Report from Karen Parker.
Last weekend, Julie and I went to Northern Ireland to take part in the Mourne Mountain Marathon. We are both heavily involved in organising and planning the Saunders Lakeland MM, and were missing the fun and satisfaction of actually competing, in addition to which the Mourne would give us a chance to see how other people organise events.
In the preceding few days, the weather forecast for the weekend had varied from sunshine to torrential rain and back again and the organisers told us later they had been close to cancellation a few days before the event. We packed a variety of tents, stoves and cagoules to allow for everything. In the end we got good weather – just a few heavy showers during the day, and a wet spell overnight.
Saturday started very badly; our route to the first control involved a 2km trek along the side of a reservoir and then a 100m climb to a re-entrant. We’d naively thought that there might be some sort of path along the water’s edge, but no – just a huge boulder field, chest high bracken, brambles and hidden holes. As Julie said, you know things are bad when holding on to a holly bush for support seems a good idea. The 2.5km leg took 90 minutes! Of course, all the locals knew how rough it was and took a long path route with lots of extra climb instead.
After that we started to enjoy ourselves. The terrain remained tough, but tussocky grass and peat hags are what you expect on a mountain marathon. Our route choice decisions were all based on using paths where possible, even when it meant extra climb. The final leg was along the famous Mourne Wall, a 30 km long, 1.5m high structure that follows the watershed of the two big reservoirs. It was good to get a chance to see it – though having to climb over it and back again to dib a control seemed a bit odd.
The campsite field wasn’t the best – sloping, rutted and with evidence of recent occupation by cows. There was a cold north wind so being next to a wall for shelter seemed a good plan. Unfortunately, Northern Irish dry some walls aren’t like our Cumbrian ones….
Sunday dawned sunny but still windy and in place of the traditional OMM bagpipe reveille, someone walked round the campsite singing Irish songs in a loud, deep voice – much nicer. We chose to start as late as we could in the hope that there would be more tracks through the rough bits, but it didn’t really work; but the benefit was that we were overtaking people all day which always helps when you are tired. The most memorable aspect of the day was the views of the amazing mountains with their steep sides and jagged rocky tors perched on the summits. I resolved to go back non-competitively one day and get to the top of some of them rather than just contouring round. The day went well, but there was an unexpected sting in the tail; on the way to the final control, with less than a kilometre to go, we crossed a path without seeing it and ended up back in the bracken, brambles and rocks of Day 1. Fortunately, the euphoria of finishing soon overrode the frustration.
Results-wise we were about halfway down the B class (the second longest one) but were second female team, and also second veterans team. The latter meant that we got a prize. Sadly, a results miscalculation meant that were weren’t presented with it at the prize giving, but we had our own mini one later:
So did we learn anything that we can bring back to the Saunders? The answer is not really – it’s a much smaller event, run on a much tighter budget so the requirements and constraints are different. But like the Saunders (we hope) the volunteers are all very friendly and helpful (especially the control marshal giving out jelly babies!)
Border Liners Orienteering Club 