Yes, the team at Breaking Strain Events are available to answer your questions by

• Phone: 07568 563061 
• WhatsApp: 07568 563061
• Email: events@breakingstrain.co.uk

To coin a Ted Lasso-ism: "We don't not care. We care very much. We care about who you are and what you must've been going through. Yeah? But hey, from now on, you don't have to go through it all by yourself".

Ultimately everyone's welcome at our races provided people treat each other as they'd want to be treated themselves and we look after each other out on the trails.

If you've been to our headline event, Run the Blades, you'll know that the community is incredibly supportive, kind and welcoming - whilst we've driven some of this by how my team of staff and volunteers naturally interact with the runners, it's about the group of runners themselves who have built that.

• LGBTQ+ : Ultimately as Ted says, we don't care. Love who you love. Be who you want to be. Not sure why it would matter to us when you're entering a race. Frankly the fact that this needs to be written in 2024 is fucking ridiculous.
• Non-binary: We've had non-binary on our race entry forms since 2017. We're not asking anyone to polarise between deciding to put male or female when you sign up for the race. To date at Run the Blades we've not provided a trophy for non-binary runners as we only ever get a maximum of 2-3 runners per year across the three races. This isn't about excluding non-binary from the podium, it's just with those numbers, the non-binary category isn't currently a race, as everyone would get a trophy for finishing. I hope this changes in the future and that those who identify as non-binary feel safe enough to come forward and be part of the event.
• Disability: Where we can, we'll make reasonable adjustments to allow you to enter our events/treks. We have had visually impaired runners, runners with cerebral palsy and MS, someone in a wheelchair do the 10K at Run the Blades for four years and we've taken a quadruple amputee to the summit of Kilimanjaro. If you're a carer for someone with a disability and they need a guide runner with them, we'll give the guide runner a free entry (and a medal and a goody bag - you're not surplus to requirements at the end of the race).
• Female athletes: You make up over 50% of our race attendees so not looking after you is a terrible business model (apart from everything else)! We don't operate a time sweeper system at our headline event, Run the Blades, as historically/typically it penalised females at races. We all have different race strategies - run your own race.  At all our events we provide period products in the Event Village and at checkpoints and will have designated female changing space within the Event Village. If you get pregnant after you've entered the race (or if you sign up postpartum, but your training hasn't gone quite to plan), we'll defer your entry for two years (or you can receive a refund if that's a better option for you).We'll also give partners (in whatever form they are), a one year deferral if your partner has just given birth or you're near the due date.
• Prize money: We operate an equal prize pot for male and female athletes. Can't see a reason why we wouldn't.
• Fitness levels: We offer a range of distances, the ability to walk or run and to take part in a relay to hopefully make the event accessible for almost everyone.
• Socio-economic: The world has gone to shit with the cost of living crisis impacting the amount of transferable cash available to families. If you're struggling financially, give me a shout and I'll see what I can do to allow you to race.

We try to get stuff right but sometimes you don't know what you don't know until something happens (to be fair, there's probably stuff in the paragraphs above that I've not got right). If you think we should be doing something that we're not doing, let me know. I've just never felt that we needed to advertise our inclusivity stance as everyone's welcome and it's always been that way for us - it's just not even a discussion point (which I realise puts me in a privileged position).

Lee (Owner & Race Director)

No woman should be penalised for being pregnant! If you become pregnant after signing up (or if you sign up postpartum but your training hasn't gone quite to plan), we'll defer your entry for two years (or you can receive a refund if that's a better option for you).

We'll also give partners (in whatever form they are), a one year deferral if your partner has just given birth or you're near the due date.

Just drop us a line.

Yes. All individual entrants must be aged 17 or over. This is to comply with UK and Scottish Athletics guidance for our shortest distance (10K). For the Half Marathon and 50k entrants must be aged 18 or over on the day of the event.

For the Junior RTB all entrants must be under 16.

Parking

There is on-site parking on the array road within the wind farm. This is accessed via the Operations entrance rather than the Visitor Centre entrance. The parking system has been tried, adapted and tested at Run the Blades since 2015. If the parking team ask you to go somewhere, there's a reason for it and they're not just trying to mess you around.

On Friday evening at the 10K, as part of our licence to hold the event, we are permitted to park at the Visitor Centre in addition to the array roads but on the Saturday and Sunday we can only park on the array road. Due to how popular the event is, if you arrive late, you will be a decent distance from the Event Village. In the past we've had the very occasional runner be a bit disgruntled that they're having to walk for about 1km to reach the start. This is no different from any of the road marathons (Edinburgh, London etc) where access is limited around the start. We're not magicians, we can't magic up spaces closer to the start if you turn up late. Just turn up on time.

As Whitelee is an operational wind farm and an important piece of national utility infrastructure, we must maintain access for maintenance at all times for ScottishPower Renewables engineers. That's usually the reason that we'll ask you to move from an 'obvious' parking space.

Disabled/accessible parking

This is available for blue badge holders who contact us in advance. We maintain the fixed disabled parking spaces up at the Visitor Centre at all times for the general public and supporters. We also have limited spaces available approximately 100 metres from the registration tents at the entrance to the Event Village. 

Drop us an email about the accessible parking near the Event Village: events@breakingstrain.co.uk

Public transport

Bus: If travelling by bus, Eaglesham is the closest village to the windfarm and Visitor Centre. However, please note that you would require private transport (taxi) to get from Eaglesham to Whitelee Windfarm.

Train: The closest train station to Whitelee is in East Kilbride with the nearest station being Hairmyres. If travelling by bus, Eaglesham is the closest village to the windfarm and Visitor Centre. However, please note that you would require private transport (taxi) to get from Eaglesham to Whitelee Windfarm. 

Cycling

There are fixed cycle racks up at the Visitor Centre and we'll have space behind some of our gazebos where bikes can be stored within the Event Village.

The Event Village, which is located at Turbine 53, is approximately 400 metres from the nearest end of array 1 parking. Depending on numbers

• Portaloos: we will have approximately 20 portaloos within the Event Village including an accessible toilet. Out on route, each checkpoint will have  a portaloo. We'll have sanitary products available within the portaloos. If you discover that they're not in there, just give us a shout.
• Changing tents: In 2023 we introduced changing tents to allow privacy when changing.
• Bag drop: we'll have a facility to leave your bags at the event. These are left at the owner's risk but we'll have an unsupervised tent where you can leave your bag/change of clothes.
• Coffee: We'll have a coffee truck in the event village. The world could end and we'd still have intravenous caffeine.

Absolutely. BSE was conceived on the back of a long history of charity fundraising and to-date our events and treks have raised £2.5 million for the causes they've supported. There are two ways to run for charity: sign up and then run for your chosen charity or in some cases charities have bought bundles of tickets in advance and will be advertising on their own website.

Some charities have discount codes that gives free entries to runners in lieu of meeting a minimum fundraising amount. Drop us an email to events@breakingstrain.co.uk or a WhatsApp to 07568 563061 if you have any questions.

The trail in the main follows existing windfarm access roads which offer a good surface to transition from road running to trail running. Although this isn’t a technical trail, we’d still recommend trail shoes as some sections of the trail can be muddy, wet (rain in the week of the 2016 event created an additional water feature) and be a little rough underfoot especially on the 50K.

Unlike traditional road races, trail running encourages self-sufficiency and as a result we encourage runners to carry their own water in a hydration pack or bottle. Due to the relatively short length there is only one water station on the 10K, two on the half marathon and four on the 50K ultra.

The checkpoint distances for all three races are below:

• 10K: 5K
• Half Marathon: 10.4K, 16K
• 50K: 10.4K, 22.4K, 36.5K, 45K

Each of the checkpoints acts as a water station where you can grab a cup of water on the 10K or refill a bottle/hydration pack on the longer races. Each checkpoint is crewed by a minimum of two of Breaking Strain's core crew (who are first aiders) and a team of volunteers.

There is a portaloo at each checkpoint.

Drop bags are your little bags of joy that you can leave at each of the checkpoints so you don't have to carry everything. Drop bags should be small bags (think large food bags) that include only disposable items (food, drink etc) as we can't be responsible for any valuables/clothing left behind.

At registration we'll have an area set aside for you to leave your drop bags for the respective checkpoints. Drop bags can be left at every checkpoint on the route.

The checkpoint teams will then transport your drop bags to the checkpoint in advance of you arriving there.

We aim to make all our events as accessible as possible, so we aim never to pull a runner from the race field due to pace (within reason - if you plan to camp out we might need to have a discussion) provided that our runners are happy and healthy. In the last eight years, the bulk of our 50K runners have completed the race in under seven hours but we've also had people take a bit longer than this. Taking on the 50K is a major challenge for a huge number of runners so we'd hate to spoil your effort just because we want to get packed up. All our runners, from the racing snakes at the front to those at the back (definitely the most fashionable place - from a perennial tail-end charlie) should experience the same race in terms of infrastructure placement and facilities on the course.

Absolutely. We'll have a coffee truck on site all day in the Event Village and you can wait there for your friends/family to arrive back.

Alternatively if you'd like to support out on the route, drop us an email and we can try to direct you to a good place to watch. As Whitelee is a controlled site, no vehicles with the exception of the Breaking Strain team are permitted beyond the event parking, so if you'd like to go further into site to support you'll need to do so on foot or by bike.

A great way to support out on route is to join us as a volunteer at one of the checkpoints.

We would never cancel an event unless participant safety was significantly compromised. However, bad things occasionally happen. In the event that we are forced to cancel an event we definitely don't win financially when this happens - we've already potentially spent tens of thousands of pounds on medals, t-shirts, water, first aid provision, marquees, portaloos, barriers, signs, staff, vehicles, branding, good bags, liaison with local authorities/ emergency services, shuttle buses etc.

We take your safety incredibly seriously. We've backgrounds in the emergency services and we recognise when we're told to restrict an activity for certain reasons that they don't do so lightly.

We regret that we cannot accept liability or pay any compensation where the performance or prompt performance of our obligations  is prevented or affected by or you otherwise suffer any damage or loss as a result of “force majeure”.  Force majeure means any event which we as the Organiser or the supplier of the service(s) in question could not, even with all due care, foresee or avoid. Such events may include war or threat of war, riot, civil strife, actual or threatened terrorist activity, industrial dispute, natural or nuclear disaster, adverse weather conditions, fire and all similar events outside our control.