“Flood-hit peaks ‘could have become morgues’” – a headline from The Metro earlier this week following the amazing conditions for the Original Mountain Marathon (OMM formally the KIMM). Notice the headline “could have become” – no they were not morgues. In fact once the stupid panic on saturday night – well panic in the media, I’m sure it wasn’t by competitors and organisers – was over and the dust settled it turned out that the vast majority of the competitors made it back safely. They did what was expected and what is the major safety aspect of these races and just hunkered down with their partner either in their tents or at some other shelter. The final numbers being rescued and treated was probably not much different from what would be expected of an event that size. Now people that don’t understand whats involved are requiring all this legal crap. Nanny state biting again. Of course, a headline “Runners show skills and guts in surviving Flood Hit peaks” would just not satisfy the media. Much prefer the negative what could have been rather than the positive of what actually happened. Next we’ll be getting headlines like “Could Have Been a Mass Pileup on the M1” … then the content of the story states no accidents on the M1 but there could have been had not all the drivers been so careful !

Jo and I were this close (imagine thumb and forefinger very close together) to entering the race OMM this year. I’ve done it before just after Hawaii (back in 2005) and my partner then, Matt, had one of his most fun races largely because I was pretty tired so he got to do all the navigation. Jo and I decided it would be sensible not to enter so I could recover … Must admit I’m rather gutted we didn’t do it – those conditions would have been quite an experience.

The photo above is of John and I about to start the second day of the Saunders Mountain Marathon in the Kirkfell Class. We were in 2nd place and managed to maintain that position. The first day was spent in cloud and allowed all the competitors to demonstrate their navigational skills.

That was abit of sidetrack from the topic of this blog – my training. Well since returning from Hawaii my training has been pretty adhoc. Very little running, a couple of rides and some swim sessions. I’m flying in the pool. On Monday morning the main set was 8 x 400m – my times were 5:22, 5:20, 5:17, 5:14, 5:17, 5:29, 5:22, 5:24. Considering at the start of the year my 400m TT was 5:19 I’m pretty pleased with where I’m at. The aim is to maintain this for the next few weeks and then build on it. The rest of my time has been spent sorting out my flat. It’s been incredibly therapeutic sorting things out – putting stuff on eBay, taking to the charity shop and using Freecycle.org. The latter was a revelation – a awesome way to recycle things you don’t need. Amazing how many people come up with great uses for things like old climbing ropes !