Dartmoor: favourite venue for the OMM this year? Photo: Richard Knights

This year’s Original Mountain Marathon moves south to a location mysteriously and vaguely described by organisers as ‘south-west Britain’.

The event was hit by a media storm in 2008 when it found itself the centre of attention as torrential rain and gale-force winds in Borrowdale forced its early abandonment and gave slate-mine owner Mark Weir his chance to issue the now infamous ‘mountains into a morgue’ quote. Last year’s choice of the Elan Valley in Wales disappointed many due to its lack of perceived ‘mountain-ness’.

News of the venue for the event, the longest running mountain marathon in Britain is kept deliberately inexact until close to its running to prevent participants recce-ing the area. Forum users for the event point out that the whole of Wales could possibly be included in the description of south-west Britain, though Dartmoor seems favourite among posters.

Dartmoor has been the venue for the event, formerly known as the Karrimor International Mountain Marathon, once before, in 1982. It was held in the Brecon Beacons in 2004. The two-day event, in which teams of two compete over different classes of courses, tests fitness, navigation skills and endurance. The use of GPS units is banned.