OMMG! I have just done a Mountain Marathon! |

Just after the start

At 7:30am on Friday the 28th October, Harold and I began our journey to the heart of Scotland for the annual OMM mountain marathon. Stopping twice, we made it to just south of Perth in under 8 hours. We were greeted by howling winds and driving rain. Things did not look promising for the weekend!

We stayed in a small B&B in Auchterader on the Friday night then travelled to Cultybraggan on Saturday morning to begin our race. Cultybraggan is an ex prisoners of war camp that contained lots of bunkers and cabins setting the scene for an adventurous run. At 09:08 we boarded a bus that took us within 1 mile of the start. At 10:09 we set off with our map on the C class marathon and would not be back until the following day.

The course for Day 1 consisted of 22km and 1200m of climb if we ran in a straight line. After 5 hours and 42 minutes we made it without too many mistakes to the finishing point. Exhausted, cold and wet through we were greeted by a small patch of green tents in a vast Glen that felt as if we were in the middle of no where. Quickly we assembled our overnight accommodation and attempted to warm up. The rest of the afternoon and night were spent rehydrating noodles and cous cous then trying to catch forty winks in the soggy tent.

Almost at the finish!

At 6:04 we were awoken by the sound of bagpipes ringing out down the glen. Thankfully the bad weather had subsided so we were able to dress, pack away the tent and eat breakfast in relative comfort. 08:58 arrived and it was time for us to set off on the final leg of our race. Setting a steady pace we managed to jog and run most of the way. After what seemed a very rapid 6 hours the finishing line loomed into view and the race was finally over. Running for over 12 hours and covering nearly 50km and climbing over 2000m my first mountain marathon was complete.

As it was a race, there had to be results. We came 11th on day 1, 24th on day 2 which put us 15th overall out of 109 teams on the C class. (Follow link for full listings http://www.theomm.com/event-series/omm-2011-results)

It was definitely all worth it despite having swollen knees, ankles and feet I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and have vowed to do more in 2012.