UKA British Fell & Hill Relays

[GeoffB]

I like the nav leg, but for me that should be the extent of the nav. All other courses should be marked IMO.

If not as its a different course each year there is too much advantage to local runners.

Main issue is Sunday relays...next year sounds good.

Agree with everything there, Iain. More often than not people don't have a chance to recce for the relays.

[(notsomuchofa)Fellrunner]

Are you boys are loosing your passion for the sport ?

I can't believe it's taken until the Friday after the relays before the old chestnut about the nav leg being "a true test of mountaincraft" or "it was too technical, it should surely be a test of athletic prowess".

I think the format is okay, but let's not have the nav leg being too technical, eh?

I felt that the relays were really well organised, great courses & running, but the atmosphere was a bit flat. I can't put my finger on why this was, it may have been that people seemed content to mill around the marquees rather than the start/finish area. As one of my clubmates said it may also have been due to having Brian Potter on the PA system .

[Womble]

Saturday 15th October
http://www.fellrunner.org.uk/races.p...11&p=2&p=1&p=3
Unfortunately same day as National Road Relays at Sutton Park
Pity one of them can't be moved a week

Full information for the 2011 British Hill and Fell Relay Championship can be found here keep checking for updated info!

[rocksteady]

Ridiculous! Of course fell running is about navigation. How do you think people found their way around Wasdale this year (just to give one example)? Not only straightforward navigation, but route choice as well. I've always maintained that fell running is much more a branch of mountaineering than it is a branch of athletics.

Well done Geoff,
first to bite the hook.
but seriously though,i dont see how the nav leg improves the navigation skills of fellrunners in general as most teams put their best navigators on the nav leg who are already compitent at it.
I class myself as a runner when i`m fellrunning,it may be a mountain sport but to call it mountaineering?? now thats what i call ridiculous

[Rudolph Hooker]

Well done Geoff,
first to bite the hook.
but seriously though,i dont see how the nav leg improves the navigation skills of fellrunners in general as most teams put their best navigators on the nav leg who are already compitent at it.
I class myself as a runner when i`m fellrunning,it may be a mountain sport but to call it mountaineering?? now thats what i call ridiculous

"
2nd to bite.

A nav leg on the British Championship Relays isn't about improving ... it's about seeing which clubs have the best skills (including nav). That's what championships are all about? No?

Fellrunning is a mountain sport. I'm sure loads of folk on here will point you in the direction of fell races which require mountaineering skills up to and including scrambling.

But I'm sure you know these already!

[Grouse]

And it usually becomes more more mountainous the more lost you get.

[rocksteady]

would you call sking Mountaineering?some of those runs,especially the off piste runs come down near vertical slopes and again a mountain sport.what about mountain biking?
The present relays format is ok i suppose,and the nav leg can add a bit of excitment and can give some of the teams which lack athletic ability in depth a chance to get back in the race

[IanDarkpeak]

And it usually becomes more more mountainous the more lost you get.

It certainly did for Turbo at this years Rabb MM

[TimW]

Ridiculous! Of course fell running is about navigation. How do you think people found their way around Wasdale this year (just to give one example)? Not only straightforward navigation, but route choice as well. I've always maintained that fell running is much more a branch of mountaineering than it is a branch of athletics.

Yeh you say that but Wasdale is on the same course every year, has been for the last 20 or 30 years to my mind. Navigation (as opposed to route finding) is about working out a route you had no knowledge of whatsoever until you were handed your map on the start line! And that's orienteering, not fell running.

Either keep the nav leg in the FRA relays or remove it, but surely if it is kept then the event should be renamed the British Fell Running and Orienteering relays. Because the event currently involves both those disciplines.

[dylan]

navigational skills are an essential part of a fell runners set of skills.
why?well what if the mist/clag comes down,what do you do?
follow others or get your map and compass(which you have in your bum bag)and use.
it is a basic requirement on the grounds of self preservation and a duty you owe to your family and the race organiser to ensure your safe return.
please read the introduction to your fra fixtures calendar,page 9.