Training Log Archive: Thraws

Given the damp state of the kit, and the weather outside the tent and the condensation in, we pass a surprisingly good and warm night. Amazingly, the sleeping bags, which are soaking on the outside, are dry and warm, and I manage quite a few hours sleep. Breakfast porridge and tea are savoured, and we are ready for our second timed start. Bad weather courses, which are supposed to be an hour shorter, are in play. In practice this means no score element, which is a shame because that was the best part of day 1, the linear bits being a bit of a procession sometimes. Almost inevitably the start is straight uphill, but it gets rid of the aches and pains. I miss the path to 1 and under-estimate the distance, but the crowds are reassurance we finally have the right knoll. I take some of Jan's kit on the way to 2 but the weather worsens here and we are battered by stinging hail. 2 and 3 are OK, but the next leg is long and featureless and I can't make the contours fit. So we set a bearing and count the river crossings. It gets windier and colder but we find a stream to take us over the last hill almost alone as everyone else goes round again. The wind is ferocious by now but we finally turn east so we have it behind us for the highest part of the race over the Black Mountain. The walking on shorter grass is much better here, but the wind on Bannau Brycheiniog makes standing difficult! Eventually we are off the hill to retrace the first part of yesterday's race back to the track through the forest, and photographs. It's over. The tent at the event centre has been partly flattened and tractors are towing cars out the parking field. We opt to forget the meal and just change shoes so we can get to the b&b in time for tea and cake. A weekend to remember, and no mistake. We end up 71 out of 175 entries, having been 83 out of 107 finishers on day 1. We are the third mixed vets team but second in the handicap.

After a soaking wet Hickstead Gallop and CompassSport Cup Final I thought we might get a dry OMM. Not a chance! It's pouring down in the morning as we go through final kit checks and leave for the 3k to the start. On the track to 1 we work out the best four from six score controls, but as we leave the forest and see the size of the first hill the scale of the challenge becomes apparent. And the rain gets heavier. Even so, we spike 1, then I start to navigate to BD instead of DT, and by the time I realise we decide to get BC instead. BD comes up OK, thank god, and we are through the score part of the course in 1 hour 25 mins. Good start. Is a sub-5 hour finish still on? Unfortunately leg 7 is over 11 km, and the only route crosses four hills and three rivers. The first two hills are all tussocks. I go over rather than round the third but the route off is tussocks. Jan is demoralised and the last stream crossing the last straw. But we are miles from help, so we decide to get through willy-nilly. We are a bit high and right for the flag but finally reach 7 in 4 hours 47. 8 is OK but 9 is another long horrible muddy mess and I badly need a stop for apricots and jelly beans. 10 and 11 look dryer and grassy, but are rocky and complex and the going here is possibly even slower thanks to the boulders. We reach mid-camp with the weather worsening and the light thickening, and it is a massive relief to get the tiny tent up, he wet things off and the stove - eventually - lit. It's been a dreadful day but we are smiling - just. Almost half the C course field has retired.

Four and a half hour drive to Trecastle in Brecon Beacons NP for the 2013 OMM. It is pitch dark, the car park is a mud bath, and the rain is falling as I look for somewhere dry-ish to put the tent up. But it rains all night and the ground becomes saturated, so in the morning I have to pack a damp sleeping bag for the next night's mid-camp. That should be fun!