Agree Lefty - and that applies to ROs as well as athletes.Originally Posted by Lefty
Agree Lefty - and that applies to ROs as well as athletes.
Yes but you are making an unknown decision.. how far off is someone? They may think they are on the route, yet in reality searching a piece of hillside way off the route..
Look at Jura? Wasn't it Rob Jebb who ended up at the back of the island?
We've had a few in North Wales return to the start of the race in Landrovers...
Totally agree with this, thats what I said about informal passing on information. That is different from passing on information in a formal coaching session. The psychology changes then. There is a respect to the leader/teacher that things do not get questioned, so incorrect information given out should be avoided.
Its different when people are just out for a run having a chat.. passsing on experiences. This desire to formalise informal club sessions is worrying in that regards.
But an old guy who just states from experience is different to a formal coach passing on information..
Fascinating distinction made, and an argument could run forever on which would give you better advice!
The telling remark is "pass on information" , rather than "pass on experience". I would pick first hand experience every time from whoever it came.
Anyway! what is so wrong with being old????? grrrr..... You young whippersnappers, don't know nuffin', and won't be told, not like in my day..! (Just practising the speech, ready for promotion to the next age group)
Last edited by alwaysinjured; 14-10-2013 at 05:50 PM.
I have gained experience from doing in fell running and feel capable of tackling most routes.
Only map reading was O level geography (1978)
This is an interesting debate interspersed with the usual strange view or two.
Common sense is the key but sadly we can't teach that.
I think it depends, a mate did an article on experiences.. he's young and one of the UKs best climbers but was fed up with oldies saying he was inexperienced.. yet in reality he'd done more than most had in just in a few years.. I edited the article for him to try and make it more 'experience isn't just time out'.. but he was understandably sick of the 'what do you know'..
In North Wales I don't think we had that many I'd class as experienced, few had raced away, few had done well at the classic races, few if any had done the paddy buckley.. for me they weren't particularly experienced despite decades of fell running.. their actual range of experiences was pretty limited.
I think too many hid behind fear of the unknown, I remember when I first started and said I was doing the Paddy in a few weeks, I was basically told I wasn't fit enough.. and that only those in peak fitness would do it, then ran the 6th fastest time to date. They just did not have the experience to comment with such authority... yet due to the length of their experience they thought they did, but the reality was it was running eilio and snowdon race for the last 20 years... if you had intimate knowledge of the Paddy you knew it was much quicker than people were stating at the time, it just screamed of inexperience.
In the lakes you got far more of the gnarly old vest who had been there, got the t-shirt....
True.. but thats sort of a reason why these rules are coming in..
Common sense wasn't enough.. runners are now entering fell running with much less experience. It's great it is so accessible but its brought its own challenges. As I said marshalling the Elidir race was an eye opener for me just how much responsibility a good chunk of the fell runners were placing on RO's and marshalls.. a good chunk of the field just ran up and then ran back down towards the cliffs.. they'd obviously not got a map, reccied the route, or had looked at the best route on the map....
We all make mistakes but there is too much blind trust at the moment. Its the main reason I oppose shortened races in all but the most extreme conditions because I think it encourages the thinking that if a race is held it's safe to be out there.. and not the runners call to decide when enough is enough for them. We just end up racing in tame unchallenging conditions..
I agree Iain.
Scafell pike a month ago, had people going in all directions in the clag. Some did not have maps and others had maps but didn't know where they were.
How do we get round it, ensure everyone has completed either navigation training session or navigation event.
Mark the course?
Narr, it would spoil the sport.
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