Fern & Forest Duathlon
As you may know, we reluctantly took the decision to cancel this year’s Fern & Forest duathlon scheduled to be held on 26th March.
This is never the kind of decision you want to make as an event organiser. In fact, I believe it is the first event we have chosen to cancel ourselves (we did of course have to cancel several due to Covid restrictions).
So why did we make this decision?
Largely it was due to low entry numbers. We simply got to a point where we were going to have to pay out a significant amount of money (for chip timing, medical cover and other costs) and income from entries was miles off us balancing the books. We don’t need to make a profit, but the business can’t cope with making a lose of potentially £2-3k.
Whilst we may well have picked up more entries it didn’t look like numbers would get anywhere near what we had in 2022 (the first running of the event) despite positive feedback last year.
This is probably a reflection of several factors: –
- Since Covid some people have not returned to multi-sport/events yet or found other interests
- The cost-of-living crisis certainly doesn’t help anyone
- A high percentage of people now enter events very late (not a moan, just an observation)
Ultimately, had we gone ahead we risked the business going under resulting in everything else we do coming to end with it.
We have now just about processed all refunds, but any queries then do let us know.
On a more positive note, we really appreciate the support and positive messages we have received in relation to this. We also hope that Fern & Forest will return in some form next year!
Good luck for the season ahead!!
Iain & Jill Dawson