Feedback 2008

Martin

Just a note of thanks for the special atmosphere that you help to create at the LAMM.  My son James & I, value greatly the good work you and your team put in and know that your strength makes it happen each year.  We are both looking forward already to next year, it's been a good one.  Clearly it is only possible with your team, who give so much, they are a credit to you and your highland dreams.

Aye,
Pete Smith

Dear Martin
 There appears to be no 'feedback' section on the LAMM website so I thought I'd use a proper pen, with a proper card, to write a proper letter of thanks for once again an unforgettable LAMM.

For my money, I did think you overdid it a bit on the midge front this time.  I am, of course, still aching and have hundreds of midge bites and in a few days I shall no doubt be looking forward to next year's event - but I need a bit more time to recover. 

Please pass on my thanks to all the hard-pressed volunteers without whom none of this would have been possible.  We do appreciate their efforts, even if we are too tired to say so at the time!

Best regards
Martin Brice (D course, 4th LAMM)

Hi Martin,
Thanks definitely due for this year's LAMM - what I did of it was brilliant, and when the blisters finally got the better of me on the second day you'd arranged perfect weather for walking back to download!

Thanks,
Stephen Granger-Bevan

Gill Brett

Firstly thanks for yet another great event. This was our third LAMM having started with Glen Carron, then Assynt. We can only realistically do them every two years as family and training do not always go hand in hand. To enter every year we will just have to wait until our 2 girls can enter themselves or as a partner.

Anyway, feedback. The organisation yet again seemed perfect, from turning up at the car park, going through registration, toilets, being marshalled to the start to finishing. It all seemed to go like clock work.

My only issues well one is an issue the other a plea not to. We did the A course between checkpoint 4 and 5 on the first day we discovered some interesting hillside/rock. Now I know the event notes mentioned that the map would not show all rock faces, but as we went across a slope further on that had as tight a contours if not tighter the drop into the valley was verging on being a tad dangerous (some might say sporting ) We felt comfortable doing it though in the bigger picture………..

The second point is having read the planner/controllers comments please, please, please do not pander to the suggestion of pre-marked maps. The beauty of the LAMM is the fact it is not just about moving fast. It is about your  route choice taking in the terrain, weather and your ability coupled  with the unknown of knowing exactly where the next control is (even though you may  feel very comfortable/confident with your assessment) until it has been dibbed.

This cocktail of elements keeps you always on your toes right until the end.
 
So thanks again and to all the helpers, who add to the ambience of the event with their constant smiles and helpfulness.

Yours sincerely

Martin and Lisa Bergerud

Belated thanks for organising such a great event.  I am not sure how you do this, but if there is some way this message can be posted I would be most grateful.  I ended day 1 in not too good a state.  I had picked up some kind of bug on a recent trip to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, and whilst I thought I was fully recovered having got back to running and cycling, I obviously hadn’t.  So when I came into the camp at the end of the first day I was like one of those people you see staggering around at the end of a marathon.  Your marshall kindly sat me down and found a doctor to look after me.  I do not recollect either the marshalls name or the doctors name, but I would like to pass on my grateful thanks to them.  They may remember me as they made me drink flat coke (you make this by pouring sugar into a can of coke – try it).  I was ok the next day thanks to them.

Definitely be back next year – any chance of no midges?

Jim Walker

A suggestion for next year - have a "clear box" at registration for people who have brought their own Si cards to use when registering - this serves two purposes:
1) gives them a reason they understand for being asked to bring their Si card to registration (a lot of people who had forgotten their cards just rattled off the number and expected us to accept that)
2) will help on Saturday morning at the "check" stage - there seemed to be a lot more people this year with their own cards - and I wonder if the time spent sending those people towards the clear box allowed un-checked competitors to slip past

And finally, I realise that circumstances dictate where the map issue is sited; but I wonder if it would be useful to make it clear (on final details, start card etc) that the team's journey to the start must begin a) when both team members are ready to go and b) at the marquee so that they don't miss map issue etc.

We had a few complaints when we turned away single competitors and people clearly not ready to go that other teams were stood in the toilet queue etc looking at their maps. Also a few teams had deliberately arranged for one competitor to return items to the car and meet their partners at the assembly points whilst the other team member collected the maps - we let those through proving they had the SI card - but again added to the confusion when we had a crowd.

All in all it was a brilliant event - and people are still amazed at my Scottish sun tan - just a shame my control collecting on Monday was in the cloud and rain!

Thanks
Sue Hawker

Mark Britten and Heather Elston.

Just a quick note to say a big thank you for another great LAMM - lovely weather and great location/routes. After a good start we made a bad route choice on the first day of C course (well apart from some fine ridge running!). Had a far better second day (fastest by a decent bit) to come in sixth overall....which all means that I get to call in my pals commitment to move up to the B course next year - looking forward to it already.

Thanks again to you and your team for all your hard work

Phil Williams

Could the Final Details (details of which were mailed out on 3rd June) be mailed a little earlier before the event, a group of us go on a week's holiday prior to the LAMM somewhere in the highlands and due to the remote area that we were in we could not access the info. Please keep the actual event venue a secret until noon on the Thursday, it keeps everyone competing in the event guessing right up to the release. We made a telephone call on Thursday midday back home to find the venue.

In addition, I've entered the Saunders for the first time this year and they have already released the venue which somewhat has spoiled the build up and suspense. They are even giving out Day 2 control descriptions early in the morning of the Day 2 start (well before you dib start) if in the non chasing group. A leisurely map mark up goes against the tense plotting that the LAMM is famous for. Please keep the current format, it is a winning formula.

See you at LAMM 2009 somewhere in Scotland.
Regards
Darren Baker (stalwart D class competitor)

Glenfinnan 08 was only my second LAMM. Having survived the snow at Glen Carron it had taken me four years to believe that one day it might be fun. I’m now wishing I hadn’t left it so long…………….

What a superb event. Right from the point that the venue was released (enough to get the pulse rising) to the drive up Glen Coe on the way home, the whole weekend was absolutely fabulous. The Glenfinnan campsite was an inspired choice, and the scenery on day 1 of the C Course was so outstanding that we gave up racing to do the ridge run between the two Munros, with views to Skye and the Cuillins in one direction, and Ben Nevis in the other, interspersed with tantalising glimpses of both the Glenfinnan viaduct and the mid camp.

The planners may hope for low cloud, but I can assure you that for a ‘wish I could get to the highlands more often’ person, this was as good as it gets.

The legendary organisation was fully in evidence again, together with a real friendly atmosphere around both camps that was missing due to poor weather in 2004.

Well done and thanks to you and your team for organising a brilliant event. Congratulations to all those who move over such terrain at phenomenal speed. We have to make do with mid table finishes, but for most of us, that’s not the point. The point is recorded on my map, mind and digital camera.

Matching it next year might be tricky though!

Yours sincerely
Gareth Wrathall

Hopefully see you next year wherever that may be.....
Best wishes,
Kathy Haddow

Glenfinnan was a great event – the LAMM always succeeds in providing challenging terrain, stunning campsites and unequalled atmosphere – a true mountain marathon experience.

Feedback on the B course
Day one - the valley options were the best routes and so there was not enough high level running as perhaps we would have liked. One control proved difficult to those without an altimeter (us).
Day two - a good day in the mountains with more up and over options. Generally easier running made the day enjoyable despite tired legs from day one.

Thanks for putting on a great event and I hope I can return next year for more of the same.
Simon Lloyds

Just wanted to say that we had a cracking weekend. Loved the  route. Loved the wild-arse area -- which we'd never been to before. Loved the midcamp. Loved the people. Loved the viaduct. Loved the ticks and midges ... errr, I've gone too far.

Thanks very much for all your efforts.
Alex Harrison

My first foray into the world of mountain marathons - and while it was definitely a home win for the midges (!) it really opened my eyes to the beauty and the challenge of the Scottish Highlands.

I'll take some very special memories with me in my back pocket for a wee while yet, I think!

Best wishes to you all for a successful rest of 2008!
Andy Mouncey

Hope you’ve all got home and are recovering after a well deserved deep sleep – before the next event!

Well done on another very successful weekend. I usually find my impressions are coloured by the weather.  As this was pretty much perfect – the drizzle on Sunday am was a godsend after Saturday’s sweatfest – this LAMM to my mind was up in the top 3 of my 13 to date.  But the area and all the other things that go to make up a good event were also there, regardless of the weather – superb area, great overnight camp etc.  (Not mis-marking re-entrants on the map also helps.) So a really good effort by you and all your team.

A few minor things I would say – in the interests of trying to improve the future in a constructive way, rather than knocking with the benefit of hindsight:

Map corrections.  I saw there were some – but perhaps there should have been more.  There are huge amounts of rock in the area, a lot not marked on the map. And that’s fair enough But there were areas – eg descents into Glen Pean which we did both days – which were clearly on likely routes and where – if it was misty – people could have come badly unstuck.  Eg E course day 1 control 5 – head NW from here and descend to Glen Pean and see how many crags there really are!  I have prior knowledge here but some folk will have had more excitement than they’d have been safely bargaining for. I feel these areas should be corrected where reasonably possible.

Course lengths. E course was too long on day 1.  2 teams sub 8 hours in dry sunny conditions says it all.  Probably 45 mins too much.  Day 2 seemed pretty long too, though perhaps just 20 mins or so.  Don’t know how the other courses were.  Last year the courses for E also seemed bigger than before.  Am I just getting older and/or more pathetic, or is there a pattern here? I seem to remember 8 years or so back the LAMM courses were a step down in terms of endurance from the OMM ones – tougher doesn’t equate to better.

Control cards.  The OMM has phased these out. In the HMM we at least put circles on the map even though we still rely on the paper cards too.  However the days of scratty little pieces of paper are over, surely! Get them damp and you’re utterly stuffed.  The event is about navigation and running in pairs, not keeping bits of paper the size of loo roll dry.  Can the wretched things not be laminated or printed on water resistant paper or something? Your challenge for next year.  And if you work out an easy way, let us know pre-Highlander!

Event area. Superb.  Also enormous.  Andy Spenceley and team must have spent aeons tramping over it.  In fact, I feel it was unnecessarily big.  I didn’t see the need to go north of the Mam na Cloich Airde – fantastic scenery, but we dropped down from Garbh Cioch Mhor and skirted it for efficiency reasons, so didn’t bag any hills. Surely the ground south of here provided enough challenges to last a month for the fastest teams? I’d have happily spent more time on the hills around Glen Pean and Gleann Eanaiche  Also our day 2 took us back over quite a bit of day 1 ground, and I was puzzled by the repetition when we could no doubt have had a superb and novel route in the Streap area.

Minor points – everything else worked so well, top effort.

Best wishes as ever
Alec Keith

Many, many thanks to you and all others involved in organising another fantastic LAMM. Brilliant area, impeccable logistics and overall, a very fine way to spend the weekend. Running down the top part of the ridge south of Streap back towards Glenfinnan on Day 2 was very special!

Mark Roberts

The route planning was realy good (elite couse), some strategic route choices to make - thanks to Mr spencley here - he did seem really excited about the routes he had in store for us when he was letting us know on the train ride about all his weeks of planning adventures.

My partner lost the will to live trying to get to cp6 on day 1 (it was his first MM - I guess a baptism of fire - but he wanted it!)

Thanks again and thanks to the marshalls and helpers too.

Alex Pilkington