In reply to SteveRi:
> I raced offroad on Tuesday, respectable sort of upper mid-packish, got ahead of a couple of people who've been beating me recently. The guy behind me was a V70! Which is kind of amazing and embarrassing at the same time
I'm racing at Ceuse on Sunday - I need to do a 20 mile long run for my marathon training which I'm finding incredibly boring, and a local off-road race of that distance came up so I've decided to do it just to keep morale up. Its meant to be a slow training run so I'll have resist the temptation to race it.
The V70 guy is amazing, but I think it reflects a lower level of burnout when running off-road than for those that pound the pavement. Somebody just got me Richard Askwith's 'Running Free' which evangelises this point of view (although I don't agree with a lot of his statements).
Fewer injuries, and more inspiring landscape, as well as an environment where timing your self is not so useful (and there not seeing the inevitable age-related decline in pace) all help to keep people running in the hills for longer than you would expect.