Advice for organising a race

Slogger Jogger

I'm part of my local community group who want to organise a run on new trails we have constructed. As the runner I'm being looked to to lead the organisation of it.

Can I ask for other people's experiences at organising local races. The mini-checklist I have in my head at the moment is:-

Pick a good date. End of April, either Saturday 28th or Sunday 29th, are decent candidates.

Pick a decent route. I'm spoilt for choice here. Figure I'll jog out a few routes during the week and try to come up with one that has a nice round number. An 8 or 10k. It'll be mainly trail and have some nice hills.

Pick a nice price point. I figure around the 10 quid mark is a reasonable compromise. The aim of the run is to raise funds for the construction of the trails we will be running on. It'll be low cost, little frills. Chip timing and a t-shirt not planned. Figure reliable timing can still be done with pencil and paper and chip timing has been dodgey at some recent events so do you get what you pay for? Runners will get a nice race and refreshments at the end. Finish line is beside the local pub which is ideal.

Prizes: Aim to have some decent prizes for the winners with spot prizes through the field.

Online entry. Debating with myself the merits of it. For a commission it will take the hassle of a lot of cash handling away and gives some exposure.

Race numbers & pins. Have to do a bit of googling to find an Irish supplier (ideally) of same. Anyone know a local source?

Marketing etc. Word of mouth, social media and usual websites should do the trick. Not clashing with other events and offering a nice price point for a nice event is key.

Insurance: Do people insure once off running events?

Helpers. Should have lots available from the locality so shouldn't be an issue.

Option of a shorter route: While nice to be able to offer this to younger runners or less fit runners, it adds to a level of complexity for the organiser. It limits the route too, so I'm not gone on this.

Head is blank as regards other issues but if other organisers can think of anything I haven't please comment. Thanks.

runrabbit

Sounds good, I wouldn't bother with chip timing, especially for a trail race. Online entry is good, but well-organised entry on the day is fine too. The people on registration need to be efficient and organised as this can be chaotic. People will arrive 10 minutes before the race regardless of cut-off times and it's very hard to turn people away if they've travelled. Likewise the people on results (finish-line) need to be "with-it" and know what they're at.

For me what I look for in a race (aside from an accurate course and timing) is handy parking, a toilet queue that is not too long (before the race), for it to start on time, and a nice cup of tea and slice of brack for afterwards. Anything else doesn't matter.

I will ask around re the numbers, insurance etc though I'm sure someone else will come up with more practical advice in the meantime!

Slogger Jogger

Thanks RunRabbit.

Parking and a hall for registrations are a 'go'. As are loos. We did an IMRA race year 2 years back and it was favourably received. I will likely include elements of that trail route with the new trails we have constructed.

Must get busy with the brack recipes. I found today I can make a mean banana bread too.

runrabbit

Sounds like you have the ideal set-up - I might make this my first ever trail race!

We ordered bracks/fruit-loaves from a local supermarket a few days before - they had them sliced and packed up ready for us on the day which was great. Go to the cash&carry for biccies and tea/coffee/sugar. They might have biscuits coming towards their BB date on special offer and trust me - not a crumb will be left over! Especially if I'm there!

Timmaay

My only advice... run away now while you have the chance, being a racedirector is hell :p:p

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Pick a nice price point. I figure around the 10 quid mark is a reasonable compromise. The aim of the run is to raise funds for the construction of the trails we will be running on. It'll be low cost, little frills. Chip timing and a t-shirt not planned. Figure reliable timing can still be done with pencil and paper and chip timing has been dodgey at some recent events so do you get what you pay for? Runners will get a nice race and refreshments at the end. Finish line is beside the local pub which is ideal.

In my opinion, if you are targeting club runners, you can afford to bump this up to 15euros, which is a standard enough charge for many races these days, and once you promote the fact that all the entry fee goes back into the construction of the trail, people will have no issue paying that bit extra

Prizes: Aim to have some decent prizes for the winners with spot prizes through the field.

If you do have decent prizes, make sure you advertise them beforehand, on the posters/website etc as much as possible, it can be abit of a catch 22 though, if you do not have the prizes fixed down, or you are planning on giving out cashprizes based on the number of competitors that enter etc

Online entry. Debating with myself the merits of it. For a commission it will take the hassle of a lot of cash handling away and gives some exposure.

The flip side is that you will get 5/10% of the people who signup online not showing up on the day! The other thing is it allows you to predict the number of entries before the race itself. I have done both day only, and online, I would say that if you are targeting 200/300, and are not using chiptiming, then just go with day entries, saved alot of hassle, but make sure you have an efficient registration process on the day

Race numbers & pins. Have to do a bit of googling to find an Irish supplier (ideally) of same. Anyone know a local source?

Hmm, I don't actually know of any Irish supplier that makes the numbers also! http://www.first4numbers.co.uk/ and http://www.pymmwenn.com/index.php?page=racenumbers are two places I have used before, make sure you allow time for delivery, and shipping from the uk will add afew quid also

Marketing etc. Word of mouth, social media and usual websites should do the trick. Not clashing with other events and offering a nice price point for a nice event is key.

Runireland is most certainly one of the best promotion websites, the only thing I would say is I have had big issues with mistakes being made on the event details that I have putup there, and they were very very slow about changing it!! Lindie Naughton is great also for promotion, and writes in the Evening Herald.


Insurance: Do people insure once off running events?

Best bet is to go to your local athletics club (Parnell ac/one of the wexford clubs?), and you can get a permit for 50/100euros, that covers all the insurance.

Helpers. Should have lots available from the locality so shouldn't be an issue.

Option of a shorter route: While nice to be able to offer this to younger runners or less fit runners, it adds to a level of complexity for the organiser. It limits the route too, so I'm not gone on this.

Head is blank as regards other issues but if other organisers can think of anything I haven't please comment. Thanks.

Other things that you will need to keep on top of are the finishline funnel/manual timing (two people doing times on the finishline, another two taking down numbers at the back of the funnel, these jobs can be very stressful ha!). Another good idea is to record the whole finish of the race, then fire this video up on youtube. Any discrepancies in results, and the person can lookup the youtube video and see whats up.

A PA system, or megaphone is a must also (Most the IMRA crowd are very very well behaved, and all stay dead silent for the race debriefing), any other races I've been at, you are wasting your time trying to talk to the crowd beforehand by just shouting.

promethius

good luck with this you're taking the right approach and thinking it through properly. i'd add to the other good points the merits of a well thought out budget, i know it seems obvious but it's not done properly sometimes and can't really affect things.

there are loads of little things that will pop into your head so i'd keep a "live" list you can add to as things pop into your head ie loo roll, clipboards for finish etc etc

make it clear your event is not a commerical event and where exactly the money goes, people like to know this.

there is an app called race splitter which we've used for some triathlon training events, its used on an ipad and allows you record times automatically as runners come in. it's bloody brilliant and could be suitable if the event is not too big. it's about €15 or so. depends on size of race but worth checking out

in the digital age a lot of folks forget how powerful the local radio and papers are, so would def get yourself interviewed and do up a brief press release for papers.

you'll enjoy doing this.

Slogger Jogger

Thanks guys. Some good knowledge there. I'll try get my head around all that. And I'll happily charge Timmay 15 quid

The other things I need to address which should be relatively straightforward is to have someone on hand who can do first aid if necessary and arrange keys for access to Coillte gates. For safety reasons we should have at least one opened. Again I've done that before so I hope that shouldn't be an issue.

I share the view on prizes but I'm told that some businesses will sponsor these prizes directly. I'll make sure to mention that in the event information.

BeepBeep67

Sent you an email - best of luck.

ultraman1

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

I'm part of my local community group who want to organise a run on new trails we have constructed. As the runner I'm being looked to to lead the organisation of it.

Can I ask for other people's experiences at organising local races. The mini-checklist I have in my head at the moment is:-

Pick a good date. End of April, either Saturday 28th or Sunday 29th, are decent candidates.

Pick a decent route. I'm spoilt for choice here. Figure I'll jog out a few routes during the week and try to come up with one that has a nice round number. An 8 or 10k. It'll be mainly trail and have some nice hills.

Pick a nice price point. I figure around the 10 quid mark is a reasonable compromise. The aim of the run is to raise funds for the construction of the trails we will be running on. It'll be low cost, little frills. Chip timing and a t-shirt not planned. Figure reliable timing can still be done with pencil and paper and chip timing has been dodgey at some recent events so do you get what you pay for? Runners will get a nice race and refreshments at the end. Finish line is beside the local pub which is ideal.

Prizes: Aim to have some decent prizes for the winners with spot prizes through the field.

Online entry. Debating with myself the merits of it. For a commission it will take the hassle of a lot of cash handling away and gives some exposure.

Race numbers & pins. Have to do a bit of googling to find an Irish supplier (ideally) of same. Anyone know a local source?

Marketing etc. Word of mouth, social media and usual websites should do the trick. Not clashing with other events and offering a nice price point for a nice event is key.

Insurance: Do people insure once off running events?

Helpers. Should have lots available from the locality so shouldn't be an issue.

Option of a shorter route: While nice to be able to offer this to younger runners or less fit runners, it adds to a level of complexity for the organiser. It limits the route too, so I'm not gone on this.

Head is blank as regards other issues but if other organisers can think of anything I haven't please comment. Thanks.

u seem to have most of it covered ,get johns ambolance or red cross to have a crew there and make sure to tell the townies theres not 3 water stations on the route.make sure u have a lead marshall for each point u have marshalls and dat dey know exactly wat their job is..and get an assistant or 2
to delagate some of the main jobs to.

RacoonQueen

I think Mick Dowling does race numbers. If you have any of your old ones check them they usually have the supplier on them somewhere. I can check mine later on still have a tonne of them in a drawer somewhere.

ultraman1

RacoonQueen wrote: »

I think Mick Dowling does race numbers. If you have any of your old ones check them they usually have the supplier on them somewhere. I can check mine later on still have a tonne of them in a drawer somewhere.

if ur not expecting 000's...print dem urself and laminate den

walm

Try savvy sports. they'll have everything you need: www.savvysportsmgt.com I used them for a race last year, they have plain no.s for €15/100 or can print detail for about €20. Delivered the next day as well.

dna_leri

Here is a great checklist by Condo131 from a while back:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=64641371

cfitz

I'd give Pymwenn Printing a big thumbs up.

Slogger Jogger

Savvysports came through for me with race numbers. I'll seek to get them back after the race for potential re-use. They are also a good back-up, in a race like this, to ensure everyone is off the route. A lot of the other stuff should fall into place.

I'm exploring an AAI permit with the local club.

I've listed the event on the events page so if you are around on the 29th April we'll try look after you

marathonm@n

Frank Greally will put a bit in the indo and they will put it in Irish Runner if you email them. We had beanies and got a few business's to sponsor them and had their names on the back and the race on the front. Went down well. Medals for the beginners are always appreciated and will only cost approx a euro a piece. Found RunIreland to be good for advertising the race and they only charge 7% for commission. Also let the runners know what the profits (if any will be used for) .
http://www.runningimp.co.uk/ for everything you need for the race and http://www.solopress.com/ for flyers. I paid £90 for 1000 coloured delivered to my door in 24 hours. Good luck with it.
Don't plan on having a life for the fortnight before it .

Mumontherun

Would anyone know best way to compile a results sheet for a road race, in particular, how you would get the "minute a mile" figure, if timing the race manually ? Is there a template online that makes it easy ?

Timmaay

How many runners in the race? It should be very handy to do just using excel, if its a 5k race, convert the 5k to miles (3.1ish) and divide each time by this. The important part is to make sure the race times are in the correct format, excel doesn't do times very well!

So basically what I'm saying is find yourself an excel monkey to do all the results work for the race ha! I've been well used and abused in this role before :P, I could do it for fee if your race isn't too far away from me though!

rom

As you are trying to make the results in the correct format I put this together for you.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Alh6ofJoLlpTdFlkZHZrTTBlbkdnb1VaeGxUb0VKOUE

You will need to sign into a google account.
Then select File > Make a copy
Then on the copy edit cell K1 with the mile distance and edit the times, names etc and column 8 will update according for each entry.
Then when you are finished rename the document to what your results will be called.
Delete rows that you don't need. you can select column I and J and hide them. Don't delete them as they are needed for the race distance. You can hide other columns that you don't need like team for example too now.
Once you have all the results in then go to File > Publish to web.
Then select start publishing on the popup and copy the link that it shows you.
Now you have a link to results published online in a nice format.
If you make a change it will be automatically republished.
No one other than you can edit the results by default.