"Britain is braced for a repeat of the devastating Great Storm of 1987" screamed the newspapers. It could only mean one thing – it was time for the OMM. Could we be in for a repeat of the ill-fated 2008 event? There was only one way to find out.
This year was a return to the Brecon Beacons, where it was last held in 2004, not an area I was familiar with. I'd heard horror stories of bogs and tussocks, surely they couldn't be as bad as the Elan Valley?
The weekend's weather started relatively benignly, there was even some sunshine, but the clouds had already gathered, occasionally lowering over the hills.
As usual we'd opted for the long score class, where we had 7 hours on day 1, and 6 on day 2, to collect as many points as possible. A 40 minute walk and 30 minute bus ride eventually took us to the start, and half an hour later we were off.
There were 2 obvious starting points – a loop to the south, or a loop to the north. Since the southern option seemed to have a break midway without any controls, we headed off north. We began cautiously, to allow for being slowed by the promised tussocks and bogs, but the terrain turned out to be mostly friendly. So making faster progress than expected, we changed plan completely a 
couple of times and ended up looping back to the south of the map. Here we met Alan and partner, also doing long score. They were running up hill so we didn't chat for long!
Undecided how many controls we had time for near the finish, we opted for a zig-zag that allowed us to visit as many or few as we could. In the event, a long there-and-back detour allowed us to mop up the whole area, finishing with a final sprint and just under 3 minutes to spare, for a score of 290 and 31st place out of 141 starters.
With impeccable timing, the heavy rain had arrived about 20 minutes before us, but we just about managed to keep the inside of the tent dry while putting it up. We'd invested in a new one for this year, a Nordisk Telemark 2. Only 880g, but a genuine 2-person tent (unlike the standard Laser series, which weigh a little less but are only really big enough for 1). Three hours later, the rain stopped and we briefly emerged from the tent to find that we'd somehow made the chasing start (the top 5 mixed teams are included) and our start time the next day brought forward by over an hour.
This was just as well, as a problem with the pegging of the tent meant that one of the pegs came out, and we woke up at 5am with wet feet. Moral – try a tent out at home before taking it on a mountain marathon!
The forecasts had apparently changed slightly, and the Great Storm was now due to arrive on Sunday afternoon, rather earlier than initially predicted. The organisers had therefore wisely opted for the bad weather courses; for us, this meant a time limit of 5 hours instead of 6. This meant that some controls were now too far away to justify.
Again, we adapted our plan as we went. The streams were swollen after the overnight rain, so we decided against a loop to the west for some high scores as this would have mean crossing a stream that was marked on the map as difficult when in spate. Also, there was a strong westerly wind with some occasionally heavy rain, and we didn't relish the thought of battling face-first into it. So instead we headed up to the top of the map, heading up and over the impressive summits of Mynydd Du on the way.
A final sprint back through the forest, already churned up into a mud bath, brought us to the finish over 20 minutes early (there were no more controls close enough to get to in that time). We were slightly disappointed by this, but turned out to have done better than the day before, finishing 26th on the day with 190 points, and also 26th over all. Alan also did well, finishing 61st overall and 7th veterans team.
All that remained was to get the car out of the camping field, a task that for most of us was only achieved with the help of the farmer and his tractor!
And what of the Great Storm? It never turned up. The storm's path stayed further south and in any case it didn't arrive until much later. The headline writers didn't seem to want to mention this though!
Some links:
photos
results
maps
a superb tent
Tags: Brecon Beacons, chasing start, great storm, nordisk, OMM, wet feet