FAQ's

Please see the detailed Beginners Guide to Mountain Marathons on the Information section of the web site and the section on course choice below. There are two courses, Wansfell and Harter Fell, that are suitable for new entrants with suitable mountain and navigational experience. The courses are for teams of two.

Your entry fee includes two full days on the fells, weekend parking, camping at the event centre on Friday, the Friday evening social, a place at the overnight camp, delivery of your drinks order to the overnight camp, a waterproof Harvey map each, timing chip and GPS safety tracker hire, a hot meal and hot drink at the finish, free official photos, and split times and a GPX file of your route after the event. Campervans are subject to an additional charge.

The approximate area of the event is shown on the Home page from the beginning of December. The location of the event centre is announced a few weeks before the event to allow travel arrangements to be made. The location of the overnight camp-site will only be disclosed to you when you get your route on the Saturday morning of the event.

Please look at the Courses section of the web site carefully. This contains a great deal of detailed information and certain courses are limited to those with specific prior experience.

No. To be fair to all competitors , and the organisers, we have set our clear and detailed entry qualifications and will not make exceptions.

Each competitor will be given a 1:25,000 map specially prepared by Harveys and printed on waterproof paper for the event area. The map will be issued on Saturday, once you have started the race. Orienteers, please note the map is of a traditional kind and does not indicate ‘runnability’.

No. GPS devices (including mobile phones and watches) may be carried throughout the event but must NOT be used for navigation.  Any team found using their mobile phone or other electronic device for communication or navigation purposes, except in the case of emergency, will be disqualified from the event.  We rely on the integrity of our competitors to follow this rule. It is permitted to use a GPS device to track your route for post-event analysis, but this data must not be accessed during the event. There are no battery charging facilities at the overnight camp. Note that GPX files from trackers will be made available to competitors shortly after the event. The use of barometric type altimeters is permitted.

The map is overprinted with circles showing the controls used on all courses on both days. At the Start, you will still be issued with a control description list for your course, including grid references. You will need to identify which controls on the map are the ones for your course. You must take a pen with you for the event and we recommend a waterproof permanent marker is used to highlight your specific controls on the map. There are a number of markers that work well on dry maps and are not affected by subsequent wetting. However, we have found that the only method of reliably marking an already wet map is a wax pencil (Chinagraph type). You will be marking up your map in the open so be aware if this in the event of rain. Try out your pen on a wet plastic sheet before you come.

Full waterproof clothing must be carried by all competitors.  These must meet the FRA requirements for waterproof, whole body cover: The FRA regards waterproof to be a garment marketed as waterproof (i.e. not merely windproof) with taped seams. Such garments require maintaining (i.e. cleaning and reproofing) to maintain their waterproof quality. The FRA regards whole body cover to be an outer layer for the torso, with an attached hood, plus an outer layer for the legs that reaches the ankles; just below the knee cover is not adequate. See here for full details of kit requirements

Water will be available at Event Centre and Overnight Camp. It may need to be treated (boiled). If this is the case, notices will be erected to remind you. The organisers do not provide water or feed stations on the course. You must be self-sufficient in food and the only water available will be from natural sources, and this is dependent on the weather and the precise location of the course. You will have to judge whether it is fit to drink and use a suitable filter or other purifying method if you think appropriate.

Camping is available free at the Event Centre from late on Friday afternoon and tents can be left erected until Sunday afternoon if required. A charge is made for camper vans and roofbox tents. The organisers take no responsibility for tents or any items left in them over the weekend. Campervans under 6m are allowed with a permit bought as part of your entry. We cannot accept caravans. Neither the Event Centre nor the Overnight Camp are available for non-competitors to camp over the weekend.

All competitors will be issued with a precise start time for both Saturday and Sunday, based on the start-time they selected when entering the event. These should be noted in advance as start lists will not be published for view at the event.

Mobile units will be on site at both the Overnight Camp and Event Centre.

No Dogs, even on a lead are allowed at the event. Both the Event Centre and the Overnight Camp are on private land.

There will be a bar in the marquee at the overnight camp with a limited selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Drinks should be ordered in advance. We sometimes have extra stock to sell on the night for cash or card. No food is provided at the overnight camp and you must bring all supplies with you. It is against the rules to be supplied with any other food by friends, family, pubs or shops during the event.

No! You must take back everything you have brought with you, apart from the food you have eaten. This includes bubblewrap you may have slept on and all food packaging. Do not put rubbish in residents' bins. Random checks will be carried out at the finish.

You will need to make your own entertainment but the Saunders is known as a relaxed and sociable event and the overnight camp usually has a great atmosphere.

Yes, provided you do so with your original partner. You will receive a time and position for the Sunday course alongside the other competitors so you may feel this allows you to finish the event on a positive note. You will obviously not be given a time or position for the whole race as you will not have completed it.

Please tell the Download team if you do not plan to start on Sunday, and hand in your dibber and tracker. A minibus runs back to the Event Centre on Sunday morning for those unable to make their own way back. If you make your own arrangements, tell us your plans before you leave the overnight camp. Who looks after competitor safety and welfare? The event has a Safety and Emergency Officer and a Welfare Officer, supported by a medical team with paramedic support that covers the whole event. If you have any concern during the weekend, speak to any volunteer and they will put you in touch with the right person.

All courses close at 8pm on Saturday and 4pm on Sunday. Some controls close earlier, and the times are on your control description sheet. If you reach the overnight camp after 8pm you may have to retire.

The 2027 event centre is close to a public bus route. Details will be in the Competitor Guide. A luggage store is available for those arriving on foot.

Commemorative T-shirts should be purchased when you make your entry, and will be available for collection at the event.

No entry can be deferred until the next year unless the event is cancelled in which case all participants will be offered this option. You can change a partner prior to the event, provided your team still meets the qualifying criteria for the chosen course.

Full refunds less a £35 admin fee per team are made for cancellations prior to 1st April.  After this date we need to make sure the event is viable as we will have made commitments to suppliers and incurred the full costs of staging the event. Withdrawals and team changes (subject to relevant conditions and charges) are made by logging in to your entry on SiEntries, the entry system. Cancellations will be possible so long as there are over 575 teams entered in the event. You can check the number of teams entered on the SLMM event page on SiEntries. Please DO NOT contact the race organiser about cancellations. Note that you are able to change one or both team members by logging in to your entry on SiEntries up until 8am on the Monday before the event so passing on your entry to others may be an easier option than cancelling.

We publish split times and positions for each leg between control points as well as overall times and positions. This enables you to see where you lost or gained time on other competitors. We will also load the courses onto Routegadget — the link is published with the results on each year’s page in Past Races. You can compare your route with other teams’, either plotting your route manually or uploading any GPS trace you have collected. If other competitors do the same then you will be able to see how their route choices compared to your own. We will make competitors' GPX files from the trackers available for download shortly after the event so these can be used to upload to Routegadget if you wish.

Veterans’ results, based on a handicapping system, are calculated for all courses except Bedafell. This is how the percentage handicap is calculated:

• A team is eligible for a handicap if both members are 40 or older on the Saturday of the event. This applies to both men and women.
• The handicap maths is built on the World Masters Association (WMA) age-grading tables — the international standard used by top international masters athletics events as well as parkrun and similar systems. So your handicap is calibrated against real-world running performance, not a flat rule of thumb.
• The handicap reflects each runner’s age, with an additional adjustment for women to account for the greater physical disadvantage on rough fell terrain. The two partners’ factors are blended, with more weight given to the runner with the higher handicap.
• The resulting adjustment is then reduced by 20% to recognise that SLMM rewards judgement and teamwork as well as fitness.

You can enter your team's genders and ages in this SLMM Vets Handicap Calculator to see what your handicap factor is. This is how the handicap factor is used:

• For a linear course the total time over the two days is multiplied by the handicap factor.
• For the Fairfield course the total points score over the two days is divided by the handicap factor. If the total points score over the two days is negative, no adjustment is made.
• Here are some examples:
• If the total time over two days on a linear class is 8 hours 30 minutes and the handicap factor is 0.7, the time used for veteran results is 5 hours 57 minutes.
• If the total score over two days on the Fairfield class is 800 points and the handicap factor is 0.8, the score used for veteran results is 1000 points.

• The handicap is calculated solely on the age of the junior.
• The handicap is one minute for every whole month under 18 years of age on Day 1.
• This handicap is subtracted from the total running time over the two days
• The range of the handicap is from 47 minutes for someone of 14 years and 0 months on Day 1 to 0 minutes for someone of 17 years and 11 months on Day 1
• Prizes are awarded on handicap time only

Example: A team has a junior who is 16 years and 5 months on Day 1. This is 1 year and 6 whole months (18 months) under 18 years of age. Their handicap is therefore minus 18 minutes. If the team has a total running time over the two days of 7 hours and 23 minutes, their handicap time is 7 hours and 5 minutes.

PENALTY POINTS FOR FINISHING LATER THAN 7 HOURS ON SATURDAY AND LATER THAN 5 HOURS ON SUNDAY. The first 10 minutes — 2 points will be deducted from your score for every minute, or part of a minute, that you are late, between 1 minute and 10 minutes 10 – 20 minutes late – 5 points  will be deducted from your score for every minute, or part of a minute, you are late, between 10 minute and 20 minutes 10  points will be deducted from your score for every minute, or part of a minute, you are late, after 20 minutes. Your score after deductions will never go below zero each day. EXAMPLE If you are 25.5 minutes late you will have points deducted from your score as follows: 1-10 minutes              20 points 11-20 minutes            50 points deducted 21 to 26 minutes        60 points deducted TOTAL POINTS DEDUCTED     130