LAMM 2004 - Feedback

Just wanted to say a big thanks from those of us sitting at home (by nice warm fires!) wondering whether loved ones are coping.  This is different from my husband's usual trips to the hills as I cannot know where he'll be - it's great to have up to date info on times and so forth when the weather is so rotten!

All the best to all involved,

Amanda Forsyth (dutiful spouse to Adam, team 272)

Unfortunately I was one of those listed as 'did not start' this weekend, for the second year in a row my partner has injured himself and then business pressure thwarted attempts to find another partner.

However I would like to say that the website has been excellent for keeping track of how the event has gone, to the extent that yesterday evening I was not so upset about not being there, once I read the reports of snow on the hills. Good luck for next year’s event, hopefully I will get there.

Regards,
Mike Skehel

Thanks for all your efforts over the weekend. A very memorable event and a true "mountain" marathon compared to recent KIMMs. Despite being prepared for bad weather it was a pretty rough day on Saturday - I can only think of the Howgills and Day 2 of the recent KIMM in the Cheviots being as unpleasant. My shoes are trashed as well as the feet that were inside them.

Don't know if you have recovered any lost property but I have dropped a Karrimor Powerstretch glove somewhere near the end on Day 2. It is of sentimental value as well as needed for my next adventure.

Colin Matheson

Thank you guys for a wonderful event!

This was my first time and I was on D class and I loved every minute of it. Yes the weather was crap and yes I lost my partner as well as my map but the experience will stay with me for a long time. I cant remember the Marshall that was kind to me but he had a beard and was a bit chubby, I know he greeted me at the end of day one where I could barley walk because I was so cold. So if you know who he is if you could say thanks! that would be great, I was the young overweight blonde lad who had lost his partner on day one.

I have one question about the website: Is there a plan to ad a forum on the site as I feel its a great opportunity for me as a inexperienced runner to ask other more experienced people questions that will help me in the future.

Again thanks for everyone's hard work over the weekend and I will see you next year.

Regards Ross Lewis

A belated "thanks" to you and the helpers that helped make this such an enjoyable event. For a first timer, it was more than I'd expected, in it's shear enjoyment that is! It has added a dimension to fell running that I had not really tested before now. Having to map read and navigate really did make it a challenge (+ the weather we had as well). Looking forward to next years event already - now that my poor beaten feet have recovered!

Regards

Alex Pilkington

Just wanted to say really enjoyed the LAMM event this year and the snow/blizzards added an extra dimension to the event "survival". Will be back next year for more.

Simon Horsley

Thanks for organising a great LAMM this year.It was my 2nd and placed 3rd in the A class hopefully I can persuead my partner to have a go at the elite course next year for a true test !

Do you have details for the Ramsey Round and the 4000 Duathlon both of which I would like to have a crack at next year. I can then do some recces over the next few months.

Best Wishes

David Atkinson

Thank you for an excellent event, I had a fantastic time, I'm having trouble sleeping at night now but nevertheless a fantastic two days racing.

Thanks again
John Hunt

Just a belated email (now we've recovered) to say thank you for all the effort and work you put into organising the LAMM, and particular thanks for sorting us out so quickly when we missed the coach! I'm not sure I can say I enjoyed this year as much as last year ;-) but it was certainly more of a challenge... and I've now got no excuse not to do the KIMM!
Thanks again,
Caroline Catmur and Tim Court

Hi LAMM people,
Thanks especially to Martin and Angela for another fantastically run event. We were 2nd place in the A class -team number was 270, is it possible to get the splits ourselves and the 1st and 3rd place teams? maybe these are going on the web soon?
Cheers and enjoy the rest
Vince Mcalinden

Thank you for an excellent event last weekend. It is the first time we have competed in the LAMM and we thought the organisation was superb. Not sure if I can say the same for the conditions but there is not a lot you could do about the weather. We were delighted to be part of the photo gallery.

Please could you pass on our thanks and congratulations to everybody involved in the setting up of the event. I would also appreciate you passing on our thanks to the caterers. I thought the free meal was brilliant.

Kind regards

Angie Miller

Thanks for another great LAMM - we enjoyed it despite my partner & I blowing a good position with some dodgy navigation due to lack of concentration on day 2! In the end we were just thankful we didn't do what John Hunt accidentally did!

Thanks for the assistance with getting my faulty SI card replaced too. A new one arrived from Germany a few days before the event, but I carried on and used my wife's as you earlier suggested.

Regards
Phil Janaway

Please extend my thanks to yourself and your team - the weekend event was the first I've competed in - and snow not with standing it will not be the last!!!

Seamless organisation from start to finish

Ben Davies

Dear LAMM Team,

A very big thank you to you all for the toughest weekend of my life!!  As always you guys put on a memorable event and I am proud to have taken part and survived.  From a safety point of view it was good to see that you had contingency plans in place as I was somewhat worried about the state of some competitors and am relieved that everyone got off the tops safely.

I dropped a category this year with the intention of trying to finish in the top 10 but by Saturday evening I was just glad to finish at all.  I will admit to hating Saturday not so much for the weather but for the slippery conditions especially during contouring legs.  It just went to show that for all the running training I put in it did not matter a jot without rough terrain practice to be able to move efficiently across rough terrain.

I have not suffered much muscle stiffness as I have done on previous events but my feet are shot to hell because of the terrain underfoot. I also found the orienteering more challenging than usual for a mountain marathon and I did slip up a couple of times and paid the penalty with the poor finishing result.  I won't take the navigation for granted again.

Finally, I think the design and material finish on the T shirts are exceptional they really do look and feel good.  I hope they perform as well as they look!

Thank you again and I am already looking forward to next year's event.

Kind regards

Kev Latham

In case you didn't know the Glasgow bus driver got us to the airport at 1840, in time for our 1935 flight. Many thanks for taking control of the situation. A number of us tipped the driver for his efforts to get us there.

And many thanks for a memorable and enjoyable event.

David Howarth

Thank you very much to the organisers of this years' LAMM. Good courses, good route choices and as usual a sting in the tail! This year it just happened to be the weather - makes up for Jura.

Peter Halliday & Iain Reid (50th,  B class - our 8th attempt as a team - maybe next year?).

Just a note to thank you and all your support team for an interesting event over the week-end!  If it hadn't been for my partners loss of his SI card after the hard bits on the D course we might have done reasonably - but it provided a good enough excuse to pass on the Sunday and after the driving cold on Saturday we were more than pleased to take the wimps option! 

Not sure if we'll make it back again next year or not - sipping cheap Spanish wine for a few weeks before the event doesn't appear to be good enough training for it!!

Thanks again though and good luck with next years...........

Ralph Phipps

I am horrified!!!!!

RUMOURS..... did you say RUMOURS ... of snow lying on the ground!

2 toes on my left foot are still red and swollen from the after effects of the inch of new snow we had to plough though on the Saturday...

Still.... I would like to see a photo so I can show my friends. ( At least my wife believes me as she was there!)

Great event, one of the most memorable on record.

It was the first time on a mountain marathon for my partner, and he was quite impressed. What impressed him most is that he was so exhausted he got a long lie in bed and his wife took the dog out for the morning walk. (First time in 15 years of marriage!)

Regards

John Hutchinson

It has been a superb LAMM this year. Thank you for compensating the bad weather of last year's event (we don't visit Scotland for sunshine...). It must have been quite a hassle to keep the system working for your team, my compliments for everybody!

It was well worth the travel from Holland and we will see you all back next year.

Thanks!
Roel Derckx

Thanks to all who helped organise this once again superb event. I can assure you that there was snow on the tops. Unfortunately I did not have a camera and even if I did I would not have stopped to take a picture as I still had my shorts on at that point!!!!!

Euan T

I am not ashamed to admit to being one of the “mild hypothermia” cases mentioned on the website, but I don’t hold that against you….  Thank you very much for organising such a superb event – you obviously think everything through and it all falls into place so superbly.  Somehow you manage to create an atmosphere that includes keen competition with a strong sense of enjoyment of the participation.

It took me an hour in 4-season sleeping bag, fully clothed, in car, to stop shivering.  I’ve thawed out now, though various bits of kit are still drying, and I believe I’ll recover fully from the various bruises, swellings and numbness I’ve still got!  So I hope to be back for another installment next year – but please keep that Daly character away, he’s obviously a bad influence on the weather.

Thanks again.

Hilary Quick

Hi Martin,
Thanks very much for another top LAMM - made particularly enjoyable by winning the A course.

Please could you correct my name on the front page and Sunday page - it's Jeff Green, not Jeff Grant!

Thanks and best regards,
Hope to be there again next year on Elite?!

Jeff Green

Just wanted to say thanks for all your efforts in organising yet another memorable LAMM weekend. Enjoyable is not the word this time, but we don't expect even you to control the weather (yet - maybe next year?). It was certainly a test, and will be an event to look back on with satisfaction, at least for those of us who managed to finish.

 Frances Watkins

Thanks for a very enjoyable event, sorry about the response that it was like the "KIMM in summer" - I meant in weather terms not in ethos or (spectacular) setting!

Regards

Patrick Bonnett

Thanks for another great event! Well one that we will always remember for sure. I intended to buy a dry flow 2004 t shirt but couldn't face walking back from my car having carried all our gear from the event centre.

Can I buy one now or is it too early as they are not on the Lamm shop site?

Many thanks

Greg Dixon

Great to see that the LAMM was such a fantastic success.  I've been hearing lots of stories and looked at the pictures.  Was thinking about people when up a couple of hills yesterday (about 200 miles south of you) and got snowed on - must have been pretty dreadful and cold conditions at times. Glad that it all went to plan for you.
Again many apologies that I wasn't able to help - keep me on your mailing list for next year please.

Jill Brownell
Trade Marketing - Outdoor Performance & Snowsports
WL Gore & Associates (UK) Ltd

Martin - a fantastic weekend! Thank-you for all your hard work, and the time you put into it. It shows in the organisation. It was well worth the long journey up and back (I was back home at Bath by 11:00pm, and asleep by 11:10pm!). Enjoy your break - you deserve it!

See you at some race somewhere, I expect! My next one is the Leadville 100 out in Colorado - a rather different event!
Tim Laney

 This was the only negative item of feedback …….

The fact that anyone didn't die was a miracle when you consider the lack of safety and planning on the event.  My friend and I were both injured and we were told at the end of day one that there was no transport and that we would have to walk off (some 17 miles back to car park), there were no medics (or so we were told) and the checkpoints were so remote that anyone who had gone down would not have been reached for hours.

I've done many events in the past and this was one of the poorest.

Miles Welch

 And my reply ………………..

 Miles

Thanks for your email and thanks for taking part in the LAMM.  I have been meaning to reply for a while but I wanted to think through my reply before committing to an email.  It is so easy in an email to use emotive language and write the first thing that springs to mind.

We received about 30 emails from competitors after the event and none mentioned any negative aspect of the event, just the unfortunate weather.  We will soon be adding a Feedback page to the LAMM website and will add all the emails from competitors.  This will include your message and this reply to you.

I am sorry that the LAMM did not work out well for you.  I noted your late decision to take part and maybe in retrospect you wish that you had given it a miss.  All mountain marathons are challenging events and we make no bones about the fact the LAMM takes place in wild mountain terrain and all competitors are expected to make their way back to the Event Centre under their own steam unless they are too injured to walk.

I agree with you that it was a miracle that no one hurt themselves high up on the hills but should this have happened our rules state that:

How many walkers on the hill would carry this amount and variety of kit?  You are expected to carry warm enough clothing for the prevailing conditions.  I would agree that the snow and blizzards were completely exceptional this year but 80% of teams coped with it. 

To correct some of the inaccurate points you make:

Lack of safety and Planning  - We issued a weather forecast, which warned of the weather you experienced, albeit saying that the worst would be on Sunday.  The bad weather arrived a day early. As we are planning the routes we spend days trying to ensure that the difficulty of terrain reflects the route attempted.

We state quite clearly that the event takes place on remote mountain country.  Also that while you are on the hill you are on your own and you signed the disclaimer to confirm that you understood this and were prepared to cope with it.  The remoteness of the checkpoints and the wildness of the terrain is the thing attracts 1000 loyal competitors to return year after year.  Even if you guys feel that the event is not for you, most others will return.

At the midcamp we had a 4WD Landrover and two members of Kintail Mountain Rescue team.  Both members had accident and emergency first aid qualifications and were very experienced.  They identified those suffering from intermediate exposure and looked after them.  Those who were in need were moved 2KM by Land Rover to where our vehicles were parked and we ran a shuttle service on Saturday night back to Strathcarron. 

At Strathcarron, the Red Cross cared for those who were chilled and we provided the marshals accommodation to warm up those who were most needy.  Those who were able to walk out on Saturday evening from the midcamp did have the option to camp at the midcamp and then on the Sunday we provided a shuttle service that moved about 100 people back to Strathcarron.

Your Missing SI-Card

Now to another issue I have been intending to contact you about.  At the end of the LAMM this year we had one SI-Card that was unaccounted for.  It would appear that you were the only team that did not hand in their SI-Card.  This breaks one of the golden rules of mountain marathons and should our event have been poorly planned and lacking in safety, we might still be out there looking for you guys.  But we're not and do you know why that is?  It is because SPORTident provides an excellent safety backup system.  We can examine the start stations to ensure that you started, each checkpoint station on the hills to find out where you have been, also the finish station and also the data downloaded on the computer.  If you don't turn up and we have no idea of your whereabouts we could if necessary retrieve the stations and isolate the area where you "have gone down".

On Sunday afternoon we checked the Sunday Start stations and identified the fact that you had not started and as you appeared to have not handed in your SI-Card this was the only means of knowing that you were not on the hill.

If you are still in possession of the SI-Card please send it in a padded envelope to me at the address below.  Failing that please explain what happened to the SI-Card and if you disposed of it, please send a cheque for £18 made payable to Staminade Events.  This requirement is made clear in the event documentation.

Kind regards

Martin