March Is Moyleman Month

[El Gordo]

Depends what sort of event you want it to be. Bizarrely, I had thought I would do it myself, but obviously not in 5 or even 5:30 hours. Maybe I'll stick to my marshal plan, which was the original thought.

I don't know the course but I presume you would do what organisers of tough races always do i.e. issue loads of warnings and insist on a certain minimum level of fitness. It wouldn't prevent some fat, wheezing idiot turning up untrained, but at least you'll have done your bit, and should be enough to get you cleared by the coroner's jury.

I'd want to discourage people who 'fancy having a go' and end up getting into difficulty on what is at times a remote, unforgiving course.

Fair enough. You mentioned earlier that there's a handy halfway point at Southease, so I suppose you could further stipulate that runners had to reach that point in a certain time (2:30?), and if they didn't they'd be shepherded onto the Lewes train or a special bus. In this way, you'd be weeding out the obvious strugglers likely to get into trouble later on. (Bear in mind though that the majority of people who have died in races in recent years have been fit and healthy. It's usually an undiagnosed health problem, or just too much enthusiasm/effort that does them in. The corpulent crawlers tend to be well aware of their limitations and get home safely.)

I guess you need to have a few volunteers to walk or jog the second half of the course behind the back markers to ensure you don't leave anyone out there on the hills. MLCMM is right about opening the roads at a fixed time and asking slower finishers to use the footpaths. They even do this in London past a certain point (about 6:30 hours I think).