Organising first Fun Run

Esto Fidelis

Hi Guys,

Looking for some help and advise. We are looking at organising a Fun/Run to help raise money for a local Nursing Home and youth teams. This will be purley about rasing as much as possible to help the Nursing Home so we will be doing our best to keep our cost to a bear min. We do not have any experience in doing this but we do have good organislation skills been involved in other events down the years.

What I need to find out really is do we need to cover this 10K road run by insurance or if we get disclaimers signed will this cover us. We will have plenty of marshalls around and aim to have first aid, will we need civil defence. Also will we need to close the road or will a sweeper van in front of the run be ok. We will be informing the Gardai.

We will have a sponsored walk after the run, as this has been going on for years. We plan to set the run entry around €15.00 with token prizes such as 3 medals or similar. We will be providing parking, refreshements, toilets, seating area and an off road warm up area in-door and out door. We dont plan on chip timing, I am thinking of stop watch or iphone timing what do you think of this any tips here would be good. To put this event on any of the running websites do we need to be a club. I was thinking of promoting it by facebook and having the time up that evening.

Any tips and help with this would be great, or add anything to the above if you can. I will be putting it up on boards when I get it planned so look foward to seeing some boardies at this.

Thank you in advance.

RayCun

have a look at this thread

But take a look at your post from a runner's perspective.
You want people to pay you 15 euro to run a race on open roads, with no prizes, and no accurate timing - and you haven't mentioned getting the course measured so I'm guessing you don't plan on getting it done properly.

Why would anyone enter this? Why not just sell raffle tickets?

ecoli

While I realise you are trying to maximise funds raised some of the info you have given is slightly alarming.

Esto Fidelis wrote: »

What I need to find out really is do we need to cover this 10K road run by insurance or if we get disclaimers signed will this cover us. We will have plenty of marshalls around and aim to have first aid, will we need civil defence. Also will we need to close the road or will a sweeper van in front of the run be ok. We will be informing the Gardai.

The three highlighted points here are issues of safety. This should be paramount and not an area which you should aim to minimise costs. The safety of all participants should be the main priority of any event


Regarding timing. You can actually hire companies which can offer services from Gantries and mounted clocks to chip timing. This can help with results compilation. Nowadays many athletes pretty much expect this esp for a 15e race so while it may look like an expense I reckon it is more cost effective in terms of attracting a larger field of athletes.

In terms of Prizes it might not be a bad idea to see if you can get some local sponsorship either monetary or even to offer spot prizes prizes like vouchers etc (local business people are usually open enough to these especially if you are helping bringing larger numbers into the area for the day)

Regarding websites some offer online registration facilities for race entry as well as promotion on there site. Couple this with a social media campaign (facebook etc) and you can drive up the numbers.

While you may be looking to cut costs I think if you plan on perhaps making this an annual thing you need to put on a quality race (not go crazy with spending but just do the simple things right). It may cost tiny bit more short term but a badly organised race will lose more in terms of bad press in the long run and could effectively ruin any chance of using a Road Race as a source of fund raising in the future. Buckets around the place or even offering sponsorship cards for the Nursing home are other sources of fund raising while still having money from entry fee to cover costs to make it a well organised race

The best advice I can give you is get someone who has experience in road racing and possibly organising (possibly your local athletics club ) on board to help you and dont put health and safety of participants as a secondary cost this should be a necessity

Esto Fidelis

Thanks for your input, I actually think there will be lots of people that are not serious runners that will be interested in running this event as it is a fun event. I should have said that we plan to give medal and a voucher from a local company or such to the first 3. I also take your point and will look to have it measured out. Thanks again.

Esto Fidelis

ecoli wrote: »

While I realise you are trying to maximise funds raised some of the info you have given is slightly alarming.




The three highlighted points here are issues of safety. This should be paramount and not an area which you should aim to minimise costs. The safety of all participants should be the main priority of any event


Regarding timing. You can actually hire companies which can offer services from Gantries and mounted clocks to chip timing. This can help with results compilation. Nowadays many athletes pretty much expect this esp for a 15e race so while it may look like an expense I reckon it is more cost effective in terms of attracting a larger field of athletes.

In terms of Prizes it might not be a bad idea to see if you can get some local sponsorship either monetary or even to offer spot prizes prizes like vouchers etc (local business people are usually open enough to these especially if you are helping bringing larger numbers into the area for the day)

Regarding websites some offer online registration facilities for race entry as well as promotion on there site. Couple this with a social media campaign (facebook etc) and you can drive up the numbers.

While you may be looking to cut costs I think if you plan on perhaps making this an annual thing you need to put on a quality race (not go crazy with spending but just do the simple things right). It may cost tiny bit more short term but a badly organised race will lose more in terms of bad press in the long run and could effectively ruin any chance of using a Road Race as a source of fund raising in the future. Buckets around the place or even offering sponsorship cards for the Nursing home are other sources of fund raising while still having money from entry fee to cover costs to make it a well organised race

The best advice I can give you is get someone who has experience in road racing and possibly organising (possibly your local athletics club ) on board to help you and dont put health and safety of participants as a secondary cost this should be a necessity

Thanks for taking the time to reply. With regard to safety, we will be making this top priority. Sorry I made it sound otherwise but you are right this is paramount.

I was thinking of a digital time clock on a gantry I have seen one on a companys website and hope to get this sponsored. But I was trying to get a feeler for how important you guys thought timing was for a FUN Run. I dont think we would go with the tags.

On the prizes, we will giving out medals and some vouchers from local sponsors.

Again I want to stress that we will be doing everything to ensure safety, it is just the Insurance side I was querying really as we are not an athletics club. Thanks again

dna_leri

Esto Fidelis wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to reply. With regard to safety, we will be making this top priority. Sorry I made it sound otherwise but you are right this is paramount.

I was thinking of a digital time clock on a gantry I have seen one on a companys website and hope to get this sponsored. But I was trying to get a feeler for how important you guys thought timing was for a FUN Run. I dont think we would go with the tags.

On the prizes, we will giving out medals and some vouchers from local sponsors.

Again I want to stress that we will be doing everything to ensure safety, it is just the Insurance side I was querying really as we are not an athletics club. Thanks again

It seems you are aiming this event as a local fun run, which is fine but it will restrict the number of entries that you receive. Your best chance of sustained success is to widen the net but you can always start small and build it up over the years as long as you get the basics right.

For a "fun run", having chip timing is not essential. Do make sure you have numbers and a way of recording them and the times at the finish - many races will use a video as a backup. Someone taking part for the first time may not care about times but even second time fun runners will want an accurate time.

On prizes, don't bother with the medals - the first three home will not value them. Vouchers from local sponsors are ok but make them useful.

On insurance, you need to ask yourself (or your legal advisor) what would happen if someone got seriously injured during the race e.g. by a passing car? Which organisation or individual might be liable? Many disclaimers are not worth the paper they are written on. This is a legal question not a running one.

Even if you are not an athletics club you should ask someone from a local club to help and advise. Good luck with the run.

Esto Fidelis

dna_leri wrote: »

It seems you are aiming this event as a local fun run, which is fine but it will restrict the number of entries that you receive. Your best chance of sustained success is to widen the net but you can always start small and build it up over the years as long as you get the basics right.

For a "fun run", having chip timing is not essential. Do make sure you have numbers and a way of recording them and the times at the finish - many races will use a video as a backup. Someone taking part for the first time may not care about times but even second time fun runners will want an accurate time.

On prizes, don't bother with the medals - the first three home will not value them. Vouchers from local sponsors are ok but make them useful.


On insurance, you need to ask yourself (or your legal advisor) what would happen if someone got seriously injured during the race e.g. by a passing car? Which organisation or individual might be liable? Many disclaimers are not worth the paper they are written on. This is a legal question not a running one.

Even if you are not an athletics club you should ask someone from a local club to help and advise. Good luck with the run.

dna_leri, thanks for your input. Yes you are right we are sort of aiming this at the local area, but at the same time we would like to get as many as possible to attend. We plan to make it as good as we can and we have the facilities to do this like a good size hall, green areas, parking and lots of help. I suppose the reason we are doing this type of event is that running has got so popular now, and we want to do something that is current and will draw people as we have never had a run in our area.

We will have race no's and we are planning the digital clock, if you have any sources let me know. Would you be happy with a gantry or tripod style digital clock.

On insurance, we are looking into getting the event covered for the duration. And we are going to approach our nearest club for help and advice.

Any more tips are welcome.

Rhys Essien

Would it be easier for you to have a 'Sponsored WALK' rather than a 'RUN'.That way taking away any confusion and hassle of organising a 5K run.

Charging €15,it would be expected to provide numbers,timing,prizes,refreshments etc.

Also I thought that Nursing homes were charging top dollar nowadays.
Im a bit miffed as to why a Nursing home needs funding,if you can enlighten me.

Esto Fidelis

Rhys Essien wrote: »

Would it be easier for you to have a 'Sponsored WALK' rather than a 'RUN'.That way taking away any confusion and hassle of organising a 5K run.

Charging €15,it would be expected to provide numbers,timing,prizes,refreshments etc.

Also I thought that Nursing homes were charging top dollar nowadays.
Im a bit miffed as to why a Nursing home needs funding,if you can enlighten me.

For the €15, we will be providing numbers,timing,prizes and refreshments. Your thinking of private Nursing Homes, this is a county type home and due to cut backs they have had to turn away people. They welcome donations and we are glad to help as lots of us have family members which have used the facility and the day care centre.

dna_leri

Esto Fidelis wrote: »

dna_leri, thanks for your input. Yes you are right we are sort of aiming this at the local area, but at the same time we would like to get as many as possible to attend. We plan to make it as good as we can and we have the facilities to do this like a good size hall, green areas, parking and lots of help. I suppose the reason we are doing this type of event is that running has got so popular now, and we want to do something that is current and will draw people as we have never had a run in our area.

We will have race no's and we are planning the digital clock, if you have any sources let me know. Would you be happy with a gantry or tripod style digital clock.

On insurance, we are looking into getting the event covered for the duration. And we are going to approach our nearest club for help and advice.

Any more tips are welcome.

Don't know about sources for a digital clock, but either gantry or tripod is only nice to have. Many races will have neither - personally I never have time to look at the clock as I finish. Most people will have their own watches but want to get an "official" time afterwards so its more important to accurately record the number and times at the finish than to have one on display.

€15 is the top end of what I would pay for a "no frills" race, often only €8-€12 but you may get people prepared to pay more if they know how much of it is going to the "good cause".

robinph

Esto Fidelis wrote: »

We will have race no's and we are planning the digital clock, if you have any sources let me know. Would you be happy with a gantry or tripod style digital clock.

My reading of this line suggests that you don't know what would be considered "timing" of a race.

Just putting up a clock at the finish line is effectively an untimed event. You'll then have no recording of what people times or positions are. This would be fine for a fun-run, but should make it clear that it is untimed in the advertising. If that is all you have then having race numbers is kind of pointless as well so you could save some money and effort there.

If you want to actually record peoples times and positions in anyway other than saying "that bloke over there came first I think" then you really do need to talk to a local club. Chip timed events could be done without as much manpower, but for manual timing you need a bunch of people recruited that know what they are doing as far as recording the times over the line, recording the finishing positions, tieing up those two lists, and marshalling everyone when they cross the line and are not in a particular mood to obey marshals instructions.

rom

Do it right or don't do it at all. Have a kids treasure hunt etc Kids don't spend countless hrs a week training for an event so they wont mind. No non runner should be allowed organize race simply. The problem is that it starts off as a fun run but then some bright spark calls it a race as it they think it will attract more people. If it is advertized as a fun run with the words "fun run" on the poster/website then no problem but when the word race is used then certain things are expected.

If you want it to be a yearly event then don't do this http://corkrunning.blogspot.ie/2012/05/photos-of-ras-bothair-5-milesun-29th.html
More talk on it here. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=78929622

Slogger Jogger

Suggest you link in with a local club as they may be able to assist in getting an AAI permit which will cover your insurance concerns and will involve getting the route accurately measured. Give yourself plenty of time to arrange the event. It takes quite a bit of organising. Best of luck.