Originally Posted by
IainR
In this sense Mountain running is running in the mountains.. its for UKhillwalking.. for hill walkers..
Yeah you can differentiate fell running and mountain running but for the target audience there, they don't care about that difference.. I wasn't calling you numpty by the way, just I knew you'd get the 'we own the sport' lot coming on being semantic and just knocking away.. which I expected and enjoy.. :-)
I actually wanted to put a link earlier.. its been there a good week..
Re the guiding.. There are a few guides around. Steve Fallon up in Scotland does some I think, us in North Wales, then one in North Yorkshire (Jellylegs?), he posts on here, then people like IanDP will do some i think, then there are others. But a guide who actually claims part qualification.. yet lists experience, backed out of one race due to adverse weather conditions.. yet they are wanting clients to pay them to guide them through such weather.. its why experience may be enough, but it is fraught with dangers and you have to think about how the target audience can judge that experience..
Sadly it will take deaths in fell running and such like until we see the sport calm down a bit.. People can call it alarmist but the outdoor sports went through huge upheavels following Lime Bay and other disasters..
Also be careful with some of the 'run with x' weekends.. I won't name them, but I know of one weekend when the elite runner wasn't actually there.. so book through the person the directly..
If someone wants guiding, basically think what they want, look at the guides profile and see what they can offer. We mainly do intro and intermediate weekends for groups, but do some personal one on one guiding, which is normally 3-4 hr runs. But sometimes its just 1 hr a day, 5 days a week. for someone's holiday. A guy on holiday with the family, limited time and wants a blast on good routes.. others want run scrambles, other 3000ers work.. the dream jobs are always race routes.. take someone around a route talking them around the race.. being paid to do what you love doing..
Its interesting we also get walkers wanting to hire us and they'll almost brag on the hill that they have international runners as guides, it goes right back to the history of fell running. i.e. Guides races..
One of the top climbing guides calls it 'removing the pain'.. so that's what you try to do as a guide.. in todays society the relatively cash rich time are common, so we meet people with limited time and provide good runs in good scenery..
contacting local running clubs can sometimes provide some of that in other areas.