Quote Originally Posted by XRunner View Post
Same sport, different name

I have run some superb trail races in America that would make many of the UK fell races look like cross country.

As far as most people are concerned hills, fells and mountains are just another name for the same terrain.
I think you destroyed your own argument with your middle paragraph there... some trail races that make fell races look like cross country??? So, not the same sport then...

Without rigid definitions the edges are blurred but I have a pretty good idea in my own mind what constitutes a fell race and it's nothing like running round a local park on a Saturday afternoon, which is what most people mean by cross-country!

It's true there's a certain amount of interchangeability between the terms fell, hill and mountain (depending where you come from) but 'trail' is not interchangeable with any of those...