Paid Rounds

[Oracle]

It does not even solve a potential problem, e.g. Excessive wear to the route,
And even if it did, you could wait for symptoms before unnecessary rules.

As parting comment.
You probably wonder my reason for interest: I spent my 20s , 30s and early 40s buried establishing businesses: hours that would make junior doctors feel lazy. Burned out before I got to 45.

It didn't stop me running, but much of it was antisocial . And any form of racing was heavily constrained by schedule. I never did race when at my fittest. Nor did it stop me recceing BG ( you can do any time, it is one of the attractions) , or helping a dozen others succeed, and some , probably rather less fail.

But in all that time there were only two or three days in almost a decade when I was both fit enough and could commit to a date for a round, and sadly on those few days, the supporters I knew were committed elsewhere. I was cash rich time poor, Had paid rounds been available I might have looked at that as an option, it might just have got me round. We will never know.

It has nothing to do with ethos Bob, letting professionals run proves that. Another is asking for supporters right now, Nor creeping commerciality, or are you going to stop Harvey's or Pete blands from selling maps? Certainly nothing to do with use, the paid supporters are rarely used. And all those supporters love and respect the route , they would not do it otherwise. The rate of pay is only beer money. Not enough to make a business.


In my view , It is just another meaningless , purposeless , small minded decision, that athletics committees love.

Removing paid support might not be solving any current problem but is dealing with potential future problems laid out in my previous post. I can't foresee the future any better than anyone else but I (and the committee) can try and ensure that behaviour by the Club and contenders doesn't lead to future conflict.

The first mention of a "level playing field" on this thread was by yourself (I checked), again a deflection argument.

You seem obsessed with Kilian Jornet's round. He certainly didn't "bypass the ethos", in fact he tried his hardest to keep his attempt under the radar, much more so than many contenders. A far bigger concern to me was whether he'd solo the Round in a record time - under the Club rules it would be inadmissible for Club membership. The numbers of people at each road crossing during his round were small until Honister when there was a sudden increase which happened because someone unconnected with his attempt posted on social media that KJ was attempting the record. Thus the large number in Keswick to see him finish.

I suspect he asked his sponsors not to announce the fact he was attempting the BGR, he may not even have told them. I don't know. I do know it's in contrast to some other athletes and their sponsors - we've been told of attempts and asked to keep quiet about it (I don't pass on details of any intended attempt BTW) only to find that the sponsor announces it on their website!

Edit: Other than a couple of the usual post-round emails I've not had any contact with Kilian. I do know that he and Morgan Williams (the previous Club secretary) had an extended dialog over at least two or three years prior to him coming over here. From Morgan's summary of those it was clear that he had a respect for the Round and the ethos around it. If Morgan reads this he may care to elaborate.