Cheats

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Originally Posted by Rudolph Hooker

Organisers should take a stand, yes. But we runners should try and be more supportive of organisers.

It's a friendly sport, not many rules ... surely it makes a bit of sense to follow the instructions of the poor sod who does all the organising, and most of the work?

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Aye, absolutely. Not much to ask, is it? ;)

It's more than cheating; it's not taking responsibility for one's own safety, relying on others to help e.g. donate spare kit in the event of an accident, and not being in a position to stop and help others. See Welsh 3000 thread for similar comments.

Would those who avoid carrying kit go for a high level walk in the Lakes without? I doubt it, so what has changed just because they are in a race?

Selfish is another word that springs to mind.

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Originally Posted by trilathon

having said that, I hope those who carry the invisible kit, have the experience, determination and luck not to have to have need of its use

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Tri- but again that isn't really the point is it? The race organiser goes to a lot of trouble to put the event on, carries a considerable amount of responsibility (even if not in practice, certainly from a PR and "not bringing the sport into disrepute" perspective) so to not carry the minimum kit that he requests / insists on his hugely disrespectful to the RO and your fellow competitors.

A

I guess we don't need a poll on this one to see what the majority opinion is! :p

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Originally Posted by jodg

I guess we don't need a poll on this one to see what the majority opinion is! :p

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But opinion when discussing someone else can be very different to reality when talking about yourself.

Perhaps such a poll should be "have you ever entered a race and taken less than the specified kit?"

I know I have, but only in a short race where the kit requirements seemed excessive, the majority of the other competitors also had no kit, and the organiser clearly wasn't enforcing it.

On the whole, I agree that people not carrying kit should be disqualified (and that a few high-profile disqualifications would help the cause). Also, ROs should be more proactive about checking people.

It's one thing cheating when you're the only one, it's another cheating when 90% of the field is also doing it (a bit like driving at 70 mph on a motorway).

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Originally Posted by noel

It's one thing cheating when you're the only one, it's another cheating when 90% of the field is also doing it (a bit like driving at 70 mph on a motorway).

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This is kind of what I was getting at in my last post. If 90% of the race is cutting corners, then the organiser would be up the creek without a shovel if anything happened and an inquest was held.

And if you think about that, you'll wonder why race organisers take on the responsibility that they do.

That's why it's up to us to consider what we do and to do our own bit to lower the risk for the orgaiser, the race and the sport. We don't need to have cameras on races (like we do, and will have, on motorways) do we?

I had all the kit required but wished I had had more like a hat and some suncream! Perhaps the FRA need a sunny weather kit list


Seriosuly though it wouldn't be hard to kit check some finishes as it was blatantly obvious who had no kit at all!

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Originally Posted by Epocian

I remember one year the Giants Tooth was shortened because of the weather
and Alan Greenwood (RO) requested everyone to wear or carry a cagoule (even though it's only a short race) and he spotted one runner without one so Alan lent one to him only to find it left on the floor at the start. The runner in question was DQd and told not to bother coming to any more of Alan's events.

Either accept to RO rules or if you don't like them don't enter!

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yeah i remember that, that place isn't really that forgiving when the weather comes in.. knee deep bogs with peat and green stuff are bad enough.

"....green stuff are bad enough"

So how was it racing with that cold Penguin?

I agree with the use of the term "cheat"... I ran with full kit and it felt bloody heavy going up Burnt Hill. I say finish line checks for first three and then a number of random checks too.