Back in February 2023 a mad plan was hatched to see if the Trad Dads could compete in the Original Mountain Marathon – the OMM. Held at the end of every October since 1968, to guarantee poor weather and give you an extra hour in a tiny, cold, wet tent due to clocks going back overnight. The OMM is recognised as the gold standard in UK Mountain Challenges. It’s a self-reliant two day journey through some of the UK’s finest mountain terrain, a new area each year; a true test of mountain craft, resilience & sense of humour.
On the start line, you and your partner are given a map of your chosen course. You need to plan a route to find your checkpoints finishing at the halfway overnight campsite. To complete the race you need to be self-reliant & carry everything you need for the 2 days including the halfway camp. Day 2 you get new checkpoints to find finishing back at the event centre.
In 2023 it was to take place in North Wales, only a couple of hours from where the Trad Dads live in West Yorkshire and the location of many a good climbing trip. It would have been rude not to give it a go.
There are two options of format, Score (points based format) and Linear (time based format). As it was our first time we opted for Short Score (five hours for day one, four hours for day 2 – likely to be around 15k on day one and 10k on day two). Competitors choose which checkpoints to visit and the route between them within the time allowed. Each checkpoint is worth different points dependent on its location/difficulty. The score courses are the best option for those who want the flexibility of being able to choose the distances that they cover and a wider range of navigational choices. These courses are as physically challenging as you choose to make it as you do not have to stay out on the hill for the whole time allowance. Points are deducted for finishing outside your allocated time limit at a rate of 2 points per minute (or part of minute). These courses can be easier to complete than a line course but very difficult to do well competitively due to the increased amount of planning required. The controls (or checkpoints) you have to find are usually placed off paths and often out of sight but each one is provided with a short description (i.e. “stream junction”, “sheepfold”). You need to be competent with map and compass (no GPS allowed) and able to follow a bearing, potentially in low visibility and bad weather and over rough ground. Navigation is the big hurdle for many people looking at The OMM but crossing the mountains using only a map & compass in a digital age is incredibly rewarding.
Teams were quickly established. Chris and Ryan like to run, Stuart and Robin do not. Furthermore it was suggested that because of the time penalty and competitors desire to go after tricky checkpoints, completely mis-managing their time, it would be possible to score well by simply walking between the start and mid-camp, picking up whatever points fell along the path. A tortoise and hare scenario was on the cards!
EQUIPMENT / KIT CHOICE
Then began six months of debating kit choice. A full kit list is provided but being self-sufficient for two days in the mountain means carrying a lot more kit than many of us are used to. The lightest gear and cutting back on all but the essential will get your pack down to around 4kg but this is really only for elite competitors who are not likely to need warm clothing even when wet through so don’t expect to be comfortable. The average pack (including water and food) is around 6-8kg but can be much heavier. They also say it’s a good idea to do at least some training with this kind of weight. Some of the distances may not seem far compared to many ultras but the combination of pack weight, terrain, conditions and navigation means each kilometre is hard won.
Mandatory kit list. Each competitor must wear or carry the following:
- Taped seams waterproof jacket with hood
- Taped seams waterproof trousers
- Clothing suitable for mountain running and walking
- Warm layer top
- Hat (not a buff), Gloves & Socks
- Footwear suitable for fell and trail use
- Head torch capable of giving useable light for a minimum of 12 hours
- Whistle & Compass
- Map (as supplied)
- Insulated sleeping system
- First aid equipment
- Survival bag (not a sheet)
- Rucksack
- Emergency rations (should still have at the finish line)
- Water carrying capability
- Pen/pencil for map marking (waterproof paper) in wet conditions
- Fully charged mobile phone
Spare warm kit and insulated sleeping system must be waterproofed (i.e. in a drybag)
Each team must carry the following at all times:
- Cooking equipment including stove with sufficient fuel for duration of the race, plus some spare for emergency use, left at the end of the event (Ryan brought the stove and a small gas, I took a small gas for redundancy)
- Tent with sewn in groundsheet (I took the inner and fly, Ryan took the poles and pegs).
- Food for 36 hours for two people (Ryan carried most of this to even out the weight).
In the end Chris’ kit list looked like this:
They say you should aim to run with around 10% of your body weight. At 69kg this meant Chris could carry a bag of 7kg. Once the soft flask was filled the bag weighed-in at 6.8kg and I was able to move, run and climb fine with that weight. The gamble I took was not bringing an insulated, padded jacket. The weather forecast looked to stay above freezing. Both my packable ones weighed around 500g so I chose not to bring one. If the forecast had been colder I would have done. I knew Ryan was bringing one and always had the option of spending all day wrapped in my sleeping bag. Sharing jackets and poles saved us a kilo overall.
NB, I can highly recommend the lighterpack website as it made all the above much easier.
Although we already had a ton of outdoor gear, it’s really heavy (read robust). A standard rucksack comes in at 2kg, a mid-2000s sleeping back will be 1.5kg and a mid-2000s 2-person tent will be 4kg. That’s 7.5kg before you even start. Hence commence the great search for reasonably priced lightweight gear. Ryan splashed out on a light tent (Terra Nova Laser Compact 2), sleeping bag (Sea to Summit Spark 2) and matt (Thermarest NeoAir® XLite™ NXT). I rented a light sleeping bag (shout out to Rab Rentals who provided a Neutrino 200 with silk liner and dry bag for four nights for around £30). We traded heavy self-inflating Thermarests for light blow-up mats. Those few things took us into the realms of lightweight. It was also good that we took the decision to approach it as a team. We split the tent weight, and Ryan took the food as my half of the tent was heavier. Everything else was then a decision about how little clothing/food to bring. Ryan’s bag ended up heavier than Chris’ but still didn’t break the 10% rule as Ryan is (sorry) heavier than Chris.
TRAINING
We didn’t do much. All of us have a good base of physical fitness and we weren’t going to become hardened to mountain life overnight. Once the summer holidays were over we had about two months to get ready. We did a few outings to the moors to practice basic orienteering (can we plan a route with an OS map then take, and follow, a bearing). Chris started walking around Hipperholme in the evenings with his full trad-rack on this back (a good look for suburbia). Chris also added the OMM bag to his usual 5&10k runs. Chris and Ryan did a few trail runs.
Chris also helpfully had a baby (to be fair his wife did most of the work) which gained weight at the perfect rate to be as heavy as the bag by the time of the event.
Running with weight was a revelation. It took time for the body to adapt gait, tempo, speed etc but after that the benefits paid-off, even shaving significant time from non-laden runs. We started with a couple of kilos and built it up over a few weeks. Getting off-path was also a revelation. Even trail racing still involves a path. Bushwhacking through knee high tussocks, wading through bogs and scrambling around can only be trained by long days walking in the hills. It really builds joint stability and again paid-off in other activities. We learned that it took us an hour to do a kilometre on the worst terrain but we could move at around 7k/hr on any sort of firm ground.
NIGHT BEFORE
Both Ryan and Chris were working the day before the event and clocked off early so Ryan could collect Chris at 3pm. Traffic along the M62 on a Friday evening was awful so we didn’t arrive until 7pm. We drove into the little village of Bathesda and hit the queue for the cricket club where registration was based. We thought it would take ages but it turned out that the car park only held about 10 cars so they were having people queue on the roadside and processing people in batches. We parked up and went in to register. Ryan had the “dibber” attached to him and Chris had the GPS tracker attached to his bag. We then got back in the car and drove through the village to the event centre at a farm.
Food stopped being served at 9pm so we made the brave decision to fill up on pasta and beer before erecting the tent. We met Stuart and Robin who had driven down a few hours earlier and were staying in Stuart’s camper van.
It has to be said that even after a meal and a beer they were both looking a little more subdued and nervous than usual. We all soon lightened up though.
We’d decided we’d take a whole separate set of gear for the night before to avoid two nights of discomfort and save having to pack race bags in the morning. A few weeks before the event while practicing pitching the tiny tent, we pitched Chris’ old World Challenge 2-person tent and Stuart’s old Vango 2-person tent to compare sizes. Stuart’s was massive so we decided to take that.
Night before kit list:
The atmosphere at OMM is fantastic. It’s like Glastonbury. There’s a real community vibe and everyone is nice and friendly. The event centre was at a farm in Bathesda. Even though there were over a thousand competitors it was quite a small affair. I think a lot of people stay in B&Bs locally or arrive on the day. Parking was in a field between the event marquee and the camping field. There was a large bank of portaloos and stand-pipes (I don’t know what I was expecting but this was the best surprise – could have saved a few grams not bringing toilet roll). The marquee was heated and had tons of tables and chairs so we didn’t have to sit in a cold small tent. It also had a bar, sold food and had a small OMM shop selling discounted gear. We all bought the obligatory event t-shirt. We chatted to other competitors, ate, drank and went to bed (relatively) early.
DAY 1
Chris slept really well. Maybe something to do with the absence of four children or the two chicken and chorizo pasta meals from the night before. Ryan didn’t sleep much. Probably too giddy and excited. At around 7am the buzz started. Chris got up and went to beat the poo-queues while Ryan got into his running gear. Then we swapped. The tent was big enough for two people to sleep but not really for getting changed and packing. One of the benefits of having the car so close was that we were able to take the tent down and throw it into a big Lidl bag then straight into the boot along with the rest of the non-race gear. We then met Stuart and Robin in the event marquee to have breakfast and sort gear. Ryan hadn’t had time to get half the tent to Chris and Chris hadn’t got the food to Ryan so a bit of sorting out was required. Tea/coffee was served in OMM pint glasses – perfect. These were enjoyed along with the obligatory bacon and sausage sandwich.
Ryan had brought some suitcase scales so much joy was had comparing bag weights. Stuart 12kg, Robin 11kg, Ryan 8kg, Chris 7kg (after all filling our water bottles). We had a 10am start time and it was supposedly a 20 min walk to the start so we set off at 9.30am.
The walk up to the start was dry and it was a lovely clear morning. The atmosphere was lively and people were buzzing with energy. We followed the crowd and made it to the Start. We had read it was important to keep to time but as it turned out they were happy for people to set-off as and when they arrived. Ryan and Chris dibbed first, Stuart and Robin followed. Ryan and Chris moved about 50m away from the start then laid the map on the floor to plan the route. We’d both pre-marked some string with the 20 km intervals we thought we’d be able to cover. We looked at where the mid camp was and planned the best route there. We thought we could pick up a bunch of points on the way up to the summit of the second highest mountain in Wales - Carnedd Llewelyn, cover most of the distance to mid-camp on the ridgeline, then drop down to pick up a bunch of points at the end.
We quickly collected a 10pt on the farm track headed out then, as illustrated in the picture below we had the option of heading up a gradual incline to a 30pt (yellow line), or continuing along the track to a 20pt followed by a massive uphill slog to the 30pt (green line). Much to Chris’ delight we chose the latter (Stuart and Robin chose the former).
An hour or so later Ryan was running out of swear words. However his navigational skills never left us. As we hit the clag Ryan contoured us round and we caught up with a bunch of teams all searching for a “pond”. After a short while we grabbed the 30pt and made for the ridgeline.
On the way up we identified a 40pt control a short distance from the track. It was at the meeting of two streams and had a good attack point so a detour was planned. We left the path and started running downhill. Unfortunately Chris took a fall on the uneven surface, twisting his right ankle, left knee and the thumb on his left hand. This necessitated walking for the next 30mins. However we hit the 40pt, and collected our thoughts. There was a 30pt on the same contour line just along the stream. However we were about half way through our time limit and only a third of the distance to mid-camp. So we refilled our water bottles and retraced our steps to the summit path and the fast-lane to mid-camp.
We were on cloud 9 at this point. We’d read that first-timers should aim for about 100 points a day and we were already over that. As long as we made it to the camp on time we’d be happy. We started picking our way through the scree and had the occasional trot when the path was good enough.
This is where we made our only navigational error of the day. We had meant to travel around 5k along the ridgeline then drop into camp. After a while we saw lots of teams running off the ridge and made the fatal error of making the map fit what we were seeing instead of trusting our nav. We dropped off the ridge and found the next control – at a pond instead of the crag foot we’d been expecting. A quick check of the map confirmed that we’d got 30pt instead of the 40pt we were aiming for and were about 2k further away from the finish than we thought. We were on the green line below instead of the yellow line.
We accepted our fate and started the long slow slog down rough terrain. Chris isn’t as good at Ryan descending steep terrain so Ryan really came into his own. He picked up a 30pt by running ahead 100m and was back by the time Chris had caught up (we stayed within earshot of each other as per the rules). We had a bit of trouble finding the crossing point of an uncrossable boundary so abandoned the 20pt we were hunting for and made it off the hills, picking up a consolation 10pt in a sheepfold on the way. We got our last 30pt for the day at the side of a lake. The mid camp was on the other side. Chris can’t swim so we had to join the traffic jam of people making their way along the path. We had less than half an hour left so this was incredibly frustrating. By the time we hit the road to the camp we only had 5 minutes left and a sprint finish was in order.
As is usually the case when tired people are walking and are passed by a runner, they find a bit more energy and start jogging. We therefore picked up a little crowd as we ran the road back into camp. It’s probably fair to say that Chris had more left in the tank than Ryan and was pushing the pace as much as possible. At one point Ryan’s now standard mantra of “I hate you Chris” was joined by complete strangers shouting “I hate you too Chris”. Even the marshals got involved by shouting “I don’t know him either but he sounds like a t***.” This was obviously in jest as the OMM team were amazing throughout the event. We crossed the line 5 mins and 3 sec late for a 12 point deduction. 220pt for the day and 64th place.
We had shared two Chia Charge bars and a pack of jelly babies throughout the day. Chris drank 1L, Ryan drank 2L. We never felt hungry or low on energy.
We were greeted on the finish line by Robin and Stuart who had (as promised) walked from the start to the mid-camp, picking up 90 points on the way but arriving with nearly half the time to spare (technically they were in first place at that point which greatly confused dot-watchers at home). After taking a similar route to us at the start they had kept to the low ground rather than ridgeline. If they’d wanted to they could have easily hoovered up another 60-90pt near the camp but they couldn’t be bothered haha. Stuart did manage to take this amazing picture of the mid-camp as they were approaching.
As they were moving at a more sedate pace they were also responsible for most of the pictures featured in this report.
OVERNIGHT
We were led to their tent and pitched ours. We also unveiled the flag Chris had made which used two connected walking poles and the guy rope from the door of the tent. This proved really useful to locate our green tents in a field full of exactly the same green tents.
We changed into our spare clothes and put plastic bags over our dry socks to put wet trainers back on, then walked a few laps round the site to get warm.
A highlight of the weekend was Ryan standing next to Jasmine Paris - an ultra-running celebrity who famously set a record in the Spine race in 2019 while expressing milk for her baby! Ryan regrets not saying hello.
We filled our water bladder and shared the Beef and Potato Stew (really nice and warming). We used Ryan’s Mightimug for boiling the water. He ate from the packet after pouring half into Chris’ Mightimug. Ryan made the genius discovery that once you had added hot water and sealed the packet for the required 10 minutes while the food rehydrated it became a hot water bottle. He put it inside his jacket like a baby and was soon toasty warm.
After a chat with a few more teams we boiled more water so Ryan could have a sachet of Starbucks Caramel Latte and Chris could have a Twix-flavoured protein recovery hot chocolate. Then we boiled some more water and shared the Pasta Bolognese (even better than the Stew). We didn’t end up eating the Chicken Tikka as Ryan uses Tailwind in his drinks throughout the day which gives a few hundred calories so he wasn’t hungry. Chris isn’t a fan of tailwind so in hindsight he should have brought a smaller Chicken Tikka for himself or eaten a Chia Charge bar. Having the portaloos at camp was again a big bonus. For one it was a sheltered space that you could stand/sit up in when not in the tent. Again in hindsight we should have drank much more tea/coffee/water and took advantage of the facilities.
It started raining around 7pm so we got into our tents. Having not spent any time together in the tent previously it was tricky to get used to. We could just about both sit in the entrance but we couldn’t really move or get things in or out of our bags. If we wanted to cook, change, sort blisters or sort gear then one person would need to get out. Also, if you’re wet and get in then everything ends up wet. In hindsight we probably needed a better towelling system or to accept that everything would be wet. We ended up getting into our bags and calling it a night at 8pm. Once in our bags the tent wasn’t too bad. We both fit in head-to-toe and could even turn over as long as we stayed on an axis. Ryan slept well with his earbuds, audiobook and noise cancelling function. The wind and rain was crazy overnight but the tent stayed up and dry inside. Chris had forgotten his earbuds so didn’t sleep.
DAY 2
The bagpipes started at 6am (which was actually 7am as the clocks had changed). Ryan and Chris got up to beat the poo queues again and were drinking luxury barista coffee by 7am. Again other competitors were swearing at Chris as he emptied coffee grinds while they looked on jealously. We boiled some water and enjoyed our porridge. I can highly recommend the Expedition Foods meals as they are massively calorie heavy and quite light to carry. The porridge with raspberries tasted like rice pudding with jam (although that could have been the lack of sleep). We stripped down to our racing clothes, added some preventative KT tape to a blister forming on Chris’ big toe then packed up the gear.
We had a 9am slot but it turned out most people just got up and left as soon as they could. By the time we were ready we were one of the last teams to leave the site.
We dibbed the start and were handed our map. Again we were presented with a decision of points near the start or points at the end. As it had taken Stuart and Robin three and a half hours to walk from the event centre and we now only had four hours to get back Chris was a bit worried. There were two controls very near the start so we agreed to collect these then make a beeline for the finish. We headed out but realised Ryan hadn’t taken his plastic bags out of his shoes and Chris hadn’t added an electrolyte tablet to his flask. Great start! Once we’d addressed these issues we started the climb up the hill. It was very slippery and steep and took a while to hit the first 20pt. We then met another team who exclaimed that the climbing looked too dangerous for a direct approach on the next 40pt control. They headed for a crossing on the top with the intention of dropping down to it. This was music to the ears of the trad dad pair who set off up the near vertical grassy chimney on the direct route. Although height markings are removed from the maps we could see that the control was 75m above us as it was one thick grey contour line. We used the altimeter to contour round and hit the control exactly where we thought it would be. An altimeter is permitted by the rules however GPS is not. It was hidden by a ledge so would have been really had to find from above. Correct choice was made. However we now had to get down. Luckily it was mostly grass so were able to perform an epic bumslide off a mountain!
60 pt in the first 45 mins was right on track so we ran across the flat to the next big hill. As we looked back we could see teams still searching around the top of the peak.
Again Chris led the pace up and over the near vertical peak, collecting 40pt in a sheepfold on the way. The picture from the summit showed the distance we had covered in the first hour and a half.
Once we summited we could see another sheepfold in the distance so made a beeline directly for that (30pt). Ryan took a bearing and headed straight to the next 30pt. This is where we made the biggest error of the weekend. We were over half the time but less than half the distance. As per the picture below we should have straight-lined it back and collected some controls at the end (yellow line). However as we were moving well we decided to detour and collect a few more. It was on a good path however we were stopped by a “helpful” dog walker who told us the finish was in the other direction and had lots of questions about the OMM. We collected our 20pt and crossed the stream to start back. However we could not for the life of us find the next control. We had one hour left but joined four other teams searching for a sheep shelter among a ton of scree and sheepfolds. We never found it which cost us time and meant we had no precise location to take a bearing for the finish. We had to suck it up and march it out through some awful bogs and tussocks (including a thigh-high water fording) to the finish (green line).
We missed out of the big juicy controls at the end and finished half an hour late for a massive 56 point penalty. Only 94pt, putting us in 137th place for the day and dropping us to 96th place overall.
We had shared two Chia Charge bars and a pack of jelly babies throughout the day. Chris drank 1L, Ryan drank 2L. We never felt hungry or low on energy.
To add to this we were greeted by a very worried looking Stuart and Robin. As we were 30 mins late they had looked for us on the live map and found no trace. We were down as DNS (did not start). It turned out that our GPS tracker had died overnight. Our family and friends had been following our progress on GPS. At the end of Day 1 they noticed that our module was showing as 33% battery whereas Robin and Stuarts (and any others they clicked on) were all showing in the 90’s%. On the morning of Day 2 we were not visible at all. Lack of phone signal at mid-camp prevented us from being alerted to this. We were unaware of the failure until after the event so would have pressed the button on the module in an emergency situation, which would obviously not have alerted anyone. After the event I asked OMM to look into this safety failure. If the module was faulty I wouldn’t want it to be used for another event, and I suggested a review of protocols which allowed a team to leave camp with a dead device.
Response from OMM:
As it turned out Stuart and Robin had had a belter of a day! They had ignored the climbing at the start and made a straight line out of camp. They went up and over the peak with the 40pt sheepfold and then headed to the visible 30pt sheepfold exactly the same as Ryan and Chris would do.
However they then made the wise decision to follow the yellow route above and hoovered up a massive 240pt putting them in 82nd for the day and raising them to 93rd overall.
Final results: Tortoises 93rd, Hares 96th. It turns out there is no point running and everyone should just walk!
See you in the Scottish Southern Highlands for the 55th OMM in 2024.
NB: When asked if he had anything to add to the race report Ryan would like to state “all you need to say is that we were f*cking awesome, we did miles more distance than those useless walkers and we are the real winners!”
