Unless you were sheltering in your lightweight tent high on the
northern fells this weekend, you probably noticed that the this year's
Original Mountain Marathon
found itself in the eye of a national media storm as bad weather in the
Lakes forced organisers to abandon the event for the first time ever at
around lunch time on Saturday.
The media coverage, particularly in the beginning was, not to put too
fine a point on it, hyperbolic. If you'd taken the BBC at face value
you'd have believed that the OMM was a 'charity event' and some 1700
people were 'missing' or 'unaccounted for', with on the ground
reporters bigging up the severity of the conditions and implying that
some sort of disaster was unfolding in front of them.
Reporters even managed to combine Honister - a large number of
compettitors took refuge in the Honister slate mine - with Consiston,
to produce 'Honiston', which sounds like a sleepy Devon village.
The reality seems to have been quite different. All OMM competitors
carry full overnight camping kit, waterproofs, food and so on and the
majority are experienced fell-runners and walkers. The whole point of
the event is to be self-reliant and to use your fitness and skills to
overcome obstacles including the weather.
Lack of
mobile coverage combined with severe weather conditions made
communications between race HQ and competitors extremely problematic,
with flooded roads making movement difficult, but the reality is that
of around 2,500 competitors, only 12 or so seem to have got into real
difficulties, a very low number given the severity of the conditions.
Many competitors relished the harshness of the event. One OMer who took
part commented:
'Yes it was the most continually extreme conditions that I've ever
tried to race in, but wow it was a spectacular show of wild nature to
really test your kit, resiliance and judgement! I couldn't help but
grin in the evolving windswept watery landscape.'
Another says: 'OMM was great, so disappointed it was cancelled,
Saturday was amazing - even at the time!'
Beacon Of Sanity
Sleepmonsters' Rob Howard was uploading live reports
during the event and represented an informed beacon of sanity in
contrast to national media coverage.
Perhaps the most pertinent of his comments relates to an interview
given by the OMM's Mike Parsons to the BBC which underlines just how
hard the general media find it to relate to the outdoors:
'When the BBC interviewed OMM Director Mike Parsons it was as though
they were speaking two different languages. The presenter became more
and more confused as each question was met by an unexpected answer,
until she eventually asked; “You mean there was no emergency
here?” Mike’s answer was, “No, not
really.”
But hey, who needs a real emergency when you can invent one?
More details of the weekend including video at
www.theomm.com
follow the event news links for detailed reports and galleries.
Paul Burke 2
