I was another of the runners held up at the bottom of Whernside trying to cross over the pallet one at a time. Hats off to everyone there as no one decided to vault over any other part of the wall, they all showed remarkable constraint and a high degree of etiquette. To have climbed over and damaged the wall would have been an absolute PR disaster and would have given further vindication to the farmer for not allowing access up the fell to the summit on subsequent races.
However on a personal level this delay cost me dearly as I just missed the cut off at the Hill Inn.There were a lot of runners in the same boat as me who were absolutely dismayed that there was no leeway given on the cut off time for the que at the bottom of Whernside.
The female marshall at the Hill Inn check point ,whom appeared to be in control did her best to pacify some of the really upset runners in fact while I was there she had contacted the Race Director for guidance on the issue of the pile up at the bottom of Whernside, but the answer given was a final and unequivocal NO to the fact that the runners had not reached the checkpoint in the allocated time and subsequently were retired off the course
There has been a breakdown in communication somewhere between the farmer and the race organisers and this needs addressing for next years race