Badwater Ulta Marathon in Progress

[Cy Kaicener]

The Death Valley/ Mt Whitney marathon of over 100 miles is now in progress. Its a good thing they changed the route this year.

http://www.badwater.com/2014web/

http://www.theadventureblog.blogspot.co ... w-era.html

[Cy Kaicener]

Runners are frustrated by the change in the route away from Badwater

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/feb/01 ... r-20140202

[KathyW]

It seems like we have some very narrow-minded people with a lot of authority when it comes to managing our public lands.

It's okay for mules to shit all over the trails in the Grand Canyon, but trail runners are a problem:

http://running.competitor.com/2014/07/n ... yon_108186


This Ranney guy sounds like he is very myopic.

Make sure you speak up during the planning phases. I'm not sure if they really listen, but it's worth trying to get your message across that they are supposed to provide recreation as well as preserve resources, and not make changes based on what brings in the most money.

These days it's all about the fees - Otherwise, the mules would be banned before the trail runners.

It also sounds like the Badwater Race didn't bring enough money in to worth the hassle.

[Cy Kaicener]

Thanks for the interesting link Kathy

Here is another Grand Canyon link
http://www.newslocker.com/en-ca/region/ ... etitorcom/

[KathyW]

Could they really be thinking about making running against the rules on trails in National Parks? How could they possibly justifly citing people for running on trails?

[towbradley]

Im always running to the can! Slowing down means im pulling a "mule stop"....yea,thats it, it was those mules who did it! Sorry, its just me, not you.

[HH8]

Could they really be thinking about making running against the rules on trails in National Parks? How could they possibly justifly citing people for running on trails?

For excessive erosion? For scaring slow hikers?
Whatever their excuse, they should punish only that actual occurrence,
and avoid discriminating against all runners.

[Myth]

In my experience, it is similar to the "bicyclists on surface roads" debate. A subset of practitioners are being jerks to everybody else, and that riles up the general population against the group as a whole.

I ride my bicycle to work, obeying the rules, staying out of the ways of cars, and whatnot. But other cyclists weave between cars, don't stop at stop signs and lights, are are generally obnoxious about it. So I also get motorists buzzing me and screaming obscenities at me even when I'm out of their way in a bike lane.

Likewise, I've been strolling on trails, and in densely trafficked areas, where some people have their young kids with them, just to be almost bowled over by some fool pelting down the trail, more intent on being the man with the heartrate in the zone, or whatever, than anyone around him. If you're going to be running downhill, down a rocky path that others are climbing up to see a popular waterfall, and there are literally dozens of others on the trail - don't.

So, ban trail running in National Parks? I'd hate to see it come to pass. Just as much as I'd hate actually getting hit by a human cannonball. From the Parks' perspective, if someone gets bowled over by a trail runner and breaks some teeth and bones - who will they sue? The Park? The runner? Both?

Ideally, people wouldn't go running in areas where it isn't safe for others - for instance, winding trails where you can't stop in time if you turn a corner and there's someone there, or where there is simply a lot of hikers.

There is no clean solution because there are people who just cannot handle the "Don't be a jerk" rule.

[phydeux]

I'll throw out a counterpoint view. Maybe its too many 'adventure event' management companies trying to stage their events in the most notable places possilbe (like Death Valley NP); they're in it for the money, and the more events they can stage, the more money they'll make. Maybe the NPS/NFS just wants to call a 'time-out' and evaluate the situation and decide how many events a place can handle before they start impacting/degrading areas like DVNP. Just a thought . . .

[zippetydude]

Seems like some reasonable points of view here. I'm totally against the nanny state that seems to be deveolping, but I think phydeux has a reasonable concern with companies potentially overbooking areas of wilderness for the sake of profit. This is a profit driven nation and I am glad that there are limits - imagine if there were no wilderness designation what San J and San G would look like. Forget the tram up to Grubb's Notch, there would be trams to the peaks and no place to get away from the constant grind of civilization. Every decent place would suffer the fate of Yosemite Valley.

Now that's when companies get involved. On a private level, I think Myth hit the nail on the head. As most of you know on this board I'm a trailrunner, but I don't find it exceedingly difficult to show some common sense. I had the chance to do a wonderful run from Tuolumne Meadows over to Half Dome, then on down past all the waterfalls to the valley. There are some beautiful, wide open trails out there where you won't see anyone for miles and it's fun to just let loose and fly. Then there is Half Dome. It's a community event, not a race course, so I gradually made my way up the cables, just like everyone else, and enjoyed meeting others from around the world. Going back down past the waterfalls, there were so many people it would have inevitably led to collisions if I had run. Again, a little common sense said this is not the time or place to try and run, just relax and enjoy.

I do think that Badwater was interrupted with no reasonable explanation. Their safety record is undisputed and the only problem ever reported was when a support vehicle went off the road when the driver fell asleep! A review might well have been done without banning the event - even a temporary ban was overkill.

In any case, it looks like the organizers did a great job of adapting and many of the runners said they actually liked the new course better because of the variety of challenges it presented.

z