Ultra and trail running is all sunshine, chocolate, and rainbows... until you hit the witching hour* and everything goes off the rails. Safety and risk management at races is something that few people ever have to think about because injuries are really pretty rare in comparison to the size of an event. Most surprisingly, it also seems to be one of the most overlooked steps in race planning. Everyone thinks about the fun times until they have that "oh shit" moment once something goes wrong. As a race organizer of 21 years, I've seen a little bit of everything, but each emergency brings its own challenges. Likewise, no two events are the same with respect to emergency management. On many occasions, I've had new RDs ask for a peek at our emergency plan and I get a bit uncomfortable because there is no one formula that works everywhere; it's a process that you have to develop. So, what makes for a good emergency plan? KNOW YOUR RESOURCES . You either have to buil...
This is not a running blog. We post about topics in endurance sports, largely from the perspective of a race director.