Just a word about the race.. everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and thanks to those who said nice things about the route and so on. As said conditions were very fast, and records broken.. more on this subject to follow.
To the runner who got lost, citing inadequately marked checkpoints, i'm not sure how much more obvious i can make the 2 highest summits in South Wales on a cloudless day. They're big old pieces of rock pointing up in the sky.. However, i'm sure the 5 people who hung around a cold hillside for 3.5 hours, unpaid, freezing their tits off, worrying about you, felt their time had been well spent when you got back and gave them a mouthful of abuse. Your group arrived at registration several minutes after the race should have started (and i'm aware this may be no fault of your own)..i could have turned you away but i processed you quickly without getting you to sign disclaimers so as not to keep the 77 other runners waiting any longer. I shouldn't have done this i expect, but without taking responsibility for yourself on the hill you could have put me, the race and WFRA at risk. Thankfully, you got back safe and sound.
Back to the subject of the race records and the ongoing issue of course length and validity of records. Just for the record (no pun intended), when i resurrected this race in 2009, i contacted the previous organiser for information, maps and past results. Everything had been destroyed in a flooded house, nothing had been put on disc or the internet, so there was nothing to do but ask around. It transpired after the first re-running that CP1 was too low. I subsequently asked, again, 6 or 7 people exactly where it should be, and got 6 or 7 different answers. No one, despite requests, could give me an accurate grid ref or physically show me. There was however, universal agreement that the time difference for record purposes was unlikely to be greater than 60 secs for those at the record-challenging end of the field. On balance i felt the best thing was to continue with the same location for consistency, since there was no info on times prior to 2009 except for the two records. In any case, records in fell running have to be taken with a pinch of salt, as, unlike track.road, conditions can change significantly from year to year with path improvements etc. Most people recognise this, and don't get too het up about it. For the one individual who has not been able to let this issue go after 5 years.. i don't know what to suggest. At least that i can post on here. Forgive my immodesty, but the new womens record set today is now more than 3.5 minutes faster than the 'old course' record. The men's record today arguably may or may not have beaten Colin Donnelly's on an identical course, but is still an awesome run- about 2 mins faster than when Tim Davies won the year he won the British (i think). My point is, regardless of the elusive 'true' location of CP1, these are good runs and deserve respect not denigration. The new organisers may decide to move the contentious CP next year, but for 2009-2013 these stand as good times.
I'm going to bed now.
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