On Friday the 25th October, we set off from Taunton at 1pm excited to travel up to Glen Artney in the Southern Highlands. Unfortunately, there was a lorry fire on the M5 which meant that we spent the first 3 hours getting to Bridgwater. Further delays meant that we eventually arrived at 1:30am.
We awoke at 8, sorted our kit out and headed for the start. Damien and Robin were on the elite course which was 43km on day 1 with 2,800m elevation. Hazel and I were on the B course which was 21km with 1,300m elevation. The weather was mild enough for shorts but the winds and brief showers on the tops of the mountains forced us to switch between fleece, coat and t-shirt a few times. The most memorable event of the day was watching Hazel trip on a tuft of grass and fall flat on the floor into a bog! We completed the day in 5hr35 before the 3hr rain storm. Damien and Robin were not so lucky. They were out for 8hr42 and had the joy of setting up their tent in the cold, dark rain.
After a freezing night’s sleep, we were woken by bagpipes at 6am. Damien and Robin had another 38km to do with 2,200m elevation. Meanwhile, Hazel and I had a mere 18km with 900m elevation. Damien described his experience of the day “Crawling up boggy hills, falling into bogs, wading through flat bogs, sliding down bogs, drinking bog water.” - sounds like he had fun! We had another great day traversing the peat hags and snacking on Oaties biscuits. We finished in 5h31 placing us 61st / 129 overall on the B Course. Damien and Robin finished day 2 in 8hr21, only 4 minutes before the cut off time. They came 16th / 34 overall on the Elite Course.
After two poor night’s sleep and two full days of exercise, we were all very happy to have finished. We quickly enjoyed our post race wraps before heading out for our 8hr journey home. Of course we got back at 1am for our third short night in a row. Although we spent more time in the van than on the OMM course, it was definitely worth the trip!
