Organising a race. Where do I start?

deise muay thai

I've been thinking of trying to organise a 12 and 24 hour track race in Waterford for the simple reason there is a lack of long distance races around the country. Something like this also might get more people into ultra running, personally I think it's time to stop looking at long distance race as "OH YOUR MAD" or "HA, I WOULDN'T DO IT IN THE CAR". Any one can do these races with a bit of training.

This idea just came to my head a couple of days ago so I tought I'd get it out there. I'd like to here from people with experience in race organisation. Maybe we can get a good group of people together and get this going. I don't want to hear from people who want to make money as I would like to give any raised money to charity.

gerard65

To organise an ultra running event you need a licence from www.ultrarunningireland.com who appear to be the self appointed 'police' of anyone who wants to run more than 26.2 miles in Ireland.

BeepBeep67

I'm sure Roadrunner wouldn't say no to a helping hand if you want some hands on experience.

donothoponpop

gerard65 wrote: »

To organise an ultra running event you need a licence from www.ultrarunningireland.com who appear to be the self appointed 'police' of anyone who wants to run more than 26.2 miles in Ireland.

Anyone can organize an Ultra event, depends on what permits etc you want. You can contact the AAI seeking a permit for an event.

If you are looking to have 6hr, 12hr, 24hr track times verified for World or Area Best purposes, you'll have to contact the IAU's body in Ireland, ^linked above.

(See also http://www.iau.org.tw/upload/download/1239391857.pdf )

Woundedknee.

gerard65 wrote: »

To organise an ultra running event you need a licence from www.ultrarunningireland.com who appear to be the self appointed 'police' of anyone who wants to run more than 26.2 miles in Ireland.

gerad65,
You should check out the list of IAU Members on the links page of the IAU website and just in case you didn't know, these self appointed police are also hosting the IAU World 50K final at the end of this month.

jb-ski

deise muay thai wrote: »

I've been thinking of trying to organise a 12 and 24 hour track race in Waterford for the simple reason there is a lack of long distance races around the country. Something like this also might get more people into ultra running, personally I think it's time to stop looking at long distance race as "OH YOUR MAD" or "HA, I WOULDN'T DO IT IN THE CAR". Any one can do these races with a bit of training.

hi deise muay thai,

just out of curiosity have you done any 12 or 24 hour track runs yourself?
do you think their is sufficient demand for an endurance track race?

the Conn ultra and suchlike definitely interest me, but the track thing seems to be a different kettle of fish in terms of mental toughness, for 24 hours particularly.

deise muay thai

jb-ski wrote: »

just out of curiosity have you done any 12 or 24 hour track runs yourself?
do you think their is sufficient demand for an endurance track race?

No I haven't ran any long distance track races before, but I'm just putting the idea out there. Personally I'd prefer something like the Portumna 100km which I did in June which was great. The track seems like an eaiser option but maybe its not, I'm not sure as I'm just looking for help in getting a nice long distance event going in the south east. There's probably not a great demand for a long distance track event but we have to start somewhere. If we never did one then there would never be a demand.

RodSteel

gerard65 wrote: »

To organise an ultra running event you need a licence from www.ultrarunningireland.com who appear to be the self appointed 'police' of anyone who wants to run more than 26.2 miles in Ireland.

Reads like something that <mod snip> would write.

jb-ski

deise muay thai wrote: »

If we never did one then there would never be a demand.

i agree with you 100% on that. "Build it and they'll come"

btw well done on Portumna, i'll be sticking to the short distances for now (26.2):)

what about the club that organise the half in December?
mrs jb-ski did this last year, and reckons it's very well organised, so there's got to be lots of local expertise.

donothoponpop

RodSteel wrote: »

Reads like something that <snipped> would write.

<modYour opinion on what another poster might write is something best kept off the forum. Infraction given./mod>

RodSteel

gerard65 wrote: »

To organise an ultra running event you need a licence from www.ultrarunningireland.com who appear to be the self appointed 'police' of anyone who wants to run more than 26.2 miles in Ireland.

Why do you make a snide comment like that about URI when this issue was already closed in a previous thread?

deise muay thai

I don't want this thread to turn into a menstrual cycle, so can every one be good please

RodSteel

Sure thing mate, good luck with your race plan

locteau

You can't apply to URI for IAU label at the moment the IAU email when I applied even with a AIMS label which should have been straight forward :

"we were forced to put all the Ireland related decisions “on hold” until the ongoing investigations"

(Moderator, feel free to ask me the proof of email by pm)

It does not sounds good to me to be honest, but I suppose with everything going on they might be nicer than they were with me, especially since some of the committee took the lead and pay the price for past mistakes. I found them brave but again for the only body to recognize Ultra in Ireland, they missed the first ever 50km and 100km in Ireland open to the general public, and they would need to be very persuasive to get it after everything happened.

Just a pity to be honest, hopefully the new committee will bring things up ! Good luck with them.

Woundedknee.

Hi Locteau,
I took part in a 100K last year in Galway along with Ultraman1 and anyone else that wanted to (Celtic 100) so you can't claim that your race was the first 100K open to all.
Let the OP organise his race and contact the relevant bodies and make up his own mind about URI.

donothoponpop

Woundedknee. wrote: »

Let the OP organise his race and contact the relevant bodies and make up his own mind about URI.

Amen to this.

TFBubendorfer

donothoponpop wrote: »

Amen to this.

Thank you.

I'd actually be interested in a 12 hour track race, as long as I can fit it into me calendar. I see this as a good opportunity to step up the distance. I'm a sucker for punishment, obviously.

What I'm not interested in is yet another row over URI. We've covered that ground at least twice already, and it wasn't pretty.

aburke

deise muay thai wrote: »

Organising a race. Where do I start?

Start by helping out at events organised by experienced people.
Guessing from your name, you're in Waterford [Deise]?
If so West Waterford AC, Waterford AC and Ballycotton running promotions would probably be glad of any help offered.
You'd be learning from the experts.

Woundedknee.

Hi Deise,

Getting back to your original question. *If you want to organise a race do as aburke says and then ask yourself the question again. *If it's still yes then go to the relevant body as listed on the IAU website. * I would suggest you use a track (if available) as it's easier to monitor and easier for the Athletes to control their pace and feeding. *I'm sure you can get an International Label through URI just like anyone else and it might be worth talking to Ed Smith the organiser of the Belfast 24-hr to see how he put it all together. *Not only did Ed get his label but he also got a race referee.

I'm also sure there's a demand for these races which is evident from the over subscription and waiting list with races such as the Tooting Bec 24-hr and I'd prefer to be getting a train to Waterford rather than flying to London or further.

Yes you can organise the event without permits and labels but the result means nothing. *I was lucky enough last year to reach the qualifying standard for team selection when running in the Tooting Bec 24-hr but if that race didn't have an IAU label my result wouldn't have counted.*

Locteau,*
Maybe the problem the IAU were referring to was with Athletics Ireland rather than Ultra Running Ireland.

morse3

Sounds good idea, great place for an event and weekend away.
Pity about all the political stuff. Sport in Ireland seems riddled with corrupt and dismal, self interested officials. I thought athletics was bad then joined cycling and found the same. My mates dabble in Triathlon but it is just the same. Nobody knows were the money goes in any of them
have a go a force it through. Genuine care and consideration for the athletes will see you through.....:)

SUNGOD

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

I'd actually be interested in a 12 hour track race, as long as I can fit it into me calendar. I see this as a good opportunity to step up the distance. I'm a sucker for punishment, obviously.

.

this sums up my feelings on the subject
and as im a blaa myself its on my doorstep

Enduro

morse3 wrote: »

Pity about all the political stuff. Sport in Ireland seems riddled with corrupt and dismal, self interested officials. I thought athletics was bad then joined cycling and found the same. My mates dabble in Triathlon but it is just the same. Nobody knows were the money goes in any of them

Well, I can give you a rough idea of where the money comes from and goes to in Ultrarunning Ireland:

• Income from sports council : 0
• Income from AAI: -2000 (That is a minus figure...we are still waiting for them to pass on a travel grant from the IAU which was sent via AAI... It has been promised for over a year now. It still appears to be resting in somebody's account)
• Income from any and all other Irish sports organisations : 0
• Income from IAU: Athletes are payed a travel grant when they travel to world championship events. The level of grant is dependant on the best performance of the athlete in labelled races from the previous 2 years. Ireland has one A and four B ranked athletes at 24 hours, for funding purposes. We usually pool the funds and share them equally amongst everyone. In our case generally this grant would cover about 10% - 20% of flight costs, there or thereabouts.
• All other funding for the running of URI, and sending athletes to competitions comes directly from the athletes and officials themselves.

Outgoings would mostly be the flight and accomodation costs for sending athletes to championship events.

911sc

deise muay thai wrote: »

No I haven't ran any long distance track races before, but I'm just putting the idea out there. Personally I'd prefer something like the Portumna 100km which I did in June which was great. The track seems like an eaiser option but maybe its not

Any long distance based on loops is defo easier to organise than out & back type. And even easier on 400m track...
But would that appeal to potential ultra newbie like myself? personaly, no...It requires a certain mindset to go around and around a track, and is easier to stop when i gets though going. I would rather prefer a Wicklow Way Ultra type (21kms out and 21kms back)...fewer bail-out points.

But I remember one of Enduro's post a while back ... He was basically saying that he found loops easier as he counted the laps rather than the distance, so 100km becomes say 40 loops (assuming 2.5km loop). Mental games ultra seems to be!