Wimborne Orienteers

OMM Lite Chilterns 16-17 July 2016

A couple of years ago, the fearsome OMM (Original Mountain Marathon) spawned two softer and cuddlier variants – the OMM Lite and the OMM Bike. Keith and I enjoyed the OMM Lite in the Peak District last year, due to the wonderful scenery, the need to only carry light daysacks, and a return to base at the end of day 1. This year there are no less than 3 OMM Lites, and it was hard to resist the summer one especially as it had come south in order to be staged in that little known range of mountains, the Chiltern Alps.

HQ was an outdoor activity centre near Goring Heath, and the competition map covered the Chiltern AONB to the S and W of the A4130 Twyford to Wallington road. The southern border was the mighty River Thames, from which the mountains rise to the dizzying heights of just over 200m above sea level. The landscape is somewhat less than rugged or craggy, but has lots of woods and fields, and is dotted about with many cottages in the £1M+ bracket. The intricate path network in that area suits the OMM Lite philosophy well, relatively easy navigation, and sticking solely to public rights of way and minor roads. Long (7 hours day 1 + 5 hours day 2) and Short (5h + 4h) Score options were available, and we had opted for the latter.

A good control selection plan is vital to success, and needs some fall-back options if things don’t quite work out as hoped. One of my jobs on these events is to continually calculate speeds and remaining distances, and to be the advocate of a cautious and conservative strategy. Keith has a counterbalancing role, requiring him to be highly optimistic and continually suggesting ways in which we can change plan to take in that tempting extra control that always seems to be close by. Despite years of practice in these methods, on day one we somehow got our roles muddled up and, as a consequence, when Keith started to tire there was only one 20 pointer and about 1.5km that could be cut out. Things got worse as we tried to traverse Abbots Wood on a major track that started in the right direction but then veered away from the line of the bridleway shown on the map. Soon we were finding other competitors looking baffled too. The only thing to do was to take a track that led out to a road, even though it was not getting us nearer the finish. By this time Keith was experiencing some serious suffering, judging by the groans and grunts behind me. I force-fed him an energy gel and somehow he rediscovered the ability to run for the last few hundred metres, enabling us to keep our time penalties to a relatively modest 8 minutes and 16 points.

For about an hour after finishing Keith did a realistic impression of a man in a coma. Life signs started to re-emerge with an impersonation of a half-asleep Stone Age man, and continued in a positive direction throughout the evening aided by cups of tea, sports massage, a pint of beer, and food from the on-site catering in the event marquee.

By Sunday morning we were ready to go again, and got started with a section of the Chiltern Way to a control overlooking the Thames and Mapledurham House. Inevitably, part way round we began to dream about a 30 pointer that would require 2km extra in addition to the conservative plan. Despite the first of those kilometres being in a direction opposite to the finish, we convinced ourselves it was a goer. Equally inevitably, we got the control with an hour left and realised we would have to seriously up our game to finish in time. Once again our ‘nice relaxing weekend that we weren’t going to take too seriously’ became a desperate race against the odds. Keith was hurting big time again, eyeballs out, and making more noises in his best Neandertalese. Approaching the finish, he realised with horror that the last steep hill up to Race HQ would be the same as yesterday, but fortunately I had been working on a cunning plan. Up we went, Keith in front and me behind with both rucksacks, pushing for all I was worth. It seemed to help and we were able to accelerate to a very respectable speed for the spectators lining the run-in. Time penalties reduced the benefit of the 30 pointer to just 6 but it was a gain, not a loss, however hard won.

Results were available in real time, and we were happy to find that we had finished just inside the top half of the field overall. Later on I happened to be standing near download/results when a lady came up to ask one of the officials what the criteria was for the veteran’s classification. I think she had been surprised how young the recipients of the vets prize looked. The official explained to her that vet means a team age of over 90, adding the two team members’ ages together. The lady then asked about older runners. The official scanned down his screen and said “Yes there are some. Why, look, here’s a team that are 126!” At this point I could not help but chip in with the fact that there was also a team I knew extremely well who were 135! Sadly, at our advanced age the Keith/John team has to fight on unequal terms with pairs who have hardly commenced middle age. In the OMM Lite, unlike the main OMM and the Saunders, there is no sliding scale for handicap purposes. We managed to come in as 6th Vets team despite that. But who cares anyway? We had a super time, the scenery and weather were great, and Keith demonstrated again that the best athletes are not just those that have great natural talent (although he has that in spades), but those who can perform mind over matter miracles too.

John Walmsley

Results are at http://www.sportident.co.uk/results/2016/OMMLite-Chilterns/ and https://www.theomm.com/results-omm-lite-chilterns-2016/

Tempted? OMM Lite North Yorkshire is 17-18 September https://www.theomm.com/omm-lite-north-yorkshire-2016/

AONB – Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty (as designated under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000)

The Control Catcher in the Rye

Thinking about switching to the 3000m steeplechase

Feeling the pain but still smiling Still standing after 2 days hard work