Northern Traverse Acknowledgement

By Shane Ohly, Event Director

I am passionate about organising brilliant running events, and my measure for success is quite simple: what would I like to have experienced if I were taking part? This means that I set high standards for myself and the team I work with. Over many years, Ourea Events has built a hard-earned reputation for excellence. We have been able to do this because we have listened carefully to the feedback and comments of our participants, and have a culture of constantly evolving and improving our events. 

Part of our culture is an open and blame-free working environment, where we can acknowledge problems, learn and improve. Everyone in the Ourea Events team is safe in the knowledge that I’ll take responsibility for any error or omission made in good faith, especially in the heat of an event when we are tired and stressed. Ultimately responsibility stops with me, and this is one of the occasions when I need to recognise that certain elements of the Northern Traverse were under-resourced. That’s my responsibility, and the root cause for some poor feedback after the Northern Traverse.

Typically, the feedback we get from participants at our events is excellent. However, after the Northern Traverse last month, there has been a trickle of negative feedback from a small number of participants (less than 5%). This feedback has a consistent theme, largely focused on sleeping and eating arrangements at the Support Points. All the feedback we get is read, considered and debated by the Ourea Events team, and it is clear to us that this negative feedback is valid and warrants action on our part. 

What happened?

There were occasions during the event that Support Points became extremely busy, and we struggled to provide the full range of catering options, and/or the provision we made for participants to sleep became overwhelmed by the demand. Additionally, we were only able to offer the participants towards the back of the field a reduced catering service. It is also clear that, as Support Points reached their peak periods of activity, they were simply not sufficiently resourced to provide the full range of services to everyone all the time. 

Whilst I recognise that our meat and fish free menu is not to everyone's liking, and this does cause a bit of friction with a small number of participants, the issue here is not about sustainability, it’s simply about ensuring that there is sufficient food on the table of the type and variety that we have promised. 

For any participants who were affected by these issues, please accept my sincere apology.

It is painful to read negative feedback from participants who have had a poor experience when your overriding goal is to deliver excellence. I would like anyone reading this to be 100% confident that I will treat this as an opportunity to improve. I see the negative feedback as absolute gold in terms of how the business grows and evolves the event, so these issues are not repeated, and the event is improved for the next edition. In fact, I’d like to thank the participants who have taken the time to clearly describe to us their experiences at the event.

Why this happened?

I am not writing this section to excuse what happened, but rather to provide the context and also give confidence to our participants that we have identified the issues, so they can be resolved for the next edition of the Northern Traverse.

There was a very short period of time between taking on the organisation of the event (November 2021) and delivering our first edition 3 months later. To provide some context, the build-up to the first edition of the Cape Wrath Ultra® was 2 years. During this 3-month period, we solved some of the known issues from previous editions, such as the lack of park and ride, but created some new problems, like the extended time period between the arrival of the park and ride bus, registration and the start. Our previous Catering Manager resigned with zero notice for personal reasons at the beginning of February, which really complicated our preparation for this event. 

Both the Northern Traverse and Lakes Traverse grew considerably between the last edition in 2018, and our edition in 2022. The large increase in participants would clearly create new challenges, and we planned for this. What caught us by surprise was the change in behaviour from previous editions. At the 2016 and 2018 editions, the self-sufficient ethos underlying the event resulted in a far greater number of runners using the Support Points as pit stops: breaking for shorter periods of time, eating a meal or two, and then carrying on. This year, a larger number of participants were treating the event more like an expedition stage race, stopping for 5-8 hours, and eating 3-4 meals. The compound effect, especially with the larger numbers, impacted the provision of sleeping arrangements plus the quantity and quality of food we were able to provide. You can probably imagine that the experience for the runners got worse the further back in the field they were. 

As I hinted at above, at the heart of this is a resourcing problem. Nothing beats the experience of delivering the event for the first time, and I know we can resolve the issues that have been identified. 

Runners’ Covenant

Some of our participants will be familiar with the Armed Forces Covenant. Essentially, this states that the nation will treat fairly and with respect service personnel and their families. Reflecting on this feedback, it is clear to me that we have a similar obligation to the participants in our races. We expect our participants to universally abide by the rules, format and ethos of our events, regardless of whether they are first or last. The quid pro quo is that our participants should expect that their race experience and the services offered by Ourea Events should be universal, regardless of whether they are first or last. That’s my covenant to our participants. 

The Northern Traverse 2023

There is a tonne of other feedback (mostly excellent I might add!) we have received about this event, and I am confident that as we share our vision for the next edition, many runners will notice how their comments are now shaping the event. I would like to emphasise though, that if you don’t share your experiences and feedback with us, we do not have the opportunity to react, so please do not be shy about getting in touch, especially in the next few weeks as we shape the 2023 edition.

Shane congratulating a Northern Traverse finisher © No Limits Photography