Eight people involved in the event were flown to hospital with mild hypothermia on Wednesday (file picture). Photo: SUPPLIED
An Arrowtown councillor says under-preparation may be a factor in the rescue of some athletes from the Southern Lakes Ultra-Marathon course yesterday.
But an organiser from the Southern Lakes Ultra said a lack of experience or preparedness was a contributing factor to why some marathon participants struggled.
Eight people involved in the event were flown to hospital with mild hypothermia and minor injuries yesterday after setting off 10 locator beacons in Macetown on Wednesday.
Local councillor Lisa Guy said that had never happened before in that particular terrain.
"As a community, I think there'll be questions asked following the event because this doesn't happen down here, you don't get 10 or so PLBs [personal locator beacons] activated in an event in normal situations."
The region frequently hosted larger events in more difficult terrain and conditions without incident, including the Motutapu and GodZone races, she said.
Guy said she was very glad that everyone was safe but some questions needed to be asked in any post-event review about what happened.
"Our questions are around how organised were they? Did they consider their clientele? What did they do in regards to the weather? How prepared were they?"
Another Southern Lakes Ultra-marathon was scheduled for next year but the community wanted some answers from the organisers about whether this year's organisation of the event was adequate, she said.
The area that the group was in was not way out in the back blocks, she said.
"They're not right out in the boonie-boonies, this is 14km behind town with an easily accessible walking track back into the village that was still usable yesterday."
Organisers should look into what level of briefing they had given around when people should activate their personal locator beacons, she said.
"We have never seen 10 PLBs activated on an event of this scale in those conditions."
But obviously people did need to activate their PLBs if they were at risk, in harm or danger, she said.
Southern Lakes Ultra crew member Glenn Marvin said participants were briefed extensively before and during the event.
"Every single one of those people have had multiple briefings, there is so much information that is disseminated amongst all the athletes," Marvin said.
"Nobody signs up to these things thinking it's going to be a walk in the park, they know it's a long way, they know it's over mountainous terrain. There's always an element of personal choice when it comes to, 'how well am I going to prepare for this', and we can't control necessarily how you turn up."
All the safety measures in place had worked when it came to evacuations, and every person who chose to activate the beacon made the right decision if they did not feel they could carry on, he said. But a full review would reveal what could be learned from the event.
"Any event you have, there is always a full review and there is always discussion around what could be done better, so 100 percent - I am totally sure that we look at that night and we go 'all right, how could we have done that better?', and there will be things that we will change," he said.
A full health and safety plan that was independently audited had been signed off as a condition of the race's licence to operate.
Marvin said the fact that 97 percent of people made it through the toughest night and carried on with the race on Thursday was a testament to that the safety plan and briefings had worked, and the overwhelming feedback from participants was that it was "one of the most incredible experiences of their lives".
