Another week and another major film festival award for the Dragon’s Back Race film. On this occasion, the impressive film by Richard Heap, was honoured with the Best Documentary Film award at the Mezinárodni Horolezecký Filmový Festival in the Czech Republic.

Exciting news from Switzerland! The Dragon’s Back Race film was shown at the 44th Festival du Film Des Diablerets held between 10th and 18th August and won the festival’s grand prize!

Ultra-distance running in the mountains creates a unique challenge in terms of achieving energy balance. The action of running often makes eating difficult due to loss of appetite, lack of palatability or gastrointestinal discomfort. Add to this the challenges of carrying your own food, with minimal support points, and making decisions about weight versus calories.

The main aim of this study was to measure the energy and nutrient intakes of competitors and compare these with performance. It is not possible to draw conclusions about the effect of nutrition on performance from this kind of observational study, but it may be interesting to see how the nutrition strategies of the faster competitors compared with those of the slower competitors.

At the beginning of 2012 Ourea Ltd, which owns the Dragon’s Back Race™, the Great Lakeland 3Day™ and Marmot Dark Mountains™ joined 1% For The Planet movement.

1% for the Planet inspires members of the business community to contribute 1% of sales to environmental groups around the world. 1% for the Planet state that, “It’s about businesses recognizing that industry and ecology are inherently connected. It’s about realizing the positive effects of connecting businesses, consumers and nonprofits through philanthropy. And it’s about understanding that the true cost of doing business can be mitigated by a simple pledge to the planet”. If you would like to find out more please visit the 1% for the Planet website.

About the Dragon’s Back Race™ Film...

In 1992 a 300 km mountain race was run along the mountainous spine of Wales. Over five days the Worlds leading mountain runners undertook an incredible adventure across wild, trackless, remote and mountainous terrain. Very few made it to the finishing line and the legend of the Dragon's Back Race™ was born.

Helene Whitaker and Martin Stone who raced together eventually won the 1992 race. Helene astounded many by beating some of the Worlds top male runners.

Twenty years later 84 runners from 15 countries are lining up in Conwy Castle looking to repeat the feat. Helene Whitaker is returning to race again alongside three other veterans of the original race, whilst fierce competition is expected from some of the UK's top mountain runners as they vie for the ultimate mountain running prize.

Details of the entry process for the 2015 Dragon's Back Race are now live. As for the 2012 race we will expect all competitors to have experience of the following…

We are very excited to announce the premiere of our film about the 2012 Dragon’s Back Race, which will be at the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival on Saturday 2nd March at 8.45 pm.

The legendary Dragon’s Back Race™ follows the mountainous spine of Wales for 320 kilometres with 17,000 metres of ascent across wild, trackless, remote and mountainous terrain. The original Dragon’s Back Race™ happened just once before in 1992 and ever since, it has been whispered about with a mix of awe and trepidation. In September 2012 this truly epic event returned and proved once again that it is one the hardest mountain races in the World.