idiot

[AllanT]

Allan, please note, I said 'local' runners. They obviously knew about the gate and the rest of us non locals did not. I don't have a problem with that. My point is that the marshalls should have sent everyone that way instead of letting a queue build up.

My point is if you saw the local runners heading off in that direction, then you could have chosen to follow them. Again, it's not the marshals place to direct runners (unless there's a specific route they must follow due to access issues), they are only there to supervise style.

Like I say, fellrunning is about self sufficiency, do you really want marked out routes, signs saying "alternative route" etc. That marshal ensured that everyone who chose to use the gate did so in turn. They weren't there to ensure that runners didn't choose to take an alternative route.

In reply to Iain, fair enough it might have been miles away for you, however there must be other occasions when races are much closer for you, and therefore suitable for reccy which the other runners whose areas you've visited couldn't make. However if you were really serious about the outcome of the race and your own performance, you could still go up a few days before, reccy it and stay up there for a few other days getting to know the ins and outs of the area. If not accept that locals having the advantage of knowledge is all part and parcel of fellrunning, perhaps if you'd spoken to the other local runners and marshals, or other locals who knew the area well & they felt inclined to tell you, you could have learnt some of the alternative routes?

Also checking the map helps - it stands to reason that where there's a gate, often there's a track which will be marked on the map. OK maybe not in every case, that is true but it does often apply.

[Wheeze]

Allan. By the time I saw the locals making for the gate I was almost at the stile so there was no point following them. A minute later and I would have been after them!
As a solid mid-fielder I am really not worried about saving a minute here or there. That is not the point. The point is about saving damage to walls and the like. A common sense approach to organising this is to identify and manage pinch points in a championship race when you will have a disproportionately large number of non local runners. There will always be muppets who think nothing of causing damage if it suits them so the RO has a responsibility to manage this. In the case I am illustrating there was a perfectly good alternative to the stile, invisible from the race route, which should have been used.
This is completely different from reccying a route to make best advantage of short cuts in open country.