The (depressing) annual covid post…
Covid. Again.
This is guaranteed to be out of date about 5 minutes after I post this but I just want to emphasise Big Bear, and my, approach to Covid. To be honest, it hasn’t changed from March 2020 when I thought we’d be back to normal in a few weeks (oh the naivety!!).
You will not lose entry fees due to Covid cancellations by Big Bear.
I will only put events on when it is safe to do so. (I am at the mercy of landowners, governing bodies and insurers as well as the government advice!)
We can put covid-secure events on and still give a genuine, premium, Big Bear experience with minimal alterations.
I just want to re-emphasise this. On the whole I think most race directors acted through 2020/21 with runners best interests at heart. I saw very few stories of events cancelled with no refunds or referrals. Although I am running a business I can’t do that by doing people over or you lose all trust and you’d rightly go elsewhere. I would.
So, to be clear, if an event is cancelled due to Covid I will transfer you to an equivalent event of your choosing. That is to say if you picked up an early bird price of £30 for an entry into a 6 hour event and you want to run in 1 in 3 weeks, I wont be asking for the extra £5. I’ll just transfer you across. There is no time limit on these transfers or other restrictions on them either.
For the ease of admin I will create a 2023 edition of the event and transfer all entries to that but from there you’re free to transfer to any other equivalent event (10k to 10k etc.). It’s just a quick email and I’ll get it done, no admin fees or anything silly like that. I want you to be able to book with confidence now knowing that if we get some depressing Christmas press conferences that you won’t have lost any money. It might just mean more training time!
We all look to the next year in this time period and many people set ambitious targets or plan their “warm-up events” leading up to an almighty goal later in the year. You can book those events with Big Bear confident you’ll get your event. I can’t promise to put events on if the government ramp up restrictions (I’m writing this on 19th December!) or if the landowners decide to restrict events. Please trust though that I want events to go on as much (if not more!) than you do. Lots of work, time and money goes down the drain with cancelled events on top of the emotional toll of letting down 100 people again. It’s truly the worst decision to have to call.
This is all a long way of me saying, book that event you’ve got your eye on. If it’s cancelled - I’ll look after you with regard the fee. If it goes ahead - I’ll look after you with jaffa cakes, malt loaf and that flapjack on the finish line. I’ve been trying my best to look after the Big Bear family since the first jelly baby was given out at Ryton Pools in February 2018. I’ll be trying to do the same in 2022 and beyond.