Fell Running research

[Conno11]

Hello,

I am doing research on the growth of fell running as part of my Masters degree. If you have a spare 5-10 minutes to fill in an online survey that would be much appreciated. The survey link is here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/C8GYXCT

Thanks in advance.

[noel]

Done. Good look with your research.

[Conno11]

Thank you Noel. And thank you everyone who has answered. For clarity, the responses are completely anonymous and the aim of this research is to help the sustainability of fell running in times of commercialisation. If you want to express your opinions on issues such as sponsorship, GPS use, social media use, increasing participation, Fell running and the environment then this is the place to have an impactful contribution. I am hoping to present this to the FRA.

[Travs]

Done. Interesting survey. Good luck.

[Chris K]

Conno11, I've helped quite a few people doing research on fell running, mostly while I looked after the access for the FRA, some of the links may be still in the records of the current access officer. I also did a paper back in about 1993, if I can retrieve that, I'll pass it on.

[PeteS]

Just completed. It would be interesting to see the results particularly the favourite fell race though arguably some of the options aren't actually 'fell' races!

[DrPatrickBarry]

I though that was a very odd question. Who has one?

Lack of women was more interesting. I guess so many women just do not feel safe out training on their own. When I was a gym member the fitness classes were so dominated by women, I stopped going, just felt like a dirty old man.

The ethnic minorities question is more society in general, rather than fell running specifically.

[noel]

I'm interested to know whether women are represented in other sports more than in fell running - is it a fell running thing, or society in general. How many women do any form of competitive sports relative to men?

Here's an article by Sport Scotland and some recommendations about things that might help: https://funding4sport.co.uk/download...ticipation.pdf

[DrPatrickBarry]

Would not imagine fell running is any worse than many sports, probably better than quite a few.
Wonder what the percentage female representation is in FRA fell races? Twenty percent(ish)?

There is probably allready a 521 page thread on this topic.

[Llani Boy]

I think to encourage more people into fell running just to make the sport appear to be more "representative", whether that be for gender, ethnic, disability, social or any other reason can be quite dangerous.

Surely a love for, a respect of, and the ability to travel safely in the hills/mountains should come first whatever background one is from.

Other sports nowadays like to have diverse participation, in some cases to secure funding, or perhaps for PC reasons but a bit of wind and rain on a tennis court, football pitch, golf course or running track is not going to lead to potential serious consequences.

My route into fell running was via hill walking/climbing and having been passed by runners whilst in the Lakes, being a cross country runner, decided to give it a go. After a few years of racing unfortunately life got in the way for a while but I have eventually got back to it, in between the injuries!

Of course fell running requires new blood and I am sure it will find it naturally with people who have a love for the hills rather than dragging folk off street corners to tick a few boxes.

Oh yes, survey completed.