Marmot24™ - a new 24 hour mountain marathon
We are very excited to today announce the launch of another original mountain marathon from Ourea Events...
The UK’s first 24-hour mountain marathon, the inaugural Marmot24, will be held on the weekend 2nd and 3rd August 2014.
This exciting new event combines the very best elements of the predominantly British mountain marathon phenomenon with aspects of the more international, 24-hour rogaining events. With mountain running and navigation at the heart of the event competitors will have 24, 12 or 6-hours to visit as many checkpoints as possible on a score format course. With the 24-hour race starting at noon Saturday, the 12-hour race starting at midnight Saturday and the 6-hour race starting at 0600 on the Sunday morning, everyone will finish at 12 noon on the Sunday in an exciting and dramatic finale to a memorable weekend of racing.
Steve Birkinshaw finding reaching the Esgair Penygarreg checkpoint on the fourth day of the 2012 Dragon’s Back Race™ ©Rob Howard
Seven times OMM Elite winner, Steve Birkinshaw was quick to state that, “A non-stop 24-hour mountain marathon has been missing from the UK calendar, the Marmot24™ fills this gap. It sounds like a great event that I am really looking forward to competing in.”
Race Director, Shane Ohly explained his thoughts about the new race, "I've actually been injured since August and this has given me some extra time - when I would normally be running - to think about concepts for events and as Steve Birkinshaw said, a 24-hour mountain marathon really was the missing piece in the current range of mountain marathon events in the UK. So, by this time next year, there will be high quality mountain marathon events each month from the Highlander in April through to the OMM in October. There will also be a great variety of events with the 3-day format Great Lakeland 3Day™, score format races like the RAB Mountain Marathon and even an overnight winter event with Marmot Dark Mountains™ each January".
Marmot24 will have a central event centre within the event area where all teams will start and finish. The location of the controls is such that competitors can choose to pass through the event centre during the race, with the two-person teams making the choice whether to rest, or eat, whilst the four-person teams can tag-in their team mates; swapping tired runners for fresh runners. The event centre will be a hub of activity with a large marquee, race control, retail shop, catering and camping for competitors and supporters. Supporters are actively encouraged and they can provide help for the competitors at the event centre.
With events like the Dragon's Back Race™, the Great Lakeland 3Day™ and Marmot Dark Mountains™, Shane Ohly and his team from Ourea Event have been steadily building a reputation for delivering high quality mountain running events in recent years. This years 2013 OMM Elite winner, Nick Barrable, was happy to lend his endorsement, "Experienced race organiser Shane Ohly, always puts on a good show and I am sure that much fun will be had."
Marmot UK Sales Director, Hugh Harris said, “After the great response to Marmot Dark Mountains™ (MDM), we wanted to extend Marmot’s support of mountain based events. MDM is brilliant, but it’s deliberately extreme and targeted at experienced, and seemingly masochistic participants! After working very successfully with Shane Ohly and his company Ourea, on MDM, we asked him to create a brand new summer event for us that would be open to a much broader range of participants. The result is Marmot24, and we’re really excited to be launching it this week.”