New safety rules

[alwaysinjured]

I was marshalling in the Elidir race in pretty shocking weather and I'd say 1/3rd of the field had no idea of the route.. nor had a map.. or couldn't have used it. It was a bit of an eye opener how much people think a race is a safe environment..

The "follow the number in front of you" mentality worries me too! I remember a langdale race in clag where people were coming in from all over the map , hours later, having followed the number in front of them into armageddon. Those are my kind of races, I can out navigate a lot more people than I can outrun.

I even took the time and trouble to explain in the car park to someone who had not yet done it how to navigate at sedbergh, explaining the critical part over the cols to checkpoint before the path up to the calf, even citing the key bearings and gave him a highlighted one page map. Yet who shall be nameless , followed a well known lady runner, straight up the wrong ridge to the calf one checkpoint to early , and retired failing to finish the route.

The problem with navigation in clag is , if you do not know where you are, working out what to do next can be a problem, and unless navigation is in the back of your mind at all times, you are not keeping tabs on where you are. That needs to be impressed on runners, keep checking the features you expect to see check off in your mind as you pass them, then at least you have some inkling on where you are , or were at the last known location.

More races run in pairs might be one partial answer to the safety concerns: they do it at county tops and on mountain marathons.