Absolutely agree, and so do most fell runners. Trouble is, outsiders are not content to leave it at that. The world seems to have a crushing need to "blame someone", and they will look for any sign of impropriety to do that. So it is important not to make that any easier for them than we absolutely have to, the essential thrust of my previous comments.Originally Posted by bigfella
Worse still, the media are very vocal with bad assumptions of what has happened, then silent on the truth. I well remember a rather wet and flooded karrimor, where the countries leading media lined up to tell us how 1000 people were lost and in trouble. Sorry we mean 100, sorry we mean 10. Then almost silent on the eventual truth - that these are hardened fellspeople who got back safely, with one exception I believe that one had slipped in a gully, and needed treatment for a leg injury, which could just as easily have happened to any walker on any day before or since.
The risk of mortality in a fell race is higher than cycling or driving to the race per hour, by perhaps an order of magnitude, (where is the surprise in that?) but since serious injury cycling per hour is 30 times higher than mortality - I am guessing a statistical case could be made that you are less likely to get serious injury running on fells, than riding to the race by road. (or driving by car, I read an analysis somewhere that said the stats are not that dissimilar per hour).
I would hazard a guess that the health benefits from regular training in respect of better weight management, diet, aerobic exercise and so on, result in less risk of such as coronary problems or weight related problems than the population as a whole, to the point where the actual mortality rate amongst fell runners is substantially lower than the average population, so are far less of a drain on the nations health resources. I doubt the same papers that print blame stories would ever print that, but it might be a useful stat to wield against the nay sayers.
Might just do some sums to see whether it is true... Lies, damn lies and statistics.
