In depth: 2021 event format changes
1. Cardiff Castle as the new finishing location
How it was: The race has finished at various locations over the years. In 1992 and 2012 the race finished at Carreg Cennen Castle on the western fringe of the Black Mountain. This is a wonderful location, but the venue is small and privately owned, with the owners preferring to host weddings rather than smelly runners! In 2015 the event moved to Llandeilo Rugby Club, and in 2017 and 2019 Tregib Sports Facilities also in Llandeilo. Whilst these Llandeilo venues have been practical, and we have always been given a very warm welcome, these locations were not really fitting to the spectacular and incredible journey that preceded them.
What we have changed: We are moving the event finish to Cardiff Castle in the capital city of Wales.
Why are we doing this: The new finish at Cardiff Castle will be a fitting finish for such a monumental race and the event’s final overnight camp will be hosted inside the castle walls. It will also provide an incredible venue for spectators to watch the runners finishing the race and being awarded their coveted dragon trophies.
We expect that our new relationship with Cardiff Castle will be a long-term winner for the event and it also connects logically with our revised day five and new day six route.
Our spectacular new finishing location - Cardiff Castle! See you there!
2. Changes to the route and the addition of the sixth day
How it was: Details of the evolution of the Dragon’s Back Race® route can be found here but the 2019 route can be summarised as:
Day one: 52km / 3,800m
Day two: 58km / 3,600m
Day three: 71km / 3,500m
Day four: 71km / 2,400m
Day five: 63km / 2,200m
Total: 315km / 15,500m
What we have changed: There are no substantive changes to the established route on days 1-4. The new day five begins as before, but rather than heading west over the Black Mountain, the new route turns east and completes an extended traverse of the Brecon Beacons. This means that the new day five is a monstrous 70km, which truly embraces the ethos of the event by continuing the journey along the mountainous spine of Wales’ most southerly mountains. It is an awesome mountain running day maintaining the wild, remote and adventurous theme of the first four days of the race. Day six continues on this theme initially before linking together brilliant tracks and trails that speed participants south and straight into Cardiff Castle for a spectacular and fitting finish in the capital of Wales.The provisional 2021 route can be summarised as:
Day one: 52km / 3,800m
Day two: 58km / 3,600m
Day three: 71km / 3,500m
Day four: 71km / 2,400m
Day five: 71km / 2,600m
Day six: 60km / 1,500m
Total: 383km / 17,400m
Full details of the new day five and day six route, as well as the new finish arrangements will be released later in 2020.
Why are we doing this: We want to complete the logical journey from North to South Wales and realise the full potential of the Dragon’s Back Race® route. A detailed explanation is available in this news article.
Experience more of the fantastic Brecon Beacons with our new day 5 ©No Limits Photography
3. Change to the date – weather and daylight
How it was: The original 1992 race, and the twenty-year anniversary edition in 2012 were both in September. The 2015, 2017, and 2019 editions have been held in May.
What we have changed: We are returning to that traditional early September date, and we are expecting to stay with it for the foreseeable future. This means that there is a greater chance of poor weather (although like all our other editions, the 2012 edition had mostly brilliant weather) and less daylight. With 16.5 hours of daylight in May and only 13 hours in September, there will be more participants starting and finishing in the dark, although the new 22:00 course closure time will reduce the number of participants out late into the night. Overall, the change to the September date makes the race more of a challenge to complete.
Why are we doing this: Our sister event the Cape Wrath Ultra® has taken place in May since 2016 but held on alternative years to the Dragon’s Back Race®. From 2021 onwards we are organising both the Cape Wrath Ultra® and Dragon’s Back Race® each year and one of the events was going to have to shift dates. We felt that with good precedent for taking place successfully in September, that the Dragon’s Back Race® was the best candidate for a long-term home in September.
September could bring more adverse weather - be prepared! ©No Limits Photography
4. Resupply dry bag
How it was: Previously we recommended an Ortlieb PD350 dry bag (22L) for use as participants’ resupply dry bag, but participants were free to bring any dry bag so long as it was strictly 22L or less. There was also a weight limit of 5kg for each resupply dry bag.
What we have changed: We have reduced the maximum size from 22L to 10L, and the maximum weight from 5kg to 2.5kg for the resupply dry bag. Also the Ortlieb PD350 dry bag (10L) is now mandatory. We would like to be crystal clear that any participant presenting a resupply dry bag at registration that is not an Ortlieb PD350 dry bag (10L) will be required to purchase one from us there and then and re-pack before they can complete registration.
Why are we doing this: In addition to the reasons outlined below (for the overnight dry bags), the resupply dry bags were becoming an extension of the overnight dry bag which was never their intended purpose.
Shown here is an Ortlieb PD350 dry bag (10L) with some example clothing, equipment and food you might want to available at the support point:
Ortlieb PD350 dry bag: 188g
Spare Clothing (softshell jacket, spare base layer, spare socks): 437g
Spare Shoes: 548g
Additional food and electrolyte for the afternoon: 383g
Powerful headtorch for late finishers: 196g
Bottle + Water: 481g
The total weight is 2.233kg. As water is available at the support point you might wish to take a tin of food, such as rice pudding, which many competitors find to be a palatable midway snack. The choice is yours and this is just an example of what you might want to have in your support point bag.
5. Overnight dry bag
How it was: Previously we recommended an Ortlieb PS490 dry bag (59L) for use as participants’ overnight dry bag, but participants were free to bring any dry bag so long as it was strictly 60L or less. There was also no weight limit for the overnight dry bag.
What we have changed: The Ortlieb PS490 dry bag (59L) is now mandatory for all 2021 participants. We would like to be crystal clear that any participant presenting an overnight dry bag at registration that is not an Ortlieb PS490 dry bag (59L) will be required to purchase one from us there and then and re-pack before they can complete registration. There will also be a 15kg weight limit for the overnight dry bag.
Why are we doing this: We keep fighting the same battle with a small number of participants at each registration for our two expedition races; they arrive with a dry bag that is either obviously larger than 60L and/or not waterproof and/or lightweight and easily damaged and/or so heavy that they are dangerous for the event team to lug around. We are introducing this change for a number of reasons:
Fairness: We want all participants to have the same size dry bags, and not have a small number of participants who are gaming the rules having found dry bags that might state 60L but are clearly much larger.
Logistics: It helps us considerably if we can accurately and reliably predict how many dry bags will fit in one vehicle and this is only possible if the dry bags are known to be the same size pre-event. Stacking drybags that are a uniform size and type is also much easier for the event team, and the very robust nature of these Ortlieb dry bags are known to withstand that rough handling they receive at the event.
Safety: The dry bags are stored outside before being collected by participants at the overnight camp. If the weather is poor these dry bags potentially sit in water pooling on the ground and in the rain. It is essential that participants’ spare clothing and sleeping bags are dry so that they can recover at the overnight camp.
The Ortlieb PS490 dry bag (59L) is now mandatory equipment for the event ©No Limits Photography
6. Options for continuing non-competitively
How it was: Non-competitive participants (i.e. anyone who arrives at a checkpoint after the cut-off time, arrived at the finish after the course closure time, or decided to withdraw themselves from that day's course) were able to skip a day and travel direct to the next overnight camp with the event team.
What we have changed: Non-competitive participants will now not have the option to skip an entire day of the event by travelling in an event team vehicle direct to the next overnight camp. At the 2021 Dragon’s Back Race®, non-competitive participants will only have the following options:
Start the full course as normal (note that participants arriving at the finish after the course closure time the previous day will not have this option)
Start the reduced course at an insertion point
Leave the event
Why we are changing this: We have seen an increasing burden on event resources and logistics at each edition with a growing number of participants wishing to skip-a-day. We had been offering onwards transport but it is clear we will be unable to meet demand at some point, and we (to be blunt) are not offering a ‘coach tour’ of Wales. Also, there are practical considerations of safely managing participants at the next overnight camp when catering facilities are not available, water has not been plumbed in, electricity not connected, tents not erected etc. Essentially, the overnight camp is a potentially unsafe environment for unsupervised participants whilst the build is going on each day: we need every minute that the participants are out on the course to build and prepare the next overnight camp.
Read more guidance on retirements and continuing non-competitively.
The support point on day two - If you are timed out here you will become non-competitive in the race ©No Limits Photography
7. New course closure time
How it was: In the previous editions of the event we have had a flexible start time of between 07:00 and 09:00 each morning, and a course closure time of 23:00 each evening. Any participant arriving at the overnight camp after the course closure time was automatically timed-out from that day’s racing and was not able to start the full course on the following day. Thereafter they could only continue as a non-competitive runner starting the reduced course the following day subject to our transport logistics.
Once timed-out, participants were unable to complete the full course, and therefore we recognised that this is a big deal.
What we have changed: We have changed the course closure time to 22:00. There is one hour less to complete the course each day i.e. 16 hours per day rather than 17 hours per day to complete the course.
Why we are changing: There are a number of important reasons we have changed the course closure time. First of all, very late finishers result in a disproportionate number of event staff (Race Control, Safety Team, Catering, Logistics etc) being up very late, and historically we have seen many more retirements and emergency evacuations from the course the following day, as exhausted ‘late finishers’ from the previous day fail to complete the course. Additionally, it is clear that finishing after 22:00 (i.e. after more than 16 hours on the course) correlates strongly with retirement and non-completion of the event: we are pushing the event logistics to support participants who rarely complete the race. Finally, and most importantly, there is a limit to how tired we can allow the event staff to become, whilst they carry out safety-critical roles, and/or simply need to drive a vehicle safely the following morning. Ultimately the Dragon’s Back Race® is a mountain running race and being able to run significant sections of the course each day is a core value of the event.
The number of runners finishing after 22:00 is very small. Some who do finish after 22:00 retired there and then (shown below – although note participants also retire at other locations/times). Some only miss the 22:00 course closure time by minutes and we feel it would be reasonable to expect these participants to speed up just a little if they knew the course closure time was 22:00 and not 23:00. Some start much later than our earliest 06:00 start time and this puts them (and us) under undue pressure later that evening.
After the 2019 Dragon’s Back Race® we did some very careful analysis of all the participants to understand how many finished after 22:00. Here is the summary:
By participants finishing in over 16 hours:
Day one - 0
Day two - 16 (12 of whom also retired / did not complete race; 7 under 16h10m; 11 under 16h20m; 14 under 16h30m)
Day three - 9 (3 of whom also retired / did not complete race; 8 under 16h20m; all under 16h30m)
Day four - 6 (2 of whom also retired / did not complete race; 3 under 16h30m)
Day five - 7 (2 with issues; 3 under 16h20m; all under 16h40m
By participants finishing after 22:00 / 23:00:
Day one - 10 finished after 22:00 (4 of whom retired); 3 after 22:30; 1 after 23:00
Day two - 19 finished after 22:00 (of whom 12 retired); 13 after 22:15 (of whom 10 retired); 9 after 22:30 (of whom 8 retired); 1 after 23:00
Day three - 21 finished after 22:00 (of whom 4 retired); 2 after 22:30, 0 after 23:00
Day four – 8 finished after 22:00 (of whom 3 retired); 5 after 22:30 (of whom 2 retired); 0 after 23:00
Day five - 9 finished after 22:00; 5 people after 22:30; 0 after 23:00
It is clear when we analyse the data that many of the people finishing after 22:00 did not start at the earliest 06:00 opportunity (i.e. giving them a full 16 hours) and very few people finished after 22:30 on any day. We think it is very reasonable to ask slower runners to start at 06:00 and potentially to speed up by just a few minutes to finish by 22:00.
We appreciate that our biggest queue is for early breakfast each morning, and we have many new innovations planned for the 2021 event to both speed up breakfast and also to provide a ‘walking breakfast’ for those that are happy to get going with a breakfast burrito or similar in their hand – more details to follow on this later in the year.
Start as early as possible to give yourself the best chance to complete the course ©No Limits Photography
8. What hasn’t changed?
The Dragon’s Back Race® is still the world’s toughest mountain race with a legendary status among ultra runners worldwide. Earning a coveted Dragon trophy is one of the biggest challenges in the mountain running world and an accumulation of months of hard training and preparation. The spirit of the event remains the same with great camaraderie between runners and the event team, a supportive and friendly atmosphere, and an exciting and challenging adventure through Wales. 2021 promises to be a fantastic year for the Dragon’s Back Race and we look forward to seeing you there!
Connect with your fellow Dragons in training in our participant Facebook group.
Enjoy a friendly, fun and supportive atmosphere at the Dragon’s Back Race! ©No Limits Photography