I spent many years in the mountains.
Not as a runner, but as a climber and hillwalker.
I was very, very fortunate in that the people I fell in with had tremendous respect for the wilderness and for all forms of spending time in the wilderness.
My friends and I enjoyed a long apprenticeship, if you will, learning about the mountains and nature and how, most of all, to respect the environment we were priviledged enough to enjoy because, as the signs at the trailhead say, 'The Mountains Don't Care'.
Many times, we had goals to pursue in the wilderness. Some of those close to me even had summits or routes they wanted to pursue that they had invested thousands of pounds and months of time for the chance to persue.
But always, first and foremost, came learning that mountains and nature are never to be 'conquered' or 'challenged'. Because YOU will always lose. They were here long before you and will be here long after you.
This means weighing up risk and making as good a judgement as you can.
It means sometimes changing course and even, turning around, your goal in site, because to press further will mean your life, your health, or that of your friends and partners, may be in jeopardy.
So here's a race organised.
And there is a massive front pushing its way south.
A big, huge, enormous one.
It's already hit Scotland. It's easy to see the damage it's caused there.
There's no doubting its force. It's not one of those situations where it might pass over, blow out or not be very severe.
And yet the organisers still allowed this event to go on.
And people still went!
FFS.
This is how folks get killed. ZERO respect for where you are, for the wilderness you're in, for Mother Nature.
Not to mention the wilderness rescuers who had to put their lives at risk in adverse conditions to rescue people.
Pure idiocy.