50 Years of Two by Two Adventures

Rob Howard / 26.10.2017

This year is the 50th anniversary Original Mountain Marathon, a race which which continues to hold its place as the blue ribband outdoor event in the UK, and on the international stage.

To state the obvious that’s a long time!  When the race began in 1968 the Mexico Olympics would soon take place and the Vietnam War was continuing, in the UK Harold Wilson was Prime Minister and the M1 Motorway had just been finished.

It was a very different world then but the idea conjured up by Gerry Charnley, then Secretary of the British Orienteering Federation, has endured for half a century with very little, if any, change.  It was a very good idea obviously, so what is it that makes this race so special?

A Great Idea – A New Challenge

Charnley’s original plan was for an event to test navigational skills, running, endurance and mountain craft in equal measure, and he took inspiration from the Swedish event ‘The Woodsman’.

His original article in ‘Climber Magazine’ proposed a race to “test the qualities of two men working as a team , together enduring the pain of a marathon walk, demonstrating their expertise in camp craft having carried the essential equipment for their personal survival.” 

There was a good enough response for the first race to go ahead from Muker in the West Riding of Yorkshire in September 1968. Seventy Eight teams took part but only 11 made it to day 2 and orienteers Bob Astles and Ted Dance were the winners.

The event was a success and was subsequently sponsored by and called, ‘The Karrimor’ and then the ‘Karrimor International Mountain Marathon’ before changing name to the ‘Original Mountain Marathon’ in 2004.

It perhaps says something about the appeal of the idea (to some people anyway) that the biggest jump in entries happened the year following the infamous 1976 Galloway Highlands KIMM, when there was appalling wet weather and a very low finish rate – and the following year the entry doubled. There are outdoor folk who like a challenge, and they’d found one!

Two by Two

The idea of racing in pairs was no doubt mainly for safety, but it was key to the success of the race.  It was unusual in the largely solitary sport of running and set the new idea of a ‘mountain marathon’ apart.

The teamwork aspect of working together with a partner, and all the shared emotions and experiences are essential elements of the OMM.  When you are totally dependent on your partner to finish the race (and have to share a very tiny tent overnight) you can find out a lot about your partner and yourself!

Two by Two by Two

The race taking place over two days also set the concept of a mountain marathon apart, adding a new level of endurance and skill to the challenge. The extra day allowed the elite class to meet Charnley’s plan for it to be a double-marathon distance over the two days, but more importantly it introduced the concept of the overnight camp.  This brought into play camp craft, equipment skills and self sufficiency, all of which are essential elements of the race.

There is also the challenge of getting moving on day 2, hauling yourself out of a damp tent and preparing for another day of racing on aching legs is one of the hardest parts of the race. It’s easier if you’ve slept and eaten well of course! Whether you do or not is up to you.

For those who have had a cold, wet and sleepless night the race refines the torture by always taking place on the weekend at the end of October when the clocks go forward. There’s an extra hour to endure in that cramped tent … and then if you do drop off at the last minute they wake you up with bagpipes!

The Lightweight Revolution

Of course it also meant between them the runners had to carry all they needed for two days in the hills and an overnight camp, and that lead to a lightweight gear revolution. Heavy and robust outdoor gear wasn’t going to cut it for mountain marathon competitors and Karrimor, along with other companies like Saunders tents, led the way in new designs and materials for outdoor gear. 

London Marathon competitor Chris Brasher was one competitor who lead in this, and he issued a challenge in 1974 for a KIMM pack which was half the weight of any currently available. The new KIMM 25L pack easily succeeded.  (Karrimor’s Mike Parsons was instrumental in many of the company’s new designs and materials and his sister Jen Longbottom organised the race for many years after Charnley's untimely death in a fall near Helvellyn in 1982.)

I’ve heard many tales of gear refinements by competitors themselves too – even metal spoons with holes drilled in them and sharpened at the end to double as tent pegs!

Finding Your Way

Of course the other key element in a mountain marathon is navigation. You have to be able to find checkpoints in a mountain wilderness using map reading skills, and to win you need to understand the terrain well enough to pick the fastest route across it, which may not be the shortest.

This combination of orienteering skill with mountain craft and endurance ensured the OMM attracted a wide competition base, a mix of orienteers, fell and ultra runners, military teams, mountaineers and long distance walkers.  The format offered a challenge many who ventured into the outdoors had some of the skills for, but maybe not all of them. That was an irresistible challenge.

The importance of navigation also lead to the first especially commission maps for the event. The first of these was produced by Harvey Map Services for the 10th event at Kirby Stephen. Prior to this the race had used first OS one inch maps (if you have seen one you will know this added to the challenge considerably!) and then 1:50,000 maps.

This broad range of participants and different skill levels also lead to the introduction of a range of classes and the Score format courses with a fixed time limit.

The Forerunner of Adventure Racing?

For a while The OMM used this tag line, and with good reason. While it may not be a multi-sport event a mountain marathon requires wilderness navigation, self reliance, equipment skills, exploration and team work, and these were integral to the emerging sport of Adventure Racing and all its variations.

International Recognition

There was always an international interest in the Karrimor, even from the early days through its orienteering links and as early as 1972 Norwegian orienteers Stig Berge and Carl Martin Larsen were winners, with Swiss orienteer Dieter Wolfe following suit some years later. More recently the Estonian pair of Sander Vaher & Timo Sild won in 2014, and every year there are international challengers in the Elite class.

The race didn’t only attract competitors to the UK, the concept has been taken up around the world. For many years there was a Swiss KIMM and independent races on a similar format have been held in Hong Kong and Denmark in the past and more recently in the USA.  OMM have taken this further and now there are a series of international OMM events in exotic locations like Iceland and Japan among others.

Still Going Strong

This year the 50th event returns to the Lake District for the 9th time and the entry list is full. 2000 competitors will travel to Langdale to take part on 7 courses over 100 square miles of mountain terrain.

Yes, Gerry Charnley had a very good idea, and it’s still going strong half a century later.

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