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.

We are very happy to be working with Joe Faulkner and his team at NAV4 for the provision of our exclusive Mountain Running Essentials™ courses.

This course is has been specifically designed for mountain runners and mountain marathon competitors and is highly relevant to less experienced competitors wishing to take part in any of our three events; the Dragon’s Back Race™, Dark Mountains™ or the Great Lakeland 3Day™. It is also recommended for novice competitors at the Original Mountain Marathon, Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon, Rab Mountain Marathon, Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon and many other similar events.

What makes the Mountain Running Essentials™ course different is that it has been designed by, and all the coaching and instruction will be delivered by, mountain runners.

Below is a table that summarises the results from the 2012 Dragon’s Back Race™. This is a little easier to interpret than the detailed SPORTident results, for example, we manually changed the rtd comments within the SPORTident results to show the checkpoints that competitors did not visit (m1-3 i.e. missing checkpoints 1 - 3) on any given day. If there is a rtd shown below it means that the competitor did not start the day or retired before reaching the first checkpoint.

Pro photographer, James Carnegie joined the Dragon's Back Race on Tuesday 4th September and captured some stunning images and put together this excellent short film. Many thanks to James for sharing this video with us.

By Shane Ohly

The evening before the race, 1992 winner Martin Stone had explained to all the competitors and marshals that participating in the Dragon's Back Race would be a life-changing experience for many of them. Indeed it was.

So it is nice and easy to find, below are all the films made by Trail Running Magazine during the Dragon's Back Race.

The first film is the main 'feature' and all the other films are great for giving an impression of the event.

Many thanks to Claire Maxted, editor of Trail Running Magazine, for these films.