53rd OMM - Original Mountain Marathon

It is with deep sadness that we must cancel the OMM 2020.

The build up for the event this year has been under more intense scrutiny than ever, and rightly so given the circumstances.

The Scottish Government, and all of us, need to cooperate to beat this terrible virus and, in Scotland, one of the measures has been to require larger sporting events to be registered with Scottish Athletics for professional risk assessment. OMM did this and was quickly recognised as an event where, due to the nature of the course and landscape, social distancing is inherently adhered to, as long as it could implement some changes to its staging areas (HQ, Start, Finish, overnight etc).

These plans were made and submitted and we received approval by Scottish Athletics and Environmental Health Argyle and Bute.

This week they have been officially revoked by the political body that Scottish Athletics report to. Mark Munro, CEO- Scottish Athletics, comments, ‘There is generally a real concern about the virus spread at Holyrood, anything that looks slightly risky in their minds is being postponed.’

At OMM, we consider the rising infection rate is reason enough to take additional precautions, however we hope that there will be sufficient stability by 2021 that complying with written government guidelines will be sufficient to allow events to proceed.

Sooo, For the first time in 53 years, there will be no OMM.

The OMM has always been, and will remain, a place to test yourself, find your limits and see if you can step beyond them. We will miss this highlight of our year.

For the volunteers and the organising teams, the event presents a similar challenge as we champion the positives of allowing open access to explore the wilder spaces. ‘No’ is not a new word to us and we will continue to fight for the event in 2021.

What will happen from here?

We expect to have the systems in place to finalise entrants’ refund options by early October. Once this is done, we will set up the systems and email you so that you can claim your refund, deferral place or product replacement for your ticket. We also intend to run the event at Arrochar on 30-31st October 2021.

I hope you will join me in thanking all the OMM and volunteer teams for their hard work in getting us this far. Thank you for showing your support by entering this year’s event in these uncertain times, and I hope we can rely on your support and participation in the future.

On behalf of the team, stay safe and keep embracing the challenges.

Warm regards

Stuart Hamilton