Im getting older and feeling like my grandfather did when decimalisation kicked in, (1969 I think). Looking at the races in the handbook...Hmm...8.4 kilometres? what's that in old money? Get my son's old abacus out...5 minutes later "oh, ok, 5 miles." It'll take me a while to get used to all this new fangled metres and kilometres and by the time I do I cant help thinking that Mr Cameron will have turned us back into an 'Island' again.
I feel sorry for the imperialists, must be hard work to convert the fixtures book from metric, into mile sand feet, then convert back to metric on OS maps:wink:
what next road signs in km "arrrrgh"
aye its difficult having to work it all out. like reading the menu on holiday in France....pomme frites? get the phrase book out..'ah chips!' us old folk are more secure with what we know. I remember my grandfather moaning that he'd been 'dwindled' by decimalisation and he'd lost a few 'bob'. We've just lost a fair bit of distance on some races..e.g. The Ben race has always been 10 miles now its 14k which is 8.75 miles! The main thing is that the races wont change and neither will the lovely people who organise
or compete in them.
I've never ever done that - as far as I'm concerned on 'metric maps' 1:25000 is 2 1/2" to the mile and 1:50000 is 1" to the mile, for any practical purposes the grid squares are 1000 yards across (my pacing isn't accurate enough to distinguish between metres and yards) and in spite of the best efforts of the EU and other metric enthusiasts my standard issue mark one human thumb, which is and always has been a very handy measuring tool when looking at maps still has a top joint that is 1" long.Originally Posted by sbrt
All you modernists who keep telling us how easy it is to convert metric back in to imperial why dont you just leave us to operate in imperial and convert it to metric yourself if its so simple!
Forgot all about the stupid metric thing coming in just don't seem right
and you a youngster...
It's funny as i grew up with km's and metres. since beginning fell running 2 years ago have come accustomed to miles and feet and prefer it. now i have to go back to the old ways. found myself today when reading the calender converting it all back as i read into miles
got the fixture book today and so relieved that it is metric, makes life so much simpler for this old FART
Convert back why bother ?
The older I get the Faster I was
Why? I ask. Why do it, why fix what's not broken? To comply with some ridiculous European directive perhaps?! Sure enough the races don't change (and some of the accepted distances/climbs are only approximate anyway) and I can do the coversions, but why should I need to? It used to be a relaxing, casual read. That, for me, is no longer the case.
I've nothing against metricism, everything in its place (if I do a European race I'll record it in my log in kms and metres BECAUSE THATS WHAT THEY DO ABROAD) but when in Britain, pursuing an activity that defines 'Britishness' as much as bacon and eggs, then what are we thinking of? Why are we going down this road?!
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