All good comments ba-ba.
Our (Ben & I) belief in the raison d'etre for the LCT is much the same as yours - to keep the tradition of the long Lakeland races healthy. In particular to keep those half a dozen or so long races, each with their history, viable.
We did have a lot of debate between the two of us before including Buttermere Horseshoe in the LCT from 2016. I was keen to include it, partly because it was originally a race with 'history' that had stopped being run and then reinstated, but also partly because it feels right to include it.
We then debated about what to do with now having 7 races. That feels like it makes it a different beast. The set of half a dozen races is more compact. Hence the decision to rest the races that now get lots of runners anyway, in turn.
So there's quite a bit of 'feels like' in that! We try to be consistent, but it is consistent with what 'feels right' to us, which is of course not the same as being consistent with logical guidelines - or even consistent with what feels right to anyone else!
But my apologies for making you have to do an additional race rather than 'double-counting' Buttermere Horseshoe. ;-)
It is a good point about being one less weekend away for those who do both championships.
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