Safety Matters

[Stolly]

Haha, I suspect that there's a reasonable chance that when I do pop my clogs I might well be left for dead on the fells Mike. I can't think of a better place to go either. I can't talk for anyone else here but I run in the hills for the sense of freedom and adventure and trying to turn fell running into a health and safety water tight ship will gradually erode the sport into a vacuous and sterile version of its former self. Yes sensible efforts to get the basics right are great but all this worrying about runners being too stupid to look after themselves and placing added responsibilty on race organisers (whether as suggested by you and/or the FRA) will kill the sport.

On the day of the Edale Skyline I couldn't race because I had Harry with me. We were there supporting Hester though who was racing, so me and Haz ran the route on our own anti-clockwise to co-incide with the race. From the marshalls we visited, I could be wrong but I sort of got the impression that they weren't particularly enjoying themselves and, both times that me and Harry met the race sweepers coming the other way, I was interrogated almost in a panicky way to see whether I was involved with the race (even though I was running the wrong way, with a border collie and wearing a Leeds Rhino's top and without of course a race number pinned to my chest).