Best Practice Blog: Dragon’s Back Race® 2022 Death of Queen Elizabeth II

By Shane Ohly

Look out for our series of articles about good practice in adventure sports events. We hope that other organisers will find these articles useful and thoughtful, whilst also providing insight for our participants about the background operations at our events.

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This year’s Dragon’s Back Race had to pivot quite drastically as we lost our finish venue and had to quickly come up with an alternative . This blog details the quick decision-making and processes we underwent as we searched for a solution.

Let's rewind 12 months to the previous edition of the event. Our advanced team, who work one day ahead of the main event, are busy building the infrastructure for the grand finish and overnight camp inside the walls of Cardiff Castle. You could hardly imagine a more spectacular finish for a race. However, our preparations are on hold for an hour, because the 104 Regiment Royal Artillery has arrived to rehearse a ceremonial gun salute planned for when Queen Elizabeth II dies. We knew that Cardiff Castle would be the primary location for ceremonial mourning in Wales when the Queen died, but we couldn’t have known how much this rehearsal would foreshadow what was to come.

Thursday 8th September 2022 / Day 4

I’ve been organising the Dragon’s Back Race® for a decade, but I’ve never made it out onto the course or to any of the Support Points during the event. I’ve always been anchored to our Race Control C3 (Command, Control and Communications) hub. Things change. We now have an experienced team managing Race Control, and it is rare that I need to directly involve myself with a decision. Technology also moves quickly, and the backbone of event communications is a satellite radio system that uses Iridium satellites to connect ‘radios’ when line-of-sight communications would be impossible (and when there is no mobile network coverage). This means I can be mobile whilst still connected to Race Control. Today, I decide to spend most of the day following the runners through the course, leaving Race Control to manage the course, and the Operations Team to build the next Overnight Camp. Meanwhile, the runners are making their mountainous journey south through the famous tussocks of the Elan Valley.

13:15

Network coverage is patchy in mid-Wales, but I glance at the news as we drive out of Rhayader and see the breaking news story about the Queen's illness. I send a message via Teams to the Senior Event Team (SET): “Operational London Bridge? Queen unwell. Lisa/Greg what does this mean for the Cardiff Castle venue if she dies in the next few days?”. We are meant to start our venue build at 07:00 on Friday morning… the next day!

A few minutes later our Operations Director, Lisa Knipe responds saying, “I’ll do some investigating” and Abbi Forsyth in Race Control shares a photo with the SET (senior event team) of the Operation London Bridge reflex actions from the Crisis Communications Plan. At least we have an initial contingency plan to work with.

At this point, I disappear from mobile phone network coverage as I head to the Water Point near Abergwesyn for the next hour. I’m still contactable via the satellite radio but lose easy access to updates from the breaking news.

14:02

Back at the Day 4 Overnight Camp, Lisa has spoken with the key stakeholders at Cardiff Castle and Cardiff City Council and the message is clear: they’d like us to cancel the event now, so that Cardiff Castle is freed up should the Queen pass away.

14:10

Janie Oates, our Marketing Manager, and Chris Lines (from Right Lines PR who is supporting the event press communications) have an initial meeting to discuss the potential implications of this news with regards to the event communications, social media coverage and reporting. It is obviously important to get the tone right and we don’t want to be out of step with the national mood and the expectations of the event stakeholders like the Welsh government.

15:24

The first participants are arriving at Camp 4, oblivious to the unfolding national drama. Therefore, we decide to dedicate one of the information screens in the main marquee to displaying the BBC news website. The implications of the Queen’s death are unknown to the wider event team and participants, but the SET is now running through various scenarios and attempting to understand their implications. The challenge for us is, 1) if and when the Queen dies, 2) whether we are already established in Cardiff Castle, 3) what stage the event is at if/when the Queen dies, and 4) what possible other venues might be available at super short notice.

As soon as I am back at Camp 4, we hold an in-person SET meeting, co-locating being one of the overriding principles of optimum crisis management. Soon after there is a call with Cardiff City Council and Cardiff Castle representatives. Despite our tenancy agreement, the stakeholders make it crystal clear that they do not want us to take possession of the Castle the following morning. However, they are not willing to cancel the tenancy agreement either and want us to cancel instead. The pressure is most definitely on.

Throughout the remainder of the afternoon, our Operations Team start working on alternative plans. Uncertainty is the biggest problem for everyone. We understand the importance of Cardiff Castle to the official Welsh government plans and respect that, but to cancel our tenancy or even our event as a precaution seems an overreaction at this moment. The worst-case scenario for everyone would be for the event to take possession of the Castle, start the complex build of the event infrastructure, and for the Queen to then pass away. We explore the options of moving wholesale into Bute Park, but there is another large event scheduled to take place on Saturday, leaving us little space, and besides, the covenants on this ground prevent overnight stays, so we’d have nowhere for our Overnight Camp.

At this point, stakeholder and government advice suggested that a period of 7-10 days of national mourning following the Queen’s death would all but bring the country to a standstill, with massive disruption to public services, transport and the suspension of sports fixtures and events. Again, we are advised to cancel. The thought of trying to find a new overnight venue between now and the following morning is overwhelming.

18:30

There is an official government announcement that Queen Elizabeth II passed away during the afternoon. We immediately call another SET meeting in the Operations Tent, and video conference with the remote team members like our Operations Manager, Greg Mickleborough, who is already in Cardiff preparing for the site build the following morning. At least we have certainty now – we have lost Cardiff Castle as the finish to the Dragon’s Back Race and the final overnight camp for the event team and participants.

The core Management Team from Ourea Events remain after the SET meeting has finished. This includes Shane Ohly (CEO), Lucy Scrase (COO), Tom Hecht (Commercial Director) and Lisa Knipe (Operations Director). Janie Oates would ordinarily be part of this team, but today she needs to focus on our communications priorities. The next step for us will have potentially huge commercial implications for the business. Right now, we need to focus on the Dragon’s Back Race®, but we are also thinking about Salomon Skyline Scotland® the following weekend, and whether the date of the State Funeral will impact that event.

I sit with my head in my hands with my mind racing… ‘COVID totally fucked us and now this. Fuck.’

The situation threatens to be overwhelming, and I silently catastrophise the implications of losing this venue and the financial loss of the bookings with our contractors, combined with the potential cancellation of Skyline Scotland®. I push these thoughts firmly to the back of my mind and focus on the immediate priorities. Our SET meeting had quickly agreed that we all want to do what is best for the runners over the next 48 hours.

Over many years, we have built a comprehensive library of documents detailing many procedures, policies, and plans for different eventualities. Our Crisis Communication Plan is one of these documents, and it provides go-to checklists, prepared statements, and general preparedness that the SET can refer to whilst managing the communication around a crisis incident. In the modern age of social media, 24-hour news and citizen journalism*, it is essential that swift action is taken to address any crisis head-on. The key principles we had planned for our crisis communications are:  

• Who says it: The most senior representative available

• What is said: Be honest, be clear, be concise

• When it is said: Be first

* Consider how your event personnel and participants might comment on social media if an incident occurred at or during your event. Effectively this will be an instant commentary on your actions. In a way, this was easier to manage as we were at a ‘dark site’ with no mobile phone reception, so it was not possible for our participants to talk to anyone but each other.

19:17

We message all the Event Team via WhatsApp and print out the following notice which is placed around the Overnight Camp for both participants and the Event Team to read. We brief the various Team Leaders to ask their teams not to speculate on social media. This is 100% successful, which for me confirms how motivated and disciplined the Dragon’s Back Race® team has become in just a few days. What a brilliant group of people!

19:26

A few minutes later, we publish a statement on our event social media channels.

 Within the bubble of the event, we all understood – participants and event team alike – that we’d make every effort to continue the race in some form and had already committed to completing Day 5, as that Overnight Camp was already built, and we’d have to leave Camp 4 whatever. However, the phrase ‘Wrap up the event’ was clearly misunderstood by some outside observers, and these keyboard warriors kick off a shitstorm of social media comments and emails criticising us. In a moment of high stress and anxiety for the event team, honestly, it was demoralising to see previous participants and people we know personally go on the attack.

Reviewing our communications with the benefit of hindsight is unfair. One of the key principles of any crisis communication is to be first, and to be honest. At this point, our options looked very bleak indeed, and this message accurately reflected the reality of the situation we faced at 19:00 that evening. It would have been potentially far worse to have tried to spin the situation. A summary of our situation was:

1.   We had lost our Saturday finish venue and Overnight Camp.

2. There had been a year of planning committed to building an incredibly grand finish within Cardiff Castle with dozens of contractors due to start work in less than 12 hours’ time.

3. Even if we were able to find an alternative venue, we’d need to start building it tomorrow morning.

Our options included:

1. Cancel the event in the morning and finish at Camp 4 (least likely, but needed to be on the table)

2. Complete Day 5 and stay another night at the next Overnight Camp, but end the event a day early (most likely, and easy to achieve)

3. Option 2 combined with: continue Day 6 and finish elsewhere (ideally the adjacent Bute Park, but we have no permissions for this)

4. Option 3 combined with: ‘shockupy’ a new venue without any permission (Shockupy – as in ‘Shock and Occupy’ – a guerrilla event technique of old, but not something for building long-term relationships)

Over the next few hours, we work incredibly hard to imagine the scenarios, and explore the logistical realities of the various ideas. We needed to consider water, sanitation, catering, welfare, security, transport etc. for hundreds of people. The light-bulb moment was the realisation that we might be able to use the Day 5 Camp twice i.e., complete Day 6 and return to the same Overnight Camp that we’d already built. However, we did not have the transport capacity to move all the participants from Cardiff on a 70-minute journey back North to Camp 5, we didn’t have any landowner permissions to stay a second night, and our coaches transporting participants back to their vehicles in Conwy were all departing from Cardiff.

Returning to Camp 5 becomes the anchor for the contingency plan. We could do a super minimalist finish anywhere in Bute Park, but over the next few hours, managed to secure permission for a low-key finish in the corner of Bute Park, close to Cardiff Castle. Greg worked from his hotel room in Cardiff, cancelling some contractors, and re-arranging others. Because we own our own marquees, we could remain flexible on the minimalist build until the last moment now being planned for Bute Park, and because the event utilises a fleet of MPVs for supporting participants' transport logistics (retirements, insertions, hospital transfers etc.) we did have some logistical wiggle room. The next big step was to ask the participants, whenever feasible, to leave the event on Saturday after finishing, rather than staying with us on Saturday night. We didn’t know what the uptake of this would be, and we didn’t have any additional permissions for Camp 5, but before 22:00 we had stitched together a new operational plan that I was willing to commit to and we’d fill in the gaps later.

21:48

We publish an updated statement:

We carried on working late into the night, and by 01:00 we had an updated and detailed (minute by minute) running order for the next 48 hours, a completely rejigged operations plan, a re-imagined transport and logistics plan, new staffing arrangements and a resourcing plan.

Friday 9th September 2022 / Day 5

04:45

I’ve put my alarm on for 5 am, but wake beforehand to the feeling of adrenaline and cortisol. And a headache. I am dehydrated and wonder if the nightcap had been a good idea, but at least it helped me off to sleep. Around four hours’ sleep… well, that’s enough, I think. I want to be up and ready to speak with the participants in person when the catering tent opens soon after 5:30 am. Overnight we have prepared a written statement for the participants, asking them to make a decision whilst they are out running on Day 5:

Midday

It feels slightly bizarre given the circumstances of the previous night, but Day 5 runs smoothly. Participants complete the grand traverse of the Brecon Beacons, which is an epic 70km / 3,200m day of mountain running. The details of the new finish become clearer, and the Day 5 Camp landowners are happy to support us by allowing another 24 hours of tenancy of the site.

There is an initial wave of cancelled sporting events throughout the morning, like all premier league football, and we are advised that our finish should be very low-key with no branding, no crowds, no clapping and no cheering. We decide to remain flexible, responding to the mood of whatever friends and family turn up to watch their loved ones finish. As the day progresses, it becomes clear that different organisations are taking different approaches, and the mood of the nation is not going to support a long period of sombre mourning and shut down.

The event that had booked Coopers Field cancels, and suddenly we have the option to build something bigger, but still cannot stay overnight. We decided against that, having now all but committed to the revised plan. We feel that any more changes will only risk breaking a logistical factor we haven’t considered, or breaking someone mentally. Our heads are all fried from 24 hours of pressure and stress on the SET.

We have decided to suspend most of our event coverage out of respect for the situation. All social media reporting is stopped, all daily films are suspended, and we publish a simple summary of the day's results each evening.

For me personally, it’s not a question of whether the event has a royalist or republican point of view. It is about a sensible response in keeping with the national mood during a period of national mourning. Whatever your viewpoint, a person has died, and a family and nation are in mourning.

I spend a lot of time thinking about event operations and striving for excellence in what we do. As a business, we have been running the Dragon’s Back Race® for a decade and, to be frank, I’d expect us to deliver our original plan to a very high standard. The mark of a truly great team though is to adapt and pivot when an unexpected event occurs.

I would like to emphasise that all the participants helped enormously by making new accommodation and travel arrangements so that almost everyone left the event in Cardiff rather than returning to camp five. This really helped. Thank you.

It honestly felt like we’d pulled a rabbit out of the hat