LAMM

My original partner having accepted that he'd not be fit enough for the LAMM, my club-mate having shown signs of wavering, a couple of approaches at the British having drawn blanks and a possible partner having been snapped up by someone else, I emailed the best fit on the "Partner wanted" page of the LAMM website. At first he seemed not to be in my league, but I overlooked the fact that he was only 30 and clearly getting better. Thus I teamed up with Jeff Roberts who also solved my transport problem with a lift up in the car of one of his Carnethy club-mates.

We all left Edinburgh at 15:10 so had plenty of time for the four-hour trip to Strathcarron, broken by an overpriced pub meal in Inverness, arriving at eight. There we "checked in" and spent a decent night in Jeff's mountain marathon tent before the rousing skirl of the pipes at 06:30.

Day 1: We'd been given an assembly time of 08:30 and told to "Eat a hearty breakfast" which is LAMM-speak for "we're going to take you somewhere else to start!". And indeed, filled with two bacon rolls, at 08:30 we

boarded a bus which, as we'd suspected took us, Elite and A course runners round to Tornapress. There the A and Elite were take up to the Bealach na Ba by minibus, where they got an additional map and some glorious running over Sgurr a'Chaorachain and Beinn Bhan. On a rather warm and sunny morning, we set off uphill and after the first control were in the sort of rough and trackless terrain that the LAMM is all about.I soon overheated and was struggling up, my brain incapable of adjusting to 1:40,000 MM navigation rather than the 1:10,000 orienteering of the previous week. Jeff immediately proved his worth. After about three hours, though, the sky became rather more clouded and we climbed up so it became cooler. I "woke up" as Jeff started to flag and it was his turn to hang on to me as we completed the second half of the course. We felt that we were just about keeping pace with one of the pairs who started with us and a better pair overtook us comfortably on the way to the last control. Taking 5:50:39 for the 27km and 1300m climb, we finished the first day in 7th (of 56), just 15 seconds behind 6th and 23 minutes ahead of 8th. The benefit of the warm day was that we could bathe in the river, cooling our tired legs and washing the sweat from our bodies. The began the pleasurable cycle of relaxing, eating, looking at the updated results and chatting with others we knew as they came in, all with westerly views of Beinn Eighe. Only late in the day did the weather turn wet but, fortunately, my pants, which has got wet when I went into a waist-deep bog at the penultimate control, were dry.

Day 2: The rain in the night was clearing when we were roused by the piper at 05:30. I'd slept well on my
bubble-wrap air-bed, except for half hour around midnight after I'd got up for a pee expecting the pouring rain to mean no problem with midges, only to have the swarming round my bare feet. It took ages for the "fire" to die down enough to think about being able to sleep again. It was too midgy to think of cooking outside the tent so I gave up on chocolate porridge and just ate some hill food. Jeff went off to the loo and the tent came down in no time, leaving us standing around in waterproofs. The sky steadily broke, giving a rainbow to photograph for those with cameras, and by the time we started it was dry. With B6 just 15 seconds ahead, we overtook them marking up their maps, having decided to mark up the map once everything was drier. We jogged round the track to the bottom of the inevitable steep slope up from the mid-camp and were soon slogging up a very soggy hillside. The first control was easy and there was little route choice on leg two: just contouring round above the lower, boggy-looking ground. The two green-clad Swedes and another pair were generally in sight, particularly as we began the slog up Maol Chean-dearg. Too steep for me to move well, Jeff led the way, but the others were no faster. Behind us we could see B6, now 15 mins behind us? After the horribly loose, even dangerous, gully up the Munro, I'd hoped that we'd have a rewarding steady run down the other side, but it was unpleasantly rocky and hard to move at speed. After control 4 there was just one long leg to go and it really dragged. I was tired and "knew" we didn't have to move quickly to keep ahead of B6. Of course there could be a pair from the pack who had overtaken us without our knowing or another pair who had been ahead of us and dropped back without us knowing. By now it was getting sunny and warm and the contour round the ridge took ages. his was unsurprising since it was more than 1km round

the blunt spur. Finally we were dropping down to the last real control and then the descent to the road. The final couple of kilometres I couldn't be bothered to run but Jeff was bouncing. I guess he was excited at the prospect of finishing in a prize-winning position. I roused myself into a run once we got to the event field and once we dibbed for the last time we soon confirmed that we were 6th, having taken 05:44:14 for the 22km and 1300m climb, 13th of 44 for the day. It was unusual for me to pick up a place overall on Day 2. Normally I've trashed my partner on Day 1 and lost a place or two on Day 2. With Jeff I was as well matched as I have ever been on a MM. It was satisfying to know that I could still do it and beat so many people, some of whom were half my age. We chatted with B6 when they came in, and I met one of the Swedes, who was clearly delighted by his experience. Pat and Ben didn't win Score, they were just behind Phil Scarf and partner who were pipped to first by just one point.Alex and partner were soon in, having moved up from A10 to 5th. Kate had jacked after her knee injury flared up and eventually Pete Huzan cam in from his solo run in the hills and Nigel duly finished Elite in 7th, an hour behind 6th. Got a lift back with Kate and Nigel who, with Nigel's partner and another random pair were refuelled for the trip to Durham via the vegan lasagne that Lucie cooked and had ready just as we arrived.