Saunders Mountain Marathon 5/6 July 08 Helvellyn and the Dods (smallish lumps) to the north.

We had practiced nearly everything but not quite ... on the real thing it rained for a start and yes, we did need all those plastic bags.

On the Saturday we had moments of navigational brilliance -at one point walking on bearing in the mist on to the checkpoint, followed by moments of a total cock up .. On the right is us finishing at the end of day one - the pride before the fall!

On day two Mike slipped on a narrow path to hit his head on a sharp rock to get his very own "Dod on the Head" ouch!! Much relief to all concerned he got back to his feet and after saying "you've got to get me to hospital" ... a bit worrying in the rain and mist kms from anywhere ... we abandoned the event and returned to base. Still took us 2.5hrs. Ice packs and arnica now being applied and there is no lasting damage.

Not quite so sure about his mountain marathon career however ..

Team J+G Force arrived at camp smiling through the rain on day 1 - we had been in the tent for a couple of hours and were mighty relieved to see them, so much so we put up their tent. They still had the energy to neck a beer in the evening. Finishing 38th out of 57 in their class - pretty decent for a first attempt. The question remains, will they be back for more! Entries for the OMM in October are filling up fast!

Post race analysis still needs to happen as we had to rush off in search of an ice pack.

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