I was discussing this with William Clough in the boozer last night. I've received a few suggestions that I should ban the use of GPSs in the new AL race Pennine are organising in September: Groovy Kinder Love .

However, having reccied the route using a GPS, I am convinced anyone doing this in race conditions would be substantially slower than anyone who has done a reccie and/or knows the area. So, I'm profoundly chilled with people taking GPS on races, as long as they also have a map and compass.

Perhaps the comparison we should be making is to the many runners who take a map and compass but who plan to follow someone. If they get dropped by that person, they then have to revert to using a map. This is just the same as if someone's GPS breaks.