Fell runners are a hardy bunch mind you, and they were well equipped and experienced, and this in itself helped to prevent a certain tragedy. The race is a 2 day event. On day one you run the equivalent of a marathon distance over the mountains, and on day two you do exactly the same! Overnight you camp out, and this was the key to the runners being so well equipped. At least they weren’t trapped in the open and exposed to the elements.
In the hardy, fell running, outdoors community there is a saying that there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing. As the event started the conditions were dry and overcast, but the rain soon started falling and became torrential, and the winds become stronger. On some of the higher hills runners were being blown off their feet and it was becoming almost impossible to run into the wind. On top of this the streams were now fast flowing, and highly dangerous, torrents.
Some of the competitors by this point were being forced to crawl or lie down, while other were wading through water that was waist height and getting deeper by the minute. By midday, just three hours after the race began, the event was called off due to the weather. Several hundred competitors had dropped out before the race began because of the forecast, but the remainder couldn’t be contacted as mobile phones are banned from the race. Some dropped out of their own accord, but this still left 1,700 people out there, somewhere, battling the conditions and in need of rescue. Most of these 1,700 remained stranded overnight. A total of 743 made it to shelters (barns, schools and visitor centres) the rest had to camp out in their tents.
In total there were 70 mountain rescuers searching for the missing runners, and 11 people were injured. One woman suffered head injuries when she was washed into a swollen stream and another chap broke his leg.
So the recriminations and criticism of the organisers will continue for a while yet, but this is the first time in 41 years that the race has been called off, and you can bet that nearly every one of those who took part this year will already be looking forward to next year's race. This is what they do.
Mark Boardman BSc dip.hyp is a leading author and expert on the weather. For more information about href="http://www.agloriousfuture.com">World Weather and href="http://www.agloriousfuture.com">Extreme Weather, go and browse these sites.
