[pct-l] running on the PCT

[The Wilderness Vagabond]

I am not in favor of organized running events in any wilderness or wild area.  Runners have a distinctly different mindset that I believe is incompatible with wilderness.  Not all?  The vast majority!  Too many and it is all.
Here in the land of The Grand Canyon, the hazards and dangers from runners running from the rim to the other rim are enormous.  Self-centered, narcissistic, self-absorbed, more interested in their shoe laces than the grand vistas, and ready to knock people off the trail while yelling "I'm coming through!"  This (directly knocking poeple off the trail) happened twice during the same trip to my diminutive wife (all of 97 pounds) during a backpack trip in 2012.  They would bull by me, and, even after being reminded of trail etiquette, would knock the wife literally off the trail.  The yelling "I'm coming through happens several times a day in The Canyon.  It's not about education.  It's about a selfish, self-agrandizing, narcissistic, self-centered, I'm the only important thing anywhere mentality that does not belong anywhere, least of all in a wild or wilderness area or any area with a sensitive ecology.
It is a troubling and aggravating occurrence that is becoming more and more common.  I loved my time as a runner, yet.....  Running belongs in developed areas where there is sufficient room (say on a county or paved road, where yielding may have some meaning for self-possessed runners !).
Mismatch of mindset to environment.
Refusal and failure to observe common etiquette (e.g., yielding to uphill or loaded traveler)
Disrespect for the environment (e.g., trash, yelling, destroying natural quiet, pushing, demanding).
Then, there is the overcrowding and strain on the ecosystem.
Has it happened to me on the PCT too?  Sadly, yes.  
A related item -- At some point, the plethora of negative impacts of geometric population growth will actually be acknowledged.

cordially, Wild Vagabond