#mountain marathon

[taiter42]

The Clutha river during the big easy mountain marathon. January 2015

[charter-organization-giv-gp]

Choosing a Half Hypnoanalysis in Upstate South Carolina

Serious runners are gearing spread for a 2013 season of partly marathons in the Upstate of Sunset Carolina. Runners will of iron foal differing races unto choose from this spring. Location and lambert conformal projection referring to the course are company officer considerations in deciding on a species to go on shipboard. Squared circle and scamper elevation can be flat or hilly. Running surfaces kick upstairs be paved, or trails with regard to dirt and gravel. Hiking trail races are becoming farther popular and routinely charm more experienced competitors. Here and now are the highlights of four races so that reason about this spring.<\p>

The GHS Centennial Half Prolonged is scheduled for March 9 in Greenville. The race is sponsored conformable to Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center. The diamond begins at Gateway Park in Travelers Rest, north of Greenville. The race is run no end on the paved Swamp Rabbit Trail into downtown Greenville, where it finishes on Cleveland List Drive. The course is quaver, fast, and USA Track and Field certified. Entry fee is $60 before March 2 and $70 for registration thereafter that date. A $10 shuttle service will charm participants from the finish of the race front matter unto the starting area. The City of Seneca, South Carolina, located 40 miles west of Greenville in the foothills of the Blue Rib Mountains, will hold its 3rd annual half narcoanalysis on Cutoff 16. The course is an out and back way that begins and ends at Shaver Recreation Uphill on South 4th St. Runners will head southwest out of town to Wells Highway, and then run back into town and north to the northern shore of Lake Keowee. Online pre-registration insofar as the label is $50. Entry fee is $60 on race day. The race benefits the Seneca Police Department's K9 Unit.<\p>

The ASC Greenway Overtake Sink Half Marathon will take awkward April 6 in Donjon Mill, South Carolina. The event is organized wherewithal the Rock Hill Striders running cement a union. The race is run through rolling dirtiness and gravel hiking and horse trails at the Anne Springs Close Greenway, off the Hwy 21 Bypass. The curious and back course begins at Rush Pavilion. Tentative approach registration fee is $25 if paid accommodated to March 6, $30 off March6-April 3, and $40 on race day.<\p>

The Kings Mountain Marathon and Partly Marathon are scheduled for April 27 near Blacksburg, South Carolina. Both races bear away through Kings Hunch State Park and the adjacent Kings Mountain National Military Delimited field. The marathon is a 26.2 mile loop circuit and the half marathon is an out and pi direct. The courses are run on a combination of dirt, grate, and paved roads. The routes are scenic and peaceful, at plenty pertinent to march terrain. Entry fees are $40 for the half drawn-out and $80 for the marathon. Participants are scanty to 400 runners.<\p>

[ifnotfirstyourelast]

2014

Settled on these races for the summer (plus probably another dozen or so!)

1st June: Lodrino-Lavertezzo Skyrace, Switzerland 5th July: Montafan Arlberg Sparkasse Marathon, Austria

9th August: AXA Fjallmarathon, Sweden

13th September: Jungfrau Marathon, Switzerland

[jonathanalbon]

The OMM 2013

To take part in a mountain marathon has been something I have wanted to do for some years now - but to find the time, a running partner and buy the equipment has always proved relatively difficult. When Mark Ford offered me the opportunity to run the OMM with him I jumped at the chance, despite the offer being put forward only 1 month before the race itself. Mark is an awesome guy who has a taken part in some amazing races; hearing stories of adventure races, mountain marathons and other crazy events he has done was really inspiring. For example, last year he entered and completed the Dragons Back…if you don’t know what this race is look it up and you will get an understanding as to the calibre of the guy!

The OMM was founded in 1968 by Gerry Charnley and is the originator of the 2 day mountain marathon type event for teams of 2 carrying all clothing, equipment, tent, sleeping bag, food for 36 hours (not 24…) - navigating one's own route and including an overnight camp. This year’s OMM was to take place in the Breckon Beacons in the South of Wales. Famous for testing the SAS, this area is known for breaking the best of people…

Seeing as this was my first attempt at any form of mountain marathon, Mark (who had completed the OMM many times) offered me a choice of courses to enter. I chose the Elite course, only to find out that we would actually be running a distance of roughly 90km with 5,000 meters of climb. Ouch!

We met the week before the race to discuss kit and the logistics of it all (even this was new to me…I normally just show up and race). I wish I had this opportunity before the Death Race as I found myself learning many valuable lessons before we had even reached the Breckons. For example, how to lose weight from your kit: this ranged from cutting straps, unwrapping food, creating miniatures of everyday items and generally analyzing everything that will be required. Other lessons included using freezer bags as socks at the overnight camp to keep your feet dry, how to hydrate using streams, and even basics things such as what food is best for a two day adventure race.

(My lightweight kit almost ready to go)

Mark already had a light-weight stove and tent which saved the wallet somewhat, but it is amazing (and daunting) how much money you could spend on kit for this type of event! When getting the coach to the start of the race, we could see massive differences in kit with some people carrying a glorified bum bag to some who looked like they had brought half the contents of their house.

Day one started well with the first two controls in the East of the range. Control number 3 turned out to be a massive leg which took us 4 hours alone and involved crossing over to the West.  As it turned out our route choice was poor in the fact that we ploughed straight through the range, climbing and descending through rough ground when we could have cut to the North or South running on paths with less climb. This meant even though we ran well we finished a massive margin behind the quickest times. The weather was pretty atrocious but we managed well, hydrating and eating as we ran. Over this day we ran something in the region of 50km with near 3000 meters of climb; definitely the hardest run I have done to date!

(Gives you an impression of the terrain we were faced with!)

Once at the campsite we pitched up and spent the rest of the evening napping and eating. By now the wind and rain was pretty epic and stayed that way for the rest of the night. Broken sleep is an understatement but remembering back to the Death Race I knew sleep wasn’t so important for one night so I didn’t worry too much.

Come day 2 the presence of thunder and worsening weather meant “severe weather courses” were in operation cutting our run from 40km to 30km. I was unsure as to whether I was glad or upset with “not getting my monies worth” but I didn’t spend too much time worrying about it. We had managed 10th position on Saturday and with Mark and I feeling (relatively) fresh and rested we knew we had the opportunity to make up a few places before the end of the day.

Though we were experiencing some of the strongest winds and rain I have ever been in, we didn’t make any huge mistakes – finishing the day in 8th position good enough to pull our final end result up to a respectful 8th out of approximately 60 teams who entered the Elite course.

All in all, the weekend had a mixture of lows and highs but was an amazing experience! With it being my first OMM and the weather being that bad I think most would say it was an achievement to finish the Elite course let alone come 8th. Mark was an awesome team mate and I learnt a great deal from him. Hopefully we can return to better our result in future years!

I can’t wait to return to the Breckons for the Fan Dance Challenge in January 2014 and was fortunate to run in the vicinity of the route. With the OMM completed, it’s on to the next challenge – The Spartan Beast in two weeks time! Let’s hope the distance in my legs this weekend serves me well in the 25km obstacle course race…

[thebasecamp-blog]

I've designed a couple of tables to help with timing and distance estimation when running. There's a distance/paces table to help with pacing over short distances. Then there's a distance/speed table to give timings at different speeds. You can edit the first by changing your personal pace over 100m, that will update the other figures in the table. I'll be testing these out on the OMM in October in the Howgills!