Windsor Half Cancelled

To cancell and event will be a nightmare for any organiser. Try cancelling a dinner party.....

Anyway, As soon as it was cancelled I contacted the organiser and offered a negotiated an reduced entry into Kingston Running Festival on the 14th Oct. (16 mile or 8.2 mile) the offering is a £5 reduction in the entry fee to the Kingston Running Festival but you HAVE to print off and send in the confirmation email from the windsor half. Forms are on [u]www.humanrace.co.uk[/u]

This offer is only available to those who have been entered and accepted into the Windsor half. Offer is valid until the 26th Sept.

At least the runners get something back and it may help keep some of the goodwill. Maybe also help some of the charity fund raisers.  I benefit as I get more entrants.

I would hope other organisers would do the same if my race was cancelled.

John Lunt

Dips, I'm well aware that races have to have insurance - I dont think that stretches to cancellation insurance though ?

Race Insurance is almost always liability insurance, not cancellation insurace. I do not know what cancellation insurance would cost, but I know that it would end up on your entry form price for every single race, and in the end you would pay more for that than accepting the odd £20 here and there. After all the insurance company wants to make a profit out of it. If they reckon 1/1000 races are cancelled at a cost of £120,000, then they will charge £250,000 over those 1000 races.

The GNR and FLM are other races that would not refund you anything if the race was cancelled. UKA advise that race cancellation for reasons outside of the organisers control mean that the organiser does not have to give a refund. E.g. The police can close a race at any point. Imagine lining up at the start line and being told the race was cancelled. It could happen is there was a severe accident on the course. Having to give a refund could bankrupt an organiser - which might be an individual, a charity, or a local running club.

Our T&C are slightly different - we won't refund you, but you do get a voucher for another of our races for free entry (named race only and unattached levy still needs to be paid (currently)). If you can't make the other race, then there will be a smaller discount to another of our races within a time period.

 We cancelled one race and it cost us dearly (weather). We also had to think what we could do at the time - we didn't have a policy until it happened. Most runners were very understanding... Obviously times have changed. Our race had 600 people in it. The W0.5 has 6000 - more problematic.  

 DB..I think most races have a non refundable clause worked into them, not surprising when you consider the cost of putting on a race, most of which has to be paid up front.

Anyway lets just hope the F&M clears up soon before more races have to be cancelled.

The Grizzly was cancelled at very short notice in March 2007 due to the Napoli being wrecked off shore and the beach at Branscombe (which is part of the course) being closed.

However, not only did Axe Valley Runners reorganise the event for September they also offered a refund to anybody who couldn't or didn't want to take part in the later event.  With approx 2000 entries this was a huge task and they are only a small running club.

If they can do it................................... 

There seem to be two types of road races - the approx £10 race, and the £20+ race.  Of course there are a few in between, but this seems to be a rule of thumb.

I am guessing that the approx £10 race is organised voluntarily, and the entry fee is charged to cover police, ambulance, medal/t shirt, timing chip, signage, road closure adverts, perhaps a donation to a local charity for goodwill of the local townspeople, etc...

I am also guessing that with the £20+ races the organisers are NOT volunteers, but are waged staff, e.g. of BUPA, or ASICS, or other professional race organiser.

I think it would follow that you are less likely to get a refund from the latter as the costs do not vary dependant on the race going ahead or not.