Glad to hear that you, like 99% of competitors had an enjoyable, safe and certainly memorable time.

To give a little more in-sight ‘from the horses mouth’ as it were, I was out with Penrith MRT, ‘assisting’ Keswick along with Cockermouth. I think Wasdale MRT were out as well, but doing their own thing. In reality, all we did was drive about occasionally chatting to very soggy but usually smiling competitors!

As you say, the OMM organisers had their bit covered, and Keswick had the MR side of things covered. They were certainly busy, but it was manageable and multiple casualty scenarios is something all teams train for.

Unfortunately, and I still don’t know quite how yet, plod got involved, hit the major incident button and it all unravelled from there…

http://www.grough.co.uk/view/2008/10/26/all-back-safe-as-media-storm-follows-omm-weekend/

We run the flat and downhill stuff, and the uphill if it isn’t too steep.

As far as I know, nobody actually slept out on the fells on saturday night. Many people were in a barn at the mid-camp. Others were at a School in Cockermouth, the Glaramara Centre, and Honister Slate Mine. There were lots like us who were back at the event centre.

It appears 17 people needed assistance off the hill, of whom seven, including two Mountain Rescue Team members were helicoptered off a small island in the middle of a river after becoming trapped there, but only one was injured. The real story should be: “2500 experienced mountain runners went up the fells in horrendous conditions and 2483 of them returned without incident”

Anyway, I’m still glad you were both safe.

I couldn’t really tell from your photos, but the news footage only seemed to show people walking. Is that because of the weather, because they were knackered, or is it really just a walk?!?!?!

To add to the report:

I don’t think either of us did anything unnecessarily dangerous at any point in the race. Yes, it rained incredibly hard, but we were well equipped for that and I don’t think we were at risk of hypothermia at any time. Yes, the wind was strong enough to blow you over, but only in gusts, and you could simply wait until it was safe to move. Yes, we crossed some fast flowing water, but again it was well within our capabilities.

I also don’t think the organisers did much wrong. It appears the race was cancelled only because the mid-camp was flooding and there would be nowhere for everyone to camp. It wasn’t cancelled because of the conditions. I think they probably should have had signs and/or tape up on the road to Seathwaite to prevent people parking on the road where cars got flooded. They also should have recorded the fact that we’d been to the mid-camp before we walked back over Honister pass to the event centre. Apparently the forecast was for less rain on Saturday than there had been on Thursday when the mid-camp flooded, so I don’t think they can be blamed for expecting the mid-camp would be OK.

I think most competitors will be back next year, and will be hoping that the rather sensationalist news reporting doesn’t jeopardise future events.

For the record, the Mountain Rescue didn’t advise the organisers to cancel either!

Sounds like the media reporting was a bit over dramatic? Especially the bit about the 1500 stranded runners who weren’t!
I bet the BBC had about 1500 reporters there too – all at license payers expense!

It looks like a right good adventure!