net

 

 

On the 12 & 13 Jun I took part in the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon (www.lamm.co.uk) at Glen Fyne in Scotland.  

The LAMM is a two-day mountain orienteering competition with an overnight camp at a remote location. Teams run in pairs and carry lightweight camping equipment, clothes and food to sustain themselves for 36 hours. 

It was preceded by a trip out to Ghana supporting Cranfield in the delivery of the Crisis and Conflict Management Course for the Ghanaian Armed Forces Command and Staff College. During this time I worked with Steve Hotston and Edith Wilkinson who had to nurse me back to health after a bad dose of D&V.  I flew back to Heathrow with Edith on the Friday, having my first meal in 36 hours on the flight, and arrived in at 1800 to get a connector to Glasgow, that turned out to be delayed.  Arriving at my Glasgow airport hotel by 2330 I grabbed a few hours rest before getting up at 0530 and heading for the highlands of Scotland.  

Having met up with my buddy Johnny, dropped my suit and laptop in the hire car, I pulled on the mountain gear and set off on the 2 day adventure.  The scenery was breathtaking, the weather perfect and the hills very tall and steep, a map description for a grassy knoll turned out to be a 500m high hill, but we made it round day one in great order. That night we relaxed at the camp site, the midgies stayed away which was great, and we got up early the next morning ready to go.  This time the rain had set in, along with the low visibility, and the midgies had woken up to our presence. Undeterred we set off on what proved to be a long slog with the need for very accurate navigation given the lack of visibility but all went well and we made it to the end, with a respectable middle of the pack finsh.  

Unfortunately this was not the case for everyone and a bad accident necessitated the dispatch of the air rescue. http://www.lamm.co.uk/2010/accident.html.

Anyone interested in next year LAMM should keep an eye on the website.  I am now preparing for the Mourne Mountain Marathon in September.