Frexit!

[noel]

Oh noel noel!

I am considering the philosophy of fellrunning and you are thinking about dying GPS batteries. The sport is doomed!!

Well if it's philosophy you want:
If a fell runner falls over in a forest and there's no GPS to track her, does she make an online noise?

[bigfella]

at least when the GPS broke you knew where your were at that stage

Your GPS probably knew where you were at that point,whether you do or not is a different question. If you are blindly following a GPS trail you probably have no idea of where your surroundings you are simply playing the game of trying to keep your moving dot on the line. Have you see the number of people using google maps on their phone that blindly walk into a lamp post/road/someone else?

I have an idea though, why not publish deliberately wrong GPS trails? perhaps co-opt the help of those who move flags / route markers for whatever reason.

[Graham Breeze]

Well if it's philosophy you want:
If a fell runner falls over in a forest and there's no GPS to track her, does she make an online noise?

Ah! Now that is the sort of intellectual rigour the FRA Committee needs here.

[DrPatrickBarry]

does she make an online noise?

if it's not on strava it didn't happen

[Stagger]

One day a person up loads a route to the GPS device. The said runner follows the shortest and most direct point between checkpoints.

Because runner had failed to check on a map about the dangers on the direct route. Runner is found dead by MR teams four hours after the end of the race at the bottom of who knows what.

Do we still allow said devices in our sport?

Horrible, hard hitting and just waiting to happen.

[Mike T]

Taking a risk here but I will nail my colours to the mask. Personally I would not use a GPS in a race, but still I would be against this request for a ban. Reading the comments on Facebook you would swear that all those blokes are showing up at the start line of a race in which they have no idea of the route and then expertly use map and compass to navigate themselves around. We all know that 99% of the time, that is rubbish. The majority will probably have done it before/reccied the route. The rest will follow the shirt in front.

The example of showing up at the Great Lakes Race with a gps track is nonsense. A runner should not even be allowed to enter a race like that unless they have demostrated clear ability in that type of race by having done done similar races in the past.

My partner was a timekeeper at The Great Lakes Race this year - a couple of runners did enter who were clearly well outside their comfort/experience zone. So it can happen.

[DrPatrickBarry]

My partner was a timekeeper at The Great Lakes Race this year - a couple of runners did enter who were clearly well outside their comfort/experience zone. So it can happen.

Which is worse that person having a GPS trace or a map that they can't use to the required level to get them safely around the course. The ideal is that they should not have been allowed to enter in the first place
.

[molehill]

A few years ago on this site I commented that I could see fell running/races splitting into "traditional" and whatever the opposite of traditional is. Nobody commented, I was obviously bonkers.

So I am saying it again, in case I pop my clogs before it happens.

[sbrt]

Real fell running or dumbed down

[Mike T]

Which is worse that person having a GPS trace or a map that they can't use to the required level to get them safely around the course. The ideal is that they should not have been allowed to enter in the first place
.

Agreed. But putting the onus on ROs to police entries in detail ups the workload considerably, and people who have run a road half marathon and a few trail runs will think The Great Lakes is within their capabilities - you don't know what you don't know.