Originally Posted by sore legs
I got a very prompt and concise response to my query. I'm in.
Excellent. The Fellsman is one of the main events for me this year. I'm hoping to do a sub something somethingorother...inaudible mumble...
I'd reccommebd a good trail shoe with a substantial tread, I wore walshes on my first one and ended up with a stress fracture in my tibia, I've also run it in montrail highlanders and adidas kanadias with no issues.
After last years event, they requested feed back on a few points, which I thought that I would take the effort to do. I emailed them the suggestion that an 'acceptable' list of shoes/trainers would be a good idea as there is always lots of discussion along the lines of ... 'are xxx make/model of trainers acceptable as trail shoes?' (accepted that condition of shoes can not be judged without viewing). Considering there is actually a list of acceptable footwear it would be a simple task.
I dont know why I bothered as I never got a response to the email, so in my view it was an empty request for feed back.
To be fair I suspect that the poor old organisers were up to their necks in "feedback" following all their troubles with the weather last year. For those that weren't there it was a bitterly cold day with a strong biting wind blowing all day without respite. Although most of the walkers were fine, and wearing sufficient gear, increasing numbers of runners starting pulling out later in the day due largely to the cold and potential hypothermia.
This meant that, after humungous efforts on the organisers parts, their support staff became so overstretched that they had to make the difficult call to end the race for those not past Park Rash(?) at about midnight(?). This in turn unfortunately meant that an awful lot of those effected (the less speedy runners and the walkers, virtually all of whom said they'd been coping well) were the completely undeserving losers in the equation. That said the organisers didn't cancel the event so much because of the weather but more so because they no longer felt able to provide the required amount of safety support. Probably the right call in the circumstances but tough doings for those effected.
Added to that, at the grouping up stage, a few runners in a sorry condition, rather than doing the sensible thing and retiring, forged on and nobbled their groups by becoming huge liabilities to everyone's safety, including their own. This in turn led to a couple examples of teams becoming split up, despite the rule to absolutely stay together, which is obviously both unforgiveable but at the same time understandable in the circumstances.
I was absolutely frigid by Cray and thought I was hypothermic (my eyes were glazed and my speech was heavily slurred) so I did call it a day there and then. And the support they gave me and everyone else at Cray was truly fantastic. Mind you the thing that had worried me most, my blurred vision, which I put down to hypothermia, was actually probably just down to the constant buffeting of my eyes in the wind - after the event almost everyone I spoke to said they'd suffered with blurred vision. Maybe I should have bashed on but there again if I had would I have cocked things up for the group I joined? I did the right thing for sure
I wore INOV8 roclite 315s last year and they were excellent. They coped with being up to my knees in bog, slippy grass, stony trails, ice and snow and I didn't have any blisters just a black toenail which was probably the result of not cutting it short enough.
Like you Mark, I emailed and got a response within a few days. I'm in
It would probably save them lots of enquiries if they could publish a list of who is in (especially as they said they may not cash cheques for upto a fortnight) but they are all volunteers, with families etc
As to the shoes I suspect it is not necessarily a named brand but more the amount of sole / stud left that they question
Thanks for all the shoe advice, but I wasn't being 100% serious.
In fact I was being 100% facetious.
I'm obviously too subtle for my own good.....
But seriously though - we expect a lot from these race organisers. The bottom line is: they put the event on for us, and we should be happy that they have.
Hey - remember when you had to put 50p in an envelope to get your results posted to you?
Last edited by MarkL; 14-01-2013 at 08:40 PM.
ha ha, I never read the rest of the thread or your original comment so I'm sorry for missing the irony! Just dipped in and saw someone talking about shoes and thought I'd throw in my two pennorth! Am still so amazed that I completed the Fellsman last year that I am looking for reasons why I was successful...can only imagine it was my shoes:wink:
Nah. Shoes 5%; person in 'em 95%.
Ha Ha sorry Mark, obviously way too subtle.
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