OMM Lowther Hills

A disappointing experience in my first mountain marathon over the weekend. It had all gone pretty well, really enjoyable, with my navigation standing up to the test in some pretty bad conditions later in the day - mist, rain, gales - and a great, interesting route through a suitably obscure area (the Lowther Hills are north of Dumfries). But after a long haul from checkpoint 9 to 10, with tricky navigation, we failed to find 10 along with a big group of other teams. We did eventually find it in the wrong place but by the time we came to the final checkpoint my partner Gary had slowed dramatically, and was obviously starting to suffer, unable to make the steeper ascents at the end (we were on the B course, 25k, 2000m climbing over a few of the main peaks in the area including Green Lowther and Lowther Hill). So we didn't start day two. A real shame, the first time I've had to abandon anything - particularly galling as I was really enjoying the challenges of the event. Still, there are plenty of events to go at next year, and at least one full day is better than none.