Headphone policy?

[runalisonrun]

Hi there,

I was just wondering if there were any policies prohibiting the use of headphones during a PCTR race? Much to my dismay a LOT of marathons I have been looking at doing prohibit them, but I need the music to keep me going!

[v7461558]

I think there is a much more valid reason to keep headphones off on a downhill single-track than on a wide paved road. Regardless of what the official policy may be, common sense has not yet been repealed.

[chrisoconnor]

Alison,

I know Sarah or Wendell will probably give you the official position when they get back from marking the course, but in my experience, the wink-and-a-nod position of PCTR is that headphones are left to the discretion of individual runners PROVIDED those who choose to listen to music while running limit their listening pleasure to Supertramp's "Greatest Hits" collection. That'd be the first volume and not the second one, which was by all accounts a cheap and transparent attempt to cash in on the money train of late 70s nostalgia. Although much of Supertramp's earlier oeuvre is the self-indulgent claptrap typical of the era, at its worst it still possesses an authenticity not found in the pop-heavy material of their later offerings.

Wendell nearly DQ'd me from Pacifica when I raced across the finish line with the pronouncement that I owed it all to the 1982 signature classic, It's Raining Again. He let me know in no uncertain terms he wouldn't be lenient next time if I didn't find my motivation in Breakfast in America.

(Seriously, I don't actually know what the official position is, but I've never been told they'd prefer I didn't listen to tunes on those occasions when I've found it enjoyable.)

Chris, who may now get an email from Sarah about this post...

[Pacific Coast Trail Runs]

Chris, who may now get an email from Sarah about this post...

Why contact you privately when I "yell" at you in public?

Actually, Chris is right - well, maybe not about the Supertramp part, but that we're ok with headphones at our events.

We can only hope, however, that people use them in such a way that they are not oblivious to what's around them, be that other runners, hikers, bikers, horses, or, on the few occasions where our events cross roads, cars.

[thr3ee]

Sarah and Wendell are always most unaccommodating of any and everyone who wants to run their events including those who wish to insulate themselves from the amazing natural sounds of the environs in which these events are held. Just be aware that even though you may prefer the compressed, digitized sounds emanating from your MP3 player to those of singing birds, babbling brooks, rustling leaves and the whistling wind, those little things you stick in your ear may cut you off from one much more important sound.

Take care to either keep the volume low enough or one earphone out so that you don't miss the call of "on your left!" or if coming from me, yelled much louder, but with a less time to react "YOUR LEFT, NO BRAKES!!!"

[trailrunnerjeff]

"It's Raining Again"

Chris, fess up, the song was really "It's Rainin' Men"

Jeff

[chrisoconnor]

trailrunnerjeff said:

"It's Raining Again"

Chris, fess up, the song was really "It's Rainin' Men"

Jeff

Busted. ;D