During the last weekend in October several members of Newport Running Club, amongst around 3000 others, travelled to Scotland to participate in the OMM. This annual event was celebrating its 40th year and took place in the Lowther Hills, which although not particularly craggy, consisted of some of the highest and steepest grassy hills to be found anywhere.
Mark Deighton and Sandy Mackenzie were involved in the medium score event, which meant they had a maximum of 6 hours on day one and 5 hours on day two to collect as many points as they could from as many controls as they could visit on what was effectively a giant orienteering course, but carrying everything they needed to survive for two days in the hills.
The weather on the mountains was poor on the Saturday with low cloud and rain making visibility only around 40 metres at times, so accurate navigation was essential to avoid being lost and losing time and points.
Mark was only just returning from a torn calf and his fitness was a little suspect and so it proved with him and Sandy coming in after four and a half hours, but still gaining 140 points on the day.
The overnight camp turned into a difficult experience for many teams. As the winds increased to around 60-70mph and the rain became torrential some teams were washed out or had their tents blown down, meaning they were extremely tired and uncomfortable by the next morning.
Mark and Sandy had quite a good night and were ready to consolidate their previous days score. After an initial climb of over 1500 feet the sun came out on the tops before they reached the first of the days checkpoints and they enjoyed good visibility for the rest of the day covering more ground than the day before in a similar time to gain another 120 points, making 260 in total, 223rd place in their category and a bronze award.
Also taking part in the medium score event were Roger Kerr and His brother Allan who had participated in several similar events in past years and used their experience to gain 190 points on day 1, 110 points on day 2, making 300 points and 200th place.
Throwing himself in at the deep end was Maurice Reid in his first attempt at such an event with his team mate Greg Hilliard who entered the long score class. Maurice really proved his fitness to achieve 195 points on day one, 125 points on day two making 320 overall to give them 176th place in their class. An excellent achievement.
Despite the daunting nature of the event and the awful weather they encountered en route all the participants seemed determined to go back and have another go next year.

The attached file is a picture of Sandy Mackenzie and Mark Deighton at the overnight camp before setting off an Sunday morning