Broadly speaking, there are two types of people in the world: those who know what “OMG” means, and those who know what the OMM is. (LOL!)

The OMM is, of course, the Original Mountain Marathon, the “first, most famous, and largest mountain marathon in the world.” Run over two days, the OMM is always held at the end of October (to improve the chances of terrible weather) and the location is changed each year (to prevent people studying the ground in advance). Completing the OMM is an important tick-in-the-box for people who love mountains, running, orienteering or just challenging themselves. (The OMM hit the headlines a couple of years ago. Torrential rain during the event meant that scores of capable, well-prepared people had to hunker down in their tents for a while. The media though had a field day, panicking that everyone was lost and dying. Read more about this here.)

This year I will be running the OMM with my friend Alex, who recently taught me to fly. I’mve been so busy with talks in the last couple of months that I have not trained nearly as much as I should have done, so I predict a weekend of pain and misery awaits me.

Despite that, the OMM is one of the great annual events in the British outdoor calendar. There are a range of classes available catering for everyone from experts to relative beginners to the mountains. I really recommend you sign up next year. Details are on the OMM website.

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