Last updated 10:32, Friday, 31 October 2008

As the world of work becomes less manual and more office-bound, growing numbers of us feel the need to test our physical toughness by getting back to nature – and proving to ourselves that we can handle it.

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Battling on: Mike Parsons, organiser of endurance race The Original Mountain Marathon, believes next year’s event will be even more popular

One of the toughest tests of endurance, self-reliance and skill that anyone can take on is the Original Mountain Marathon.

The OMM, as it is known, is not easy or risk-free, as the experience of this year’s event showed. But that, according to its organisers, is the whole point.

Running miles through the Lake District National Park is, to coin a phrase, not meant to be a walk in the park.

It is meant to push competitors to the limit. And that is why it and other extreme events like it, will always hold such an strong appeal to so many people.

As organiser Mike Parsons says: “People know it’s the toughest event in the calendar. It’s not supposed to be a picnic on a sunny afternoon.”

And he confidently predicted: “Next year we will be inundated, with more entries than ever.”

The two-day race across up to 50 miles of mountainous terrain is held every year in late October and regularly attracts about 2,500 enthusiasts keen to see if they can stay the pace.

This year Seathwaite in the Borrowdale valley was hosting the event.

But when violent storms engulfed the mountains last Saturday there were fears that lives were going to be lost.

No-one died. But 1,700 participants had to shelter from the battering winds and rain in barns, outhouses and tents and the cost of searches by mountain rescue teams may run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

In the five days that have followed, another storm has raged, as police and event organisers argue over whether the event should have been allowed to proceed.

But those who run the OMM have pointed out that people will always respond to the call of the wild – both wild terrain and wild weather conditions – and will want to test themselves against these extremes of nature.

The OMM has been running for 41 years and has been held in different mountain ranges throughout England, Scotland and Wales. It always takes place over the weekend when the clocks go back at the end of October. This was the ninth to take place in Cumbria.

Mr Parsons, who lives in Patterdale, has competed in the race 25 times and now co-organises it with his sister Jen Longbottom.

He said the event was so popular because it was so tough.

“There’s a kudos in taking part,” he said. “People who do it want to be tested by nature.

“It is a real challenge, and completing it brings a great deal of satisfaction.”

Another part of the attraction, he believed, was defiance against an over-protective “nanny state” with too many restrictive health and safety rules.

“There is a social oasis of people who want to be independent and make their own decisions,” he said.

“The rest of the world thinks that there’s always somebody else responsible, somebody else you are able to blame.

“But some people wish to be responsible for themselves. The OMM is about being self-reliant.”

Few of us face the kind of conditions in our daily lives that confront participants in the OMM. It is this very difference from the norm which Cary Cooper, professor of psychology and health at Lancaster University, believed was the appeal of such extreme sports.

The very risks involved, he said, were appealing because they were something the average office job usually lacked.

“Many people don’t have very exciting lives as nine-to-fivers,” Prof Cooper said. “They want something stimulating and exciting which pushes the envelope a bit.

“Most people nowadays are office-bound in their jobs and don’t take many risks during a working week.

“It’s about doing something that is very different from their normal lives and involves more risks.”

Succeeding in the difficult circumstances of the OMM is also a boost to one’s self-confidence, the professor added.

“To test yourself to the limit is something that many people need to do from time to time. You can do it in all sorts of different ways.

“People want to see if they can cope, if they can survive – and if they succeed they get a lot of satisfaction from that.”

And while teachers, lawyers and many others may face mental and emotional challenges in their day-to-day lives, the challenge involved following a course over mountains in hostile weather conditions is a very different one.

“We can face challenges at work but we don’t face a physical challenge for survival. That’s what people are looking for.

“A lot of those who went out last weekend knew that the weather was very bad. Some would have probably found that an even stronger motivation for them.”

He agreed with Prof Cooper that the desire to escape from the weekday environment and to set yourself a physical challenge, was what appealed to most enthusiasts.

“I think it does you good to test yourself,” he said.

“For me it is the sheer feeling that you are pushing yourself to the limit.

“You are not competing against other people – you are competing against yourself, you are competing against the environment you’re in.”

However Mr Park added that there would always be competitors who did not know their limits and expected too much of themselves – just as there are in any sport. “When I’m wearing my mountain rescue hat I will bump into them,” he said.

But he stressed: “I would hate the circumstances of last weekend to cause organisers to cancel these events because as long as they are well run and safe they should be encouraged.

“They bring people out to the Lakes and allow people to enjoy them and that is important.”

Tourism bosses also see this as important and want to capitalise on this enthusiasm for adventure.

The Lake District National Park contains 214 mountains and Cumbria Tourism is keen to promote the county as the “Adventure Capital of the UK” in the hope that more mountain enthusiasts will come here and spend their money.

Its chief executive Ian Stephens said: “There can be no doubt that these events bring large numbers of visitors into the county and generate significant economic impact.”

And when the world’s athletes travel to Britain in four years’ time for the 2012 London Olympics, they may seek somewhere as demanding as Cumbria’s landscape in which to train.

“Cumbria’s natural assets and unrivalled extreme landscape provide the perfect backdrop for adventure sports,” Mr Stephens said.

For there is more to the Cumbrian countryside than Wordsworth’s daffodils fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

And to Mr Parsons, what adventure sports offer is a different way of enjoying nature – not through admiring flowers, trees and butterflies but through coming face to face with it in its most savage state.

“Lots of people appreciate nature on a nice, sunny day,” he said. “That’s great.

“But there’s a more specialised group who enjoy the wildness of nature.

“When you’re up there and you’ve got a bad wind in your face but you are well-equipped, then you experience something very special.”