Litter

[Wheeze]

Perhaps, but then these twattish litterers would just drop their stuff with even less of a thought save in the knowledge that some poor sod was going to wipe their ar3e for them! And what if it was poor weather, windy/snowy etc. Litter picking becomes a nightmare.

No, the best way is to stamp it out at source!

[DrPatrickBarry]

Yes and it is a "big ask" of volunteers, espically on a long race.

My son and I went out on our bikes in Ireland last summer to fill two ruck sacks with dozens of water bottles that were discarded on the road at two water stations following a local 10 mile road race earlier in the day. I was not impressed.

[Bob]

I've been sweeper on a cycling sportive that our club organises in the Dales. Very little litter that I could definitely attribute to the riders - I doubt they went off-route for a Big Mac for example. The first year there was just one piece of litter, a gel wrapper, in 80 miles, last year I came across an unopened malt loaf!

Many fell races have a sweeper (or sweepers) these days so it isn't too hard for them to carry a bag for any rubbish that they may find. They shouldn't have to but we aren't all perfect or even perfect all of the time.

[Wheeze]

its not a question of being perfect, its about caring for your actions.

[bena]

Can't disagree that littering is wrong, but I'm sure that over the years the odd bit of stuff has fallen out of my pockets etc accidentally. To ensure good litter karma I make a point of picking up at least 1 bit of litter every time I'm out; if I know I'm close to a bin then I might pick up more.

^^^ Can't agree more. It is easy to complain but everyone that I have ever met on a fell race would never intentionally drop litter and my guess is that most of it is accidental. To keep my conscience clear I always pick up litter... even in a race.

If everyone in the 'pack' committed to picking up one piece then our events would probably have a positive impact rather than a negative one.

[Jez Hellewell]

I did a race a couple of years back (The Swaledale Marathon) with the intention of picking up any litter I spotted en route. I think I bagged about 6/7 gel wrappers. I doubt they were all accidental.

[bigfella]

If you drop something accidentally in a race situation do you stop and pick it up, what matters most to you, your race position or your care for the environment?

Not addressed to anyone in particular, obviously.

[ba-ba]

If I know I've accidentally dropped something I pick it up.

If I don't then I don't as I don't know I've dropped something... At Langdale I noticed some sweets dropped out early on so picked them up. I didn't notice a gel escape though, so there may be some hyper sheep about!

[bigfella]

As you are at the sharp end that is very commendable, I would hope that is the attitude of everyone but I suspect not.

[Travs]

I've certainly dropped part of a gel wrapper during a race and noticed, and stopped to retrieve it.

In fact the only time I've noticed something and not retrieved it was during the Kentmere Horseshoe when a whole bottle fell out and rolled away down the fell, at a far greater speed than i could achieve to catch it back up.

But the amount of wrappers I see on certain races does point to them not all being accidental. And I'm sorry to say that more often than not the worst offending races are usually championship races. What this says about some of the people attracted to champs races is open to interpretation.