Gosh, what a relief, all those crazy fell runners have been found safe and sound.

Over the weekend there was concern for the 1000 entrants in the Cumbrian Original Mountain Marathon, as severe winds and driving rain lashed the fells around Keswick, causing the organisers to cancel the event.

Unfortunately it had already started and the entrants, running in pairs, equipped with the correct clothing, emergency supplies, tents and a stove were off making their merry way across the mountains, valleys and passes of West Cumbria, running on their own chosen route and using only traditional navigating equipment, i.e. a map and a compass.

With mobile phone coverage of the area being unreliable and intermittent, (every time I go to stay at the Lodore Swiss hotel on the banks of Derwentwater I end up half out of the bedroom window in an attempt to make contact on my mobile with my children or cat sitters) and with the competitors barred from using mobiles the problem was how to let people know the event had been called off.

The media had one answer, PANIC! News bulletins began to emerge with stories of hundreds missing, feared washed away in the flash floods.
As I pointed out to hubby, there aren't many places to get lost around Keswick, if you know what you are doing.

Sure enough, by this morning all the entrants were accounted for, the only injuries a couple of minor fractures and some mild hypothermia, which is apparently par for the course.

And now the doom-mongers are wringing their hands and saying the race should have never started and who is going to pay for the rescue operation?

For heaven's sake, these people are fell runners. They run about on hostile terrain in adverse weather conditions all the time, and they enjoy it. I bet none of them asked to be rescued and I also bet they were all a bit peed off that the race was cancelled.

They should probably ask for compensation for their spoiled weekend.