Guidance on retirements and swapping to the Hatchling
Retirements
Retirement at Manned Checkpoints
Each manned checkpoint is accessible via a vehicle and at these locations, it is possible for participants to retire into the immediate care of our event team. At each manned checkpoint, we will be providing emergency support and it will be possible to summon a medic to these locations based on the medical teams’ priorities and your immediate needs.
Retirement Elsewhere
Participants who retire at other locations along the route may face considerable difficulty and a very long walk to reach the nearest road or civilisation. Every effort will be made to collect retiring participants once they have reached a public road. However, this is not guaranteed and is dependent on the organiser's available resources. Retiring participants may need to arrange a private taxi to collect them at their own expense. It may be possible to hitch-hike.
It is important to note that early each morning the event team leaves the previous overnight camp to move to the next one, and so retiring backwards along the route is likely to result in a long wait for collection. Retiring forwards along the route brings you closer to both the next overnight camp and assistance. We appreciate that circumstances may dictate your decisions though, and we will be monitoring all participants' trackers. It is a good idea to contact race control with your plans if possible.
IMPORTANT - please consider:
1 Our event logistic steadily progresses south each day.
2 The geography of Wales means that the route is truncated by valleys and mountains, and the road network is often indirect – it can be 50 miles of road travel just to get to ‘the other side of the mountain’.
Therefore, if you are aiming or needing to retire during the day stage, then we would generally ask that you push onward, for rescue on the ‘other side’ of a remote stage. Examination of the map (at atlas scale) might reveal other off-route options, but in general, we would ask you to stay on-route, moving forwards. As a last resort, you might reverse out from any stage, and also as a last resort, you might depart from the route and take an alternative escape route. You can imagine that the latter options are potentially more hazardous, though if there are good communications, agreement and contingency, these may be possible for us to interact with. If there is an incident/injury/health concern or worrying weather, then these will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Leaving the event
Participants retiring at the overnight camp and wishing to leave the race will be transported when possible to (or at minimum given assistance to get to) the nearest local transportation hub (bus stop or train station) the same or the following day.
Stay with the event by swapping to the Hatchling
Not everyone starting the Montane Dragon’s Back Race® will complete the course, but we still want to give the best experience possible to those participants not making a checkpoint or course closure time cut-off without compromising the complex logistics required for the runners still taking part competitively in the full race.
A participant who fails to complete a day of the Montane Dragon’s Back Race® (i.e. arrives at a checkpoint after the cut-off time, arrives at the finish after the course closure time, or decides to withdraw from that day's course) will be allowed to continue in the event by swapping to the Hatchling and would be eligible for the Hatchling memento if they meet the criteria and make it to Cardiff on day six.
The Hatchling
Completing even half of the full race route is an incredible achievement in itself and we want to officially welcome and recognise those participants who do so; a Montane Dragon’s Back Race® ‘lite’ if you will.