Quote Originally Posted by Deek View Post
Lovely day. Quite a tough course, especially second half. A bit contrived going down to the foot of the last descent. First half particularly good. Not as windy on top as I thought. Lloyd Tagart won. It would be a deadly course to try in thick mist. Hardest part was navigating the lanes to get there.
Surely any course that does not go directly to a summit and directly back down again is "contrived". The organiser is attempting to give you the most sporting / demanding route on the terrain that is available to him - hence the need for checkpoints. Your criticism of contrived could apply to such races as:- Winter Hill, Full & Half Tours of Pendle, almost any race that has more checkpoints than Start - Summit - Finish. Indeed the actual sport of fell running is contrived - why run to the top of a hill, only to run back down again? Because we do it for the fun of it! We don't do it to be logical!