Originally Posted by
Neil_B
I can't speak about running, only having been part of that world briefly, but hiking seems free from such elitism as you've described. If a woman in her sixties who completes the Appalachian Trail wearing Keds and carrying her gear in a burlap sack isn't a hiker, then no one is.
Amen to that. I think in running circles, the longer the distance of the event, the more egalitarian the people who participate in it become. It doesn't matter how long it takes you to run a half marathon, marathon or ultra marathon event... EVERYONE who finishes is a winner and truly a runner.