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New UKA road running rules - now with added headphone bans!!

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larkim May 2016 5:19pm, 26 May 2016 820 posts	Quote Pin larkim But your point about enforcement is a fair one. I suppose if the race winner gets a special time (e.g. Olympic qualifying time) and ran with headphones, the letter of the law would be applied. Not going to happen though of course!
Spleen May 2016 11:31am, 27 May 2016 1,391 posts	Quote Pin Spleen "they had a little turn around point on penny lane, where they had the Beatles famous song blasting out continuously on repeat.. " Great for the runners, but I feel sorry for anyone who was marshalling at that point, or spectating and waiting for a loved one. The Paris Marathon isn't sold as a "rock n roll" marathon but throughout much of the race, you'd pass one band and at the moment their music began to fade into the distance, you'd begin to hear another one coming up in front of you. Then there was one tunnel section where they were blasting out opera and another underground bit with a DJ playing drum and bass. It was brilliant.
CharlieP May 2016 12:40pm, 27 May 2016 143 posts	Quote Pin CharlieP But my point is that the letter of the law seems to be "in these circumstances headphones are banned. In such a case you must tell people they're banned, but we leave the sanctions (including possible DQing) up to you".
CharlieP May 2016 12:43pm, 27 May 2016 144 posts	Quote Pin CharlieP In the 2014 Leeds Abbey Dash, they tweaked the course slightly so that on the "out" half it went through the retail park with the Vue cinema etc., which was marked on the race guide as a "Cheering Zone". It was pretty much empty and devoid of atmosphere. After 9 km, though, there was a steel band playing just before the only real uphill section in the race, which was brilliant.
Spleen May 2016 4:12pm, 27 May 2016 1,392 posts	Quote Pin Spleen Probably because all the spectators looking for somewhere to stand looked at the map and decided to avoid the "Cheering Zone", because they assumed everyone else would be there and they wouldn't be able to get to the front and see their loved ones. If you want to create an area with loads of cheering, give the official charities a stall at a certain point, preferably a few next to each other. Anyone who's done the London Marathon and crossed over Tower Bridge will know the effect that can create. In the absence of charities atmosphere tends to be spontaneously generated by the geography. One of the loudest points on the Bristol Half course is where the race goes over the Cumberland Basin overpass - spectators tend to congregate there not because they've been told to, but a combination of a) bridges b) residential areas c) you can get it to it without finding yourself trapped by the race course.
larkim Nov 2016 11:54am, 23 Nov 2016 1,345 posts	Quote Pin larkim Interesting adjunct to this debate with England Athletics taking Aftershokz onboard as a sponsor / partner. And also seeming to claim (without justification from my reading of the rules) that "in ear" are banned but aftershokz style aren't. englandathletics.org
The_Saint Nov 2016 12:06pm, 23 Nov 2016 5,939 posts	Quote Pin The_Saint It all makes the job of the RD more complicated as you now have to check the kind of headphone and be expert in what type they are as everyone is going to claim theirs are legit
westmoors Nov 2016 12:07pm, 23 Nov 2016 1,383 posts	Quote Pin westmoors That's going to be a nightmare for race organisers. I think most will still enforce a complete ban as trying to distinguish between in ear and bone conducting during an event will be difficult.
Carpathius Nov 2016 12:23pm, 23 Nov 2016 10,762 posts	Quote Pin Carpathius At the bottom of the results for a recent race I did, there's a DQ for '2x headphone warnings'. Well done Nice Tri Events, good to see. Wearing ear/headphones on rural roads is beyond silly.
Gobi Nov 2016 12:24pm, 23 Nov 2016 59,345 posts	Quote Pin Gobi Stupid