Mountain Marathon II - The Revenge
At the end of October last year, I took part in the Original Mountain Marathon that took place in Galloway Forest Park, Dumfrieshire. The lengthy story of that weekend is still to be told but the short version is this:
We got lost and didn’t finish.
While the experience was useful and it was quite an adventure, it doesn’t detract from the fact that we failed. Then again, so did Ranulph Fiennes although to be fair, he made it to the second day and was taking part in the Elite class but still, he didn’t finish it either.
My running mate, Dan, and I have finally decided that we’re going to have a crack at the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon (LAMM) which is also going to be in Scotland, although we won’t know the exact location until we turn up. I say finally but we actually decided to do it a couple of months ago. The event itself takes place in 4 weeks. That’s 28 days. In fact, this time in 28 days we’ll hopefully be finished and hopefully have managed to complete the whole course this time. The fact that it’s in June and the days are longer and hopefully drier and hopefully warmer should also help. Hopefully I’ll be back to a level of fitness that will see me over the two days.
Obviously I’m hoping for quite a lot.
I don’t feel particularly ready for the event at the moment. My fitness level isn’t that bad - I got my fastest time ever for a particular race a couple of weeks ago which I wasn’t expecting so that’s been quite encouraging. However, I haven’t even looked at the kit list or thought about food and preparation. I could do with doing some long runs in preparation too.
I need to get my mind switched on or I’m going to fuck this one up too.
When you got lost, was it due to the dense clouds of midges that obscured your view, not just of landmarks, but of your map? Or were they less horrible by October? Galloway was a lovely place to live, but I stayed down in the south. I would never go up into the forests, nor anywhere near Glen Trool, on any but the sunniest, windiest summer day.
Good luck with the LAMM thing. I take it from the name that it’s likely to be somewhere in the central-northern massif, ie the Cairngorm plateau?
Comment by Endie — May 14, 2007 @ 9:02 am
Dense cloud, yes. Midges, no - past the season for them fortunately. All I know about the location of the LAMM is that it’s a 2 hour drive from Glasgow & Edinburgh and 2.75 hour drive from Aberdeen. Don’t know what the midge situation is in June - will be appropriately prepared when I investigate.
Comment by Dragon — May 14, 2007 @ 10:26 am
Odd, I posted a reply yesterday, it didn’t show up but trying to repost says I’ve already posted it!
Anyway, you can triangluate from those three directions to Aberfeldy or Pitlochry. Presumably the latter is closer, since it’s about ten miles south of the beginning of the Cairngorm plateau. Not so much midges as black flies, there, except near standing water. But a spot of rain then a warm day means a molt, during which running with your mouth open is horrible… :0***
Comment by Endie — May 16, 2007 @ 8:53 am
Don’t know why your reply yesterday didn’t show - doesn’t appear in my control panel.
Thanks for the tips as to location. Will have to start studying maps in hope that I can get to know the lay of the land. Must remember to pack lots of jungle spray.
Comment by Dragon — May 16, 2007 @ 9:16 am
I think your blog doesn’t like google map links. This post below, failed too: I’ll try it without the link then add the link in on the next post if it’ll take it.
—-
Here’s my bet, centre-picture, with Pitlochry marked for reference:
[link removed]
South-west of Loch Tay and south beyond Aberfeldy can be discounted. I’ve walked the area plenty of times since it’s easy to reach from Edinburgh and it’s lovely and all, but the idea of Ben Chonzie (about 3050 feet and Scotland’s most boring Munro)as “Alpine” is pretty lolocopter. The bits in the middle of that pic covered in snow should be a clue, though.
I suppose the full Google Earth or MS Virtual Earth must be pretty useful to people who already know their routes, come to think of it: the ability to see the hills in 3d relief must help folks who have touble visualising landscapes based on contour lines.
Do you know about Avon Skin So Soft, btw? You go into a branch of Tiso’s in Scotland and it’ll be right on the counter at this time of year. It’s a great insect repellant.
Comment by Endie — May 16, 2007 @ 10:27 am
And the linkm mangled to hide its nature from your apparently rather over-vigilant software:
maps[dot]google[dot]co[dot]uk/maps?
f=q&hl=en&q=pitlochry&sll=53.098145,-2.443696&sspn=8.952939,19.204102&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&ll=56.928491,-3.768311&spn=0.508085,1.200256&z=10&iwloc=addr
Comment by Endie — May 16, 2007 @ 10:28 am