Three Peaks Fell Race

[Mark Smith]

I spent 5 minutes in the queue and was not impressed by a well known female fell runner jumping the whole queue. managed to beat the Hill Inn cut off by 8 mins though but felt really sorry for those that were less than 5 minutes outside the cutoff getting pulled out. its a wonder we did not get a serious injury on the Whernside descent from people trying to make the time up in absolutely treacherous conditions.
Having had some injuries and a lack of training was pleased to finish in 4.57 so my 9th finish in a row and managed 64 mins for Wray Fell Race yesterday.
that said, its a fantastic race and as said by others the marshalls were brilliant as always and the race would not run with them so thank you.
10th one next year, can I get a plaque for 21 races??? will mean I will be 71 for the 21st race!!!

Firstly, well done on your run and for your patience. A club mate of mine who is new to this race and quite new to the sport witnessed what you did and told me that people in the queue said it was ok because of 'who she was'. That's not our sport and made her (and my) blood boil. I'm respectful of past achievements but it clearly does not warrant a heightened importance in races. THere's racing and there;s arrogance and rudeness.

I had a similar experience some years ago when i helped a heatstroke stricken runner and called for help to be told by the same person that they couldn't stop because they were competing for a category prize. Said runner was in the same club as the stricken runner and i wasn't (not that this should matter). I got help from others and eventually let my feelings be known, only to be led away by the elbow by a friend of mine who knew i was wasting my time. As i understand it, stricken runner changed clubs afterwards.

The point of posting this? I think it's to ask that we all call these people out at the time no matter how deluded they are about the rights given to them by their admittedly stunning running CV. It should and does mean nothing when we're racing.