We had coverage for most things, but not for Covid related cancellation - which we only found out when we needed to claim. So when the events earlier in the year had to be postponed or cancelled, we were very exposed. We had just employed our first person, were due to pick up a van that we had leased and we had committed to our 2 year plan.
Let's just say that the money in the bank was only a fraction of what was needed to pay back all of the entrance fees if everyone asked.
Thankfully, the vast majority of our entrants have been superstars and have supported us through the tricky times and have moved to the re-arranged dates, to other events or had a voucher to future events.
Moving forward, there is no policy that will cover an event due to pandemic/epidemic cancellation - especially COVID.
All of the events we put on incur significant costs before the day of the event. As soon as you enter we have processing fees and cancellation protection - we never get these back.
We have venue hire, permits, insurance, medals, t-shirts, sound system, first aid and technical officials that all have to be paid for in advance. This is on top of maintaining our equipment, storing it, site visits and lots of paperwork!
So when we re-opened our entries, we have tried to strike a balance of the risk between us and our competitors and make it easy to understand.
To put it simply, we will protect every entry with a cancellation policy which is very comprehensive. If the event is cancelled for a reason covered by the policy - then great everything is sorted.
If the reason is not covered by the policy (so think COVID) then you agree that if we offer to transfer to another event, receive a voucher for a future event or convert the entry to a virtual challenge you will be happy.
We will always try to offer all three but in some cases that might not be possible.
You can view our full terms of entry and our cancellation statement both of which you must agree to during signup.