OMM in Borrowdale!

[theNoor]

After reading all these reports I'm really disappointed with the organisers

If the mid-camp was flooded they should have told you all to find somewhere else to doss for the night and be back at the start next morning for day 2

It was only a lal bit of rain

From your icons it looks like your saying it tongue-in-cheek, but really, why not? Our team would have deffo been up for that. OK so everyone would have got differing night's sleep (I spent 14 hours, albeit warm and dry, sitting upright in the drivers seat of a mates car), but at least we'd get wor moneys worth!

[TheReverand]

interesting thoughts from everyone. Now I know the guy who runs the slate mine has been and will for ever more be vilivied by the fell running crowd for his comments on the weekends events, and people maybe right or wrong for doing this, but I just listened to the Jeremy Vine show clip, and I thought he made a valid point somewhere amongst everything he said (if indeed its true). Why if all the competitors were happy and prepared to be out in the wilds fending for themselves, was his establishment overrun with competitors seeking shelter and warmth? According to him hundreds of people were given somekind of shelter and help from him and his team, and it seems this must have been before the majority of these people knew the event had been called off, so these 'hundreds' of people must have felt in some kind of trouble out on the fells or they wouldn't have sought out salvage in the slate mine.
So just a thought from the other side of the fence, but for everyrunner who thought it was still ok to go ahead with the event and that they were competant and well enough equipped to 'get through it', it seems they must have been a large number who thought otherwise ?

I'm going to duck behind the couch now to escape the missiles being launched in my direction

[Deejay]

A good dose of sanity in The Times this morning
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com...cle5026162.ece

[Headless]

Why if all the competitors were happy and prepared to be out in the wilds fending for themselves, was his establishment overrun with competitors seeking shelter and warmth?
...
I'm going to duck behind the couch now to escape the missiles being launched in my direction

Come out from behind the sofa Reverand. It's a fair question and deserves an answer. How many of those people at his establishment needed assistance to get to his establishment? It's a requirement of the event that you judge your own ability against the prevailing conditions and in this case many decided that the conditions were more than they were happy with and got themselves safely off the hill. An obvious exit point would have been Honister Pass and if the cafe's open then who is going to turn down the opportunity of a bit of shelter and a cup ot tea before continuing down into the valley?

[Cloud Runner]

Sanity from the Times Eh!!
Thats more than can be said for a lot of the comments on this thread.
Think before you print (oh shit done it again!!)
Never mind I' got a bigger couch than the Reverend.
Hope the OMM survives this onslaught and you all get to run in the quiet autumn sunshine of October 2009.

[Epocian]

Good article in the Telegraph today by Tarquin Cooper on why we do MMs
- might enlighten a few folk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/327...-run-here.html

[Graham Breeze]

A Sense of Perspective

There is a cliche about today's newspapers wrapping tomorrow's fish 'n' chips and in the media the 2008 OMM is already fading into the distance.

Yes, the Daily Telegraph had a supportive editorial on Monday but it also allocated a full page spread over two halves of pages 2 and 3 under a "morgue" headline with lots of colour pictures.

But 24 hours later it is another day and how is that space allocated in today's newspaper?

Well six main stories including on page 3:

You cannot be serious-McEnroe was right all along.
Elephants learn to fear roads.
Solomon's mines found in Jordan.
Welcome to the Sistine Chapel of crystals.

All, dare I suggest, ephemeral, trivial stuff.

So all those who fear for the future of the OMM etc should take heart that the media circus has already moved on and the only people who will be talking about the OMM in a week, never mind a year, will be fell runners who think the OMM matters more in the real world than "A council held a £35,000 conference for more than 100 teachers.." which makes page 2 of today's Daily Telegraph.

Yes, there is a follow up "think piece" by Tarquin Cooper (who writes this kind of thing) but that is on page 21 under a much bigger article about a new £100 cookery book.

£100 Cookery book eh? Much more important!

[Baggins]

From your icons it looks like your saying it tongue-in-cheek, but really, why not? Our team would have deffo been up for that. OK so everyone would have got differing night's sleep (I spent 14 hours, albeit warm and dry, sitting upright in the drivers seat of a mates car), but at least we'd get wor moneys worth!

Only semi tongue-in-cheek.

When you're out camping on your own high up in similar conditions you have no option but to get on with it especially if its in the middle of winter rather than a mild wet day in October

The media really have no idea what we do and are trying to make a crysis out of nothing.

900 runners still "missing" on Sunday? I was running round the Ennerdale Horseshoe then.

T*****s (The press as if it needs clarification)

[Britta]

Does anyone have any good photographs from the weekend they could send me????
Email or pm please! Would need them this morning though...
Thank You,
Britta

[A.G]

Why if all the competitors were happy and prepared to be out in the wilds fending for themselves, was his establishment overrun with competitors seeking shelter and warmth?

I think given the race had been called off, of course people preferred to kip the night under a shelter, with lots of other runners, as apposed to by themselves in a tent. It doesn't mean they couldn't have done if needed though.