Quote Originally Posted by dominion View Post
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...