Fair runner policy

We're runners ourselves and we are not fans of the very harsh entry conditions of some events, basically no refunds, no transfers, no nothing and expect you to enter and pay your money a year in advance and that's it. Tough luck. We hate losing entry fees because we're injured or work, or family commitments crop up that we cannot control and couldn't possibly have known about when we entered.

We also know that runners appreciate that race directors have big financial commitments to their events, medals have to be ordered many months in advance and for small events like our own, they form a very large percentage of the entry fees which we're paying many months before the event. So whilst we can't offer a perfect solution to this, we can offer what we think is a fair policy.

1) I am fully aware of the actual and potential risks in participation in this event.
2) I declare that I will not compete in the race unless I am medically fit on the day of the race and that, in any case, I will compete at my own risk.
3) To the extent permitted by law, I accept that the organisers and sponsors of the race, or any of their agents, will not be liable for any loss, damage, action, claim, costs or expenses, which may arise in consequence of my participation of the event.

1) If the event is cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances, snow, adverse weather or similar then we'll offer a free transfer to a re-arranged date or the following years event.
2) You can transfer your place(s) from one of our events to another future event of ours (as long as places are available) within 7 days of the event start date. If the event you wish to transfer to has a higher entry cost, we'll just ask you to pay the difference.
3) For multi-day events you can swap from one day to another, for example a Saturday to a Sunday, up until 7 days before the event start date.
4) You can transfer your place to another runner up until 7 days before the event start date.

1) If the event is cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances, snow, adverse weather or similar then we'll offer a free transfer to a re-arranged date or the following years event.
2) You can transfer your place(s) from one of our events to another future event of ours (as long as places are available) within 30 days of the event start date. If the event you wish to transfer to has a higher entry cost, we'll just ask you to pay the difference.
3) For multi-day events you can swap from one day to another, for example a Saturday to a Sunday, up until 30 days before the event start date.
4) You can transfer your place to another runner up until 30 days before the event start date.

In line with just about every other running event on the planet we operate a no refunds policy. We simply cannot afford otherwise, we commit to spending thousands of pounds on medals and minimum fees to venues and if everyone said "refund please", we'd be hugely out of pocket in no time. Not to mention that we are unable to recover fees from Paypal either, so not only would be repaying entry fees we'd be paying a premium to do so.

We do allow the transfer of places though so if you wish to sell a place then feel free to do so, but note the time periods above, 7 days is the absolute limit before the event. It is acceptable to post messages on our Facebook page or Facebook group.

The minimum information we need is a runners name and email address. Also please note that we're not going to be involved in this process. We have copious amounts of administration to take care of and helping people sell places isn't amongst those tasks! So if you're selling a place the one and only bit of correspondence we'd like is one email with a can I transfer this place to x, y & z.

We will be working event to event so we ask for your continued patience whilst we wait for the green light from our venues.  As most of our events take place on council or forestry commission owned land we have to respect that some of them are still not ready to re-open their gates to events.

All events we get permission to go ahead will be subject to us, and you following strict hygiene and social distancing guidelines (I’m sure you have all now become used to this being a part of everyday life).  So as long as we all stick to the rules there will be events, yes they will be different to what we are all used to but it’s a start and we’re sure you’ll agree that it’s better than no events.

1) All of our events (until further notice) will be at a reduced entry limit.  This in most cases will be 30%-50% of what would have been our capacity pre Covid.  The revised total number of entrants is to aid social distancing and also to abide to the venues own social distancing rules.

2) Medals. Being a new race company we have discussed how we will deal with the financial implications of having to drop the entry limits significantly.  To get the medals at a price where we can keep the entry prices where they are, we have to order in bulk but we’re sure you all understand we can’t order 100-150 medals for an event that will have 30-50 runners.  So what will we do?  We order our medals via SVN and have a small stock of most of our event medals but in some cases we may have less medals than we have places available.  In this circumstance we will prioritise, so the earlier you enter the more likely you will be to get the advertised medal if you don’t there will be an alternative available.  We will add to each event page once we have confirmed with SVN the entry limit and how many medals are available.

3) While mass start events are not currently allowed, each of our events will have flexible start times.  This is how it will work with us, first go say good morning to Kim at registration, then when you are ready to set off let me know and I will find you on the iPad (this is going to be new to me so you will have to be patient) You can run in a group of a maximum of 6 so this means, yes you can still run with your friends but it’s very important that when you are out on the course that if you find your group merging with others that you all do your bit and social distance sticking to the 6 max.

4) Pre-race briefings are currently deemed unnecessary….however, if you are celebrating a milestone run, it’s your birthday, anniversary etc please do let us know as we plan to have some sort of pre-run post/briefing on the Facebook page/group.

5) What do you get at registration?  So Pre-Covid you would have got a bar of chocolate with your finishers medal, however as we will for the time being have no food at the aid station we will supply you with a goody bag of snacks which you can either use during the run or take home for recovery snacks.  We strongly advise that you bring your own supplies with you as the bags will be random and could very well have that flavour of crisps you really don’t like or that bar you hated in your lunch box at school.  We also will not have an alternative for any of you with special dietary requirements so if you have any allergies or are vegan please check before you eat.

6) Bag drop. At any of our events where you can park near the start/finish area we ask that if you have a car you use this as your base camp.There will be a small area designated for bags specifically for those of you who won’t have access to a car. We ask that you use this as your base camp but we also ask that you space yourselves out to avoid any unnecessary contact.

7) Aid station. There will be no aid station as such, just  Kim or one of the girls (Amy or Sophie) with jugs of water or juice to refill your bottles.  There will also be no table to leave your drinks so again please use your car or bag to keep your drinks.

8) We will not be using lap cards to count your laps, instead we’ll be counting manually so when you come in each lap give us a nod or a wave so we can mark you off.  Be sure to have your Number/Name on display so we know who you are.  Once you are finished give me a shout and I will stop the clock.

9) Supporters. Again to try to limit interaction we ask that you keep supporters to a minimum and that they try not to mingle around the Start/Finish or registration area.  Also if supporters are out on the course ask them to avoid areas where there may be bottlenecks.

10) Effective immediately, we’re amending our fair runners policy, so if you are feeling rough and that means even the slightest sign of any symptoms drop us an Email up to 24 hours prior to the event and we’ll give you a race credit for a future event.

11) Socially distant! No hugs, No handshakes, No high fives etc…. (Sorry!)

12) So to sum up, we are trying to keep you, us and everyone else safe.  We don’t have a crystal ball so we know as much as you about what is going to happen tomorrow so we all need to be patient.  A word you will hear more often from us race directors that we don’t like using is “no” . We are going through very difficult times but the priority is to follow the guidelines and do our bit to keep everyone safe.  Please bear with us and hopefully things will return to normal soon.

                                                 Simon + Kim Runbelievable challenges