Training Log Archive: OJ

OMM, Brecon Beacons with Ben Abdelnoor. Well we got round, but it wasn't quite what either of us were expecting.

Day 1 started badly with a minor navigation error to 1, but nothing serious. Then we got on with the long leg (20km+) over the whole map. I chose what looked like a realistic route to the S (unbeknownst to us there was a better route to the N on an unmapped(!) long distance footpath that a few teams knew about, but that's by-the-by as the winning team came our way too). Not far into this Ben hit the start of a low point that lasted for the rest of the weekend. We shovelled the food and he rallied but he was clearly grinding it out, when I would normally expect him to be giving me a hard time. Things got more interesting when Nick and Gustav caught us up and we ran with them to the finish - this was good fun and the only time we ran with another team all weekend. A disappointing day but I was relieved that my back and shin behaved and that I didn't get hypothermia. Ben was relieved to have kept moving. And after a warm dry night (I think we may have carried too much kit) we were well up for a chase.

Day 2's shortened course started worse with a chasing start cock-up. We arrived at the start in good time but had the wrong start time in our heads. When the start officials noticed us and called us through late they then got confused and kept us on the line for 3 minutes, before working it out and telling us 'oh, you should have started ages ago!' 6 minutes binned and instead of a 2 minute deficit to the team in front we were 8 minutes behind. I just could not work out why everyone was out of sight even though we had gone out hard. But in the end, Ben's low continued, I made a bit of a navigation mistake and we didn't see a team all day - a shame as I think a pack race was just what we needed. Until the run-in that is, where we Ben spotted Tom and Hugh up ahead - we reeled them in and sprinted past to the line. Cowardly tactics, but we had to get something out of the day.

So a catalogue of mishaps, but anyway, we finished. Although day 2 was laughably short for an OMM elite course - even the full version would have been less than 4.5hrs for the winners. I'm glad that didn't stop Nick and Gustav winning - they deserved it, Nick in particular after trying for such a long time. It was good to run with Ben and I would certainly do it with him again, although he says he has added this to his list of races never to repeat. Let's see.

C • There's always next year... 3

OMM day 1.

IW. BHP.

Rudimentary run to work.

HFW, starting to feel a bit perkier?

IW, fairly battered still and back stiff.

HFW, BHP, better.

Almost trained. But came to the conclusion that all I want to get out of this week is to get to the OMM startline healthy and rested.