Quote Originally Posted by alwaysinjured View Post
On another tack completely.

A simple but profound question

Can anyone remember one or more instances where tracking by an RO either during or after the race actually led to the instigating of a search which resulted in discovery "in time" of somebody otherwise incapacitated in a life threatening condition?

Without those examples it seems to me the entire raft of rules related to tracking and to some extent marshalling may be based on a falacy , demanding an RO actually succeed at something that has never actually been done ever in the entire history of fell running? Sounds daft, but it might even be true.

ie have all of the rules on tracking been based on the need to be seen to be doing something, rather than the efficacy of it, which is making an RO far more vulnerable whilst not actually achieving a meaningful result - is it all based on what rule writers hope might be achievable rather than anything that actually has?

Genuinely interested in the answer!
I can't give you a positive example of finding an incapacitated runner, but I can still see the value in the marshalling system. On a race I use to organise we had a runner go missing. The standard 'system' we had in place worked well - the countback revealed there to be one runner missing at the finish and we knew his number and name - when the marshals returned to race HQ we were able to ascertain they hadn't got to checkpoint 1. I then retraced the route of the race from the start to checkpoint 1 and realised it would be better to concentrate my efforts on contacting the runner (through his club) than call out Calder Valley Search and Rescue, because there was virtually no way he could have gone missing between the start and checkpoint 1 and the contact mobile he'd left at registration was constantly switched off. I managed to speak to one of his club colleagues, get his home number and call him. He'd been called away in an emergency after registering, but prior to starting the race and had left in a hurry without informing anyone.

Now if he'd broken a leg, I'm fairly confident I (with the help of mountain rescue) could have found him - but all this would have depended on the system of counting working properly. In a bigger field and in worse conditions it would be all too easy for this system that worked well then to fail. That said, without GPS tracking of all competitors, its probably the best system for working out where a runner might have gone astray.