And every single day of the year many people are out walking in the same or similar areas. Ban one lot and don't be surprised when LDW is also banned.
To go out with a load of mates for a marathon or endurance run is understandable. Just look at the entrance fee for the Spine race. Then look at the interest in that on this forum.
They cause the same amount of harm as walkers.( Which is zero) They may pay entry fees, that is up to them. So why the prejudice?
I've not mentioned banning all of them. I'm suggesting limiting the numbers. You clearly don't find the (incomplete) list of them I posted, just in the Beacons alone, to be too many. I think it's a bit silly myself and is likely to grow.
Actually walkers and runners cause a lot erosion which costs the park authorities millions to sort out - hence the massive stone paths you now get up most well-known peaks. That's fine as that's their job but it's not free. I don't know if scores of events with hundreds of competitors makes much of a difference or not. I suspect it makes some.
The "prejudice" is that it kills some of the reasons to go out there - to get away from the madding crowd, to experience a bit of nature, a bit of quiet etc. One man's meat is another's poison. Meeting some walkers or fell runners on a jaunt and saying hi is not the same as running into 200 people all coming down the same path over a period of hours.
My last walk along the ridgeway was all but spoiled with 2 days worth of people running and walking past, saying excuse me, saying hi (I'm polite and feel the need to say it back but after the first 60 people it really wears thin), people with no intention of altering their path. That's not why I went. So it spoils my own selfish reasons for going. What they want, takes away from what I want. And if what I want takes away from what they want, they are free to moan about it too. The odd race is fine. The numbers we're at and heading to now are too much in my opinion.