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My
original idea for planning this year's LAMM
was to spend a few days on the area at the
beginning of April, trying to get a feel
for the ground and the map. I then intended
to do some armchair planning before returning
at the end of April with Chris, the controller,
to stake as many checkpoints as possible.
Due to the Foot & Mouth crisis this first
visit proved to be impossible but thanks
to the support of all of the local estates
we were able to get access to the hills
during the last week in April.
The most obvious things learnt from this
visit was that there would not be as much
climb as in previous years, as none of the
valleys dropped much below 450m. Normally
this would be compensated for by an increase
in course distances but after talking to
Martin and Chris, it was agreed that due
to the lack of training opportunities caused
by Foot & Mouth we would keep the lengths
the same this year as last year. We expected
that this would result in relatively faster
times for the winning teams who had managed
to maintain their fitness but similar times
to last year for the slower teams who had
not. This first visit also confirmed what
the landowners had been telling us about
there being a lot more snow lying on the
area than would normally be around at the
end of April. With the snow level still
being at about 750m during our visit we
were only able to look at the low-lying
control sites and not at anything higher
up.
Chris managed to get a couple of days on
the area during May but I did not then return
until the Monday before the event. During
the week leading up to the LAMM we therefore
not only had to place controls at the staked
sites but also place and check the higher
sites as well. I was therefore very lucky
to have a team of reliable helpers in Niall
Watson, Angela Mudge and Clive Caffall who
were able to assist me with these jobs.
Not only is the placing of controls too
time consuming for one person but with every
site needing independent checking by a second
person a good team is a must. Thanks therefore
go to the three of you for all of your time
and effort.
Apart from a couple of the higher control
sites proving to be unsuitable on first
being visited, the only problem we had during
the lead up to the event was the discovery
of several large snowfields still existing
in some of the NE facing coires. Two of
these in particular proved to be a problem
as they were steep and unstable and both
were on major route choices of the A and
C courses. This resulted in a late night
on the Wednesday immediately before the
event replanning sections of these courses.
Hopefully you didn't notice the difference
but these changes did result in potentially
more path running than I had originally
intended, particularly on the C.
As for the courses themselves, the E, A,
B and C were all planned to give you as
much route choice as possible, without making
the many paths on the area the obvious choice.
A comment made to me by several competitors
was that day one generally used quite major
features as control sites and was easier
navigationally than day 2. This is something
I would agree with but this tended to be
due to a shortage of good sites rather than
a conscious decision on my part. Due to
the distance from the Corrour Station to
the overnight camp there was little I could
do with the C course apart from run it almost
straight from one to the other, using the
features on either side of the valley as
checkpoints. The E, A and B left me with
more choice allowing these courses to sample
the delights of the Ben Alder group, an
area well worth a walking trip if you can
put up with the long cycle in to the area.
Day 2 allowed me to take the E, A, B and
C into the more technically challenging
area to the south of Ardverikie House. If
the mist had been down then the last few
legs on all of these courses would have
proved to be the hardest of the weekend.
The original intention had been to take
all of the courses on the train to Corrour
but I quickly realised that with the chosen
campsite, the day 1 distances involved would
be too great. I then considered moving the
camp site closer to the station but unfortunately
this then gave much worse courses for the
E, A, B and C. With 2 campsites being beyond
the manpower of a small event like the LAMM
we decided to compromise by having a separate
day 1 start but sharing the same camp and
day 2 start / finish. My apologies to any
D and Novice train spotters! Both of these
courses were designed with minimal route
choice and technical difficulty, with the
Novice generally following line features
or just requiring a simple bearing. It is
probably worth reminding D competitors that
their course is not only shorter than a
C course but technically easier as well.
This course is designed to give less experienced
competitors a staging post as they improve
their skills. It is not intended for experienced
people who just want an easy day in the
hills - it is a Mountain Marathon after
all.
Now that the event is over and I have had
time to reflect on the results and the comments
of the many competitors I spoke to after
their run to I am generally happy with the
way things went. My desire to give people
route choice was definitely met as none
of the teams I spoke to could agree on the
best route and certainly nobody agreed with
me the whole time - each to their own. In
retrospect I could have made the E, A, B
and C about 10% longer on day 1 and still
have hit my target finish times. This would
have added about half an hour to the fastest
times and an hour to the slowest times on
each course. I am however satisfied that
I got the day 2 lengths and timings for
these courses about right. For the D course
I would have had to add an extra 25% to
achieve my expected winning times, which
would have added about one and three quarter
hours to the slower teams on day 1, making
their times unacceptably long. Again this
brings into question who should be running
the D. From looking at the relative times
it would appear that most of the top 20
to 30 D teams would be capable of finishing
in the top half of the C course, with the
winners of the D giving the winners of the
C a good race. So D competitors, take up
the challenge and move up a course - you
have a year to train for it after all. Looking
at the Novice the times were fractionally
slower than I predicted but generally I
was very happy with this course. I was particularly
pleased that we had such a high entry for
the novice this year and that only one team
failed to finish it.
Thank you to the many people who collected
in controls for me, meaning that I did not
personally have to go out onto the area
again after the event was over. A big thank
you also to Chris Hall for doing such a
fine job as Controller, picking up on my
errors and offering constructive advice
whenever it was needed.
Finally,
would the team who left all of their overnight
rubbish under a stone at their first Day
2 control not enter again next year. The
people who volunteer to help at the LAMM
have far more to do than clean up after
you and if you cannot enter into the spirit
of an event like this then we would rather
that you did not take part!
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