With apologies for a rather lengthy essay . . .
In 2012 a letter from me in the Fellrunner magazine led to a thread on “Descent speeds” in this forum. My interest in this topic was originally an offshoot of an attempt to find formulas relating runners’ pace to gradient (a somewhat futile project, given that pace also depends on terrain and individual runners’ characteristics, but I got it published: https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-js..._published.pdf). My interest has now been re-ignited, and I am wondering if anyone can help with the following queries.
The data for my earlier study came from the few downhill-only races that exist, and a few up-and-down races that regularly publish split times at the summit in results lists on their websites. That doesn’t include Burnsall or the Grasmere Guides (or any other BOFRA race that I could find). However, someone has been timing runners at the summit, at least on some occasions, since we know about Ernest Dalzell’s (disputed) 2:42 descent at Burnsall in 1910, Fred Reeves’ much slower descent when he broke the record in 1977, and Reg Harrison’s 2:44 descent at Grasmere in 1957. So, two questions:
1. How was the timing at the summit done: did the summit official walk up after synchronising stopwatches, or did he stand at the summit with a pair of binoculars, starting his watch when he saw the race start? What I am really asking is, how reliable are the times stated above?
2. Are split times at the summit recorded regularly at either of these races, and if so, where could they be found? My earlier study was somewhat inconclusive about optimum gradients for vertical descent speed, but the mean gradient should almost certainly be steeper than 25 percent. Burnsall and Grasmere don’t quite satisfy this; it would be good to have summit split times from the really steep races (Alva, Coniston Gullies), but it doesn’t appear that these are ever recorded officially — or does anyone know differently?
The websites for both the (amateur) Burnsall Feast race and the BOFRA Burnsall race give excellent route information; there are differences between the two races, but the altitudes of start and finish are similar; yet the Burnsall Feast website quotes 899 feet of ascent, whereas the BOFRA website quotes 800 feet. Checking the OS 1:25000 map shows that the BOFRA estimate is certainly more accurate. This leaves Reg Harrison’s Grasmere descent as the fastest officially recorded vertical descent rate that I am aware of (1.67 m/s), but only if we accept the figure of 900 feet (274 m) of ascent. Unfortunately the Guides Race website doesn’t have detailed information on the route: can someone familiar with the route please check the OS map to confirm or modify this estimate?
If we arbitrarily decide that a “mountain” course must have at least 500m of ascent, the fastest descent rate in a “mountain" race in the UK is still Keith Anderson’s 1.365m/s at Pen-y-Fan, but the world record in the Alaskan race has been improved to 1.52m/s by Eric Strabel.
Finally, the thread two years ago also discussed optimal gradients for horizontal speed (4-minute miles, etc). The Meltham Maniac Mile was mentioned: its gradient is 7.6 percent, whereas my study of downhill data suggested an optimum a little steeper that 10 percent. But in any case, Craig Wheeler’s 3:24 at the 1993 Meltham Maniac Mile appears to still be the fastest recorded mile in history: http://holmfirthevents.co.uk/event/m...iac-road-race/ .