Do you know I'd forgotten about John Wild... ,but a point well made sir,he was indeed an excellent runner,but as you say not a prolific,but the mention of him certainly makes me remember that he was among the best at that time.....Originally Posted by TimW
I don't think they would have competed so keenly if they weren't bothered....
It is unfair to assume that fellrunning is somehow a poor relation to road and track and the point has been sort of made earlier - fellrunning is a specialism and comparisons between track runners and fell runners are meaningless. It's like comparing the car that won the Dakar Rally with the one that won the Formula 1 title - a pointless comparison.
Is track&field more competitive? Yes, but that doesn't detract from the prowess of fellrunners within their sphere. The very fact that most mainstream athletes are SCARED of it must add to it's kudos anyway.
On the question of past masters verus today's I have to say that there was more competition at the front a few years back. When Andy Styan set the Langdale record of 1:55 and-a-bit there were (I think) three others under 1:56. When Gavin Bland ran 1:57 much more recently he thought he'd done the second fastest time until he was told that three others (including his uncle Billy) had gone faster the day the record was set.
A bit further down the fieldMy times from the early 90s (which usually placed me in the 20s out of a field of 200ish at the time) would nowadays get me in the top half dozen in the same races. I am therefore sure that standards generally have fallen. BUT, does that make the very best fellrunners of today inferior to the very best of say 1990? I'm not so sure...
to rightUs young'uns know best scott.
Yeah I didn't mean that, of course they were all highly competitive people who wanted to win. I just meant I'm sure Holmesy doesn't sit down musing over whether his achievements are better or worse than Kenny's or Billy's. He's probably too modest anyway, is happy to have been the best of his own era and would laugh at us lot talking about it to these lengths!
Yeah I come from a road/track background and can tell everyone for a fact that proper fell running is like learning a new trade, it may help to have road fitness but that alone does NOT directly translate to fell running prowess. People have wound me up in the past saying things like well, Holmsey's only ever made the top 50 of the National XC, therefore he can't be as good an athlete! That's a bit like saying a centre forward must be a better footballer than a defender because he scores more goals! Like you say comparisons are impossible.
As you also say, fell running can't be that soft an option if other runners are scared of it! What are they frightened of?
I come from a road/track background and can tell everyone for a fact that proper fell running is like learning a new trade, it may help to have road fitness but that alone does NOT directly translate to fell running prowess. People have wound me up in the past saying things like well, Holmsey's only ever made the top 50 of the National XC, therefore he can't be as good an athlete! That's a bit like saying a centre forward must be a better footballer than a defender because he scores more goals! Like you say comparisons are impossible.
As you also say, fell running can't be that soft an option if other runners are scared of it! What are they frightened of?
I don't think it's whether road / track runners are SCARED of it, they just aren't really aware of it? It is a niche sport with few races held outside Northern England, Wales and Scotland.
Depends which club you belong to sometimes. In Birchfield Harriers it was always frowned on but in other West Midlands clubs (even) it seems to be positively encouraged as an option for distance runners.
Whenever I've visited Devon and ran on Exmoor I've thought to myself if only fell running cottoned on down here, you imagine the south to be fit for nothing more than a series of trail races but some of these hills aren't for the faint hearted! Like the Shropshire hills, many don't quite realise what the area has to offer until they have a Championship at somewhere like Callow or Long Mynd Valleys.
At the moment we are basically a northern sport (so far as England goes) so alright the 'English' is more like a Northern Championship if you want to compare it to other domestic distance running titles. No reason why that couldn't change though...
sorry guys but think you to are in dream world really to run 48 for 10 mile and 28 for 10km is really tough and needs alot of speed, i know jebbys strong but he's never been the fastest and although i think ian had better leg speed to beat some of the best today would still be very tough. Lets not forget kennys 10mile pb was 48.1x that was when he was training 100% for the thon and even on the fells i think he was faster with better natural speed than ian and jebby. One runner i would like to see do a season on the road/xc is simon bailey i think he would do some damage. We'll also see soon how Jethro Lennox one of the best on the fells stacks up in the london marathon.
Also its worth looking how those with sub 30 10km speed do in fell races, abit of research will show very well normally!
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