[Kajuvra]

So in my race addon its important to know when someone dies and have that announced to raid chat by the raid leader and i think im going about this all wrong.

In the OnPlayerDead function:
It checks if a race is in progress (GnomeRunner.raceInProgress).
If a race is in progress, it announces the player's death using GnomeRunner.AnnouncePlayerDeath(playerName) in the raid chat.
It also sends an addon message (PLAYER_DEAD: playerName) to the raid leader using C_ChatInfo.SendAddonMessage.
This way, when a player dies, the addon both announces it in the raid chat and sends an addon message to the raid leader. The raid leader's addon can then listen for these messages and handle them accordingly.

-- New function to announce player deaths in raid chat
function GnomeRunner.AnnouncePlayerDeath(playerName)
    SendChatMessage(playerName .. " has died!", "RAID")
end

-- Modify the existing OnPlayerDead function
function GnomeRunner.OnPlayerDead()
    GnomeRunner.CheckPlayer()

    if GnomeRunner.raceInProgress then
        local playerName = UnitName("player")

        if UnitIsGroupLeader("player") then
            GnomeRunner.AnnouncePlayerDeath(playerName) -- Announce player death in raid chat
        else
            C_ChatInfo.SendAddonMessage (GnomeRunner.addonPrefix, "PLAYER_DEAD:" .. playerName, "WHISPER", GnomeRunner.raidLeader)
        end

        GnomeRunner.totalDeaths = GnomeRunner.totalDeaths + 1
    end
end