This was my first time at the RD gig. Things we did well, things we didn't do so well, and lessons learned.
1. Work with a team. If you try to do it yourself, it will either end up as a mess or you'll halfway kill yourself. That's exactly what happened last year when the person in charge wasn't a runner and wouldn't work as part of a team so you ended up with age groups like 14-17 and 25-41. I'm not kidding about that. I was asked to be the RD this year and I agreed only if the PTO officers worked closely with me. At our very first meeting, we selected someone to be in charge of sponsorships, someone to be in charge of volunteers, someone to be in charge of logistics, and someone to be in charge of publicity. It worked like a charm. None of them knew anything about putting on a race so I made suggestions about what we needed to do but they did the leg work. Last year, we had no sponsors. This year we had enough sponsors to cover all of our race expenses. Unbelievable job by all.
2. Involve Your Target Audience if Possible. Since this race was to benefit technology initiatives at my oldest daughter's school, I thought a good idea might be to let the kids have a contest to design the shirt. They loved the contest and the winning design was actually an amalgam of a 3rd grader and a 4th grader.
3. Make Money in More than One Way. Yes, we had the 5K but we called it a Run/Walk to emphasize that anyone was welcome and we'd keep the course open as long as anyone was out there. However, we also had a 1K Fun Run for the kids. That was important because it fit into our fitness message plus we got another 45 entries - albeit at $10 rather than $20 - that we otherwise would not have had. A few adults even entered the 1K. Along those lines, we thought that some people might want to support the event even if they couldn't attend or race. I included myself in that category as it's hard to be an RD and run the race. So, we had an option to buy a shirt for $15 which is what I did and it's what the PTO officers did.
4. Don't Let People Get Bored. As folks wait around for results tabulation, they get bored and they wander off. We wanted to keep them there. So, we had bounce houses and face painting for the kids. We also had some pretty damn good door prizes. Thus, you had a reason to stick around even if you weren't getting any AG bling. Along those same lines, we did 1st, 2nd, and 3rd M & F overall and then 10 year age groups. However, unlike every race I have ever been in, we started with the oldest and worked our way to the youngest. Believe it or not, very few people left before all the awards were handed out. Also, get the awards out as quickly as you can. This was a pop sickle stick timed race. We were able to determine all AG places within 15 minutes of the last person crossing the finish line. We didn't even attempt to marry up times. We just told folks that official times would be posted on a local running site within the next few days. The bottom line was that the 1K started at 8:00, the 5K at 8:15, and we had people on the road by 9:30. We had torn everything down by 10:10. I looked.
5. Get There Early. We rolled in a 6:30. We should have rolled in at 6:00. We had people showing up at 7:00 wanting to register and we weren't ready until about 7:20. That wasn't a big issue in a smaller race but it would be if you had a bunch. (We had about 45 for the 1K and 110 for the 5K).
6. Mark The Course Ridiculously Well. I have gotten lost a couple of times on courses and it drives me crazy. I can put up with all kinds of stuff in small, local races but poorly marked courses are the one thing that bugs the living shit out of me. I used two cans of bright yellow pavement paint marking this course. I had several runners approach me after the race to tell me how much they appreciated the clarity of the course markings. Remember that trying to see a turn marking when you are sucking wind at Mile 2 of a 5K is much, much different than seeing the marking when you are just walking along. I had two arrows before every turn and an arrow after the turn to show you were indeed heading in the right direction. If there was an intersection and you were to go straight, I had an arrow before the intersection and an arrow after it. All of the arrows were about 3 feet long.
7. Realize You Can't Please Everyone. I had a form for people to fill out after the race that asked two simple things. Tell us what we did well and tell us what we can do better. Someone wanted more water stations. Well hell. It's a 5K. We had water just before the 2 mile mark and we had a ton of water available at the end of the race. Someone else said we should have had an audience to cheer for people along the course. Most of the suggestions we got were useful and fit into things I observed such as it would have been nice to have Gatorade for people and we didn't but we did have home baked goodies for the post-race and they were flat out gobbled down.
8. Celebrate Your Accomplishment. I am about to open a Huyghe Brewery Delirum Nocturnum. It's a Belgian Dark Ale. Paid $25 for a 4 pack. I'm tingling with excitement.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
This is a really interesting read! It's nice to see things from this perspective. It makes me appreciate the time and effort that goes into these smaller races.
Thanks for sharing.
One question, can you explain the popciscle stick thing? Timing and results have been difficult at smaller races around me and I'd like to hear how you got your results so fast! (the last race I did there were less than 40 people and it took 40 minutes to put out the results)
Trail and Ultra Running User Group
Congratulations on a successful race. I was considering doing one next year.
Pop sickle stick.
As each person crosses the finish line, they are handed a pop sickle stick. The first person is handed a stick marked with the number 1. The second person is handed a stick marked with the number 2. Etc. Each person takes his/her stick to the finisher's table. At the finisher's table, volunteers are set up with sheets that have all the runners in age groups. So, you have a sheet for females 30-39 and a sheet for males 30-39 and a sheet for females 40-49, etc. When the runner comes to the finisher's table, he/she says, "John Smith, Age 42" or whatever. Next to John Smith's name, the volunteer writes the number on the pop sickle stick. So, if John Smith has pop sickle stick #14, the volunteer writes a 14 next to his name. Once all the runners are finished, you simply look at the numbers on your list for that age group.
We gave top two in each age group so maybe your top two numbers in that age group were pop sickle stick #20 and #29. Whatever. #29 is the 2nd place AG finisher and #20 is the 1st place AG finisher. Times are irrelevant. I actually do have a sheet with the times on it. Every time a runner crossed the finish line, the timer pressed a button. I have a cash register receipt thingie with every time on it. Of course, no names are associated with it. I'm currently in the process of associating names with times so I can post results online. Thus, whoever had pop sickle stick #15 will be given the 15th time on that cash register receipt type thing. Importantly, you don't need to do that at the race. Just figure out places, give out the awards, and let people go home.
Congratulations on your inaugural race as a director. The directional arrows marking seems so simple but brilliant.
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” - T.S. Eliot
Thanks for the explanation. I'm going to pass this idea along to a few clubs at the university that put on 5k's throughout the year.
It's so simple and brilliant!
Antipodean
That's an interesting read, Brad. I was involved loosely with my running club's 5 mile/5k/2.5 fun run event a few weeks ago and it was our first time putting on this event, though it will be held annually from now on. The RD is a running pal and he handled things really well, but of course there are things to learn for next year. He will not be available to be RD again next year so I hope to be more invovled.
Our biggest problem was that the prize giving was a bit messy (and embarrassing) with overall female winner going to the wrong runner. The problem stemmed from the fact she had incorrectly filled out her entry form. Anyway, lessons learned. I will pass on your experiences when appropriate.
Julie
"It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."
~ Sir Edmund Hillary
Caretaker/Overlook Hotel
The only thing that's ever made me concerned about the popsicle stick timing is having a bunch cross the line at the same time. (or even just 2)........Let the arguing begin.
Hopefully for a smaller race & assuming fast runners would have a decent spread between them, it would never become an issue but ya never know.
Still, I think your plan was great! I am surprised you guys weren't there earlier than you were. My next door neighbor lives by the motto......"Early is on-time. On-time is late!" (Ya, the guy pisses me off, too)
Randy
wow...great read and congrats on the organizing. i never take these things for granted but your report shows that the planning and personnel can really pay dividends. you are to be commended. wonderful that your daughter's school reaps some benefits. very nice job indeed.
marathon pr - 3:16
uʍop ǝpᴉsdn sǝʇᴉɹʍ ʇI
Good job on the race, LtH, but how was the beer?
delicate flower
Sounds to me like you've got good potential for future RD gigs, LtH! Good stuff. I laughed at the water complaint. Seriously?? More than one water station in a 5K?
<3
Well I went to bed after seeing this thread but deciding to read it in the morning. Instead, I had a dream that I was the RD for a race and I WASN'T READY. It was terrible. It was almost starting time and I hadn't even loaded my car. I couldn't find my things. Then I got there and realized I hadn't plotted the course. And the runners kept wandering off. I'm glad your race went better than that!
Sounds like everybody learned from and improved on last year. Sounds like you managed the awards really well and really smoothly. Especially with so many kids there, it was good that you were able to both keep everyone there the whole time, but also get them on their way quickly. We do popsicle stick timing at our "all comers' track meet" and it works pretty well, even down to the 800m. Redrum, when you know it's popsicle stick timing, there is definitely motivation to pay attention and get it right! If I know it's going to be close, I usually move further to the side to get a better angle on the finish.
Good informative post, Brad.
Redrum - There are still a lot of pull-tag races here, and the timing group has one or more officials at the line to sort out any close finishes. Their word is final. Then you are to stay single-file in the correct order to the end of the chute, where you give your tag to the scorers. Popsicle sticks could be handled the same way.
Nothing would serve as a better barometer than to have a group of your running peers participate in your event. I do not get out that way often, but I do have family there, it would be cool if the stars aligned and I was able to race it. MothAudio is also on the committee of an event I would like to run.
As it is, the race is for the masses, which are mostly non-runner types. So give them what they want, more aid stations, whether you (a runner) like it or not. Also, see if you can get a bakery to donate day old goods for the post race setup, since most of them like to eat their weight in calories with an extra zero on the end, after running 3.1 miles.
Nice job with this race LtH. I am sure the runners appreciated all the thought and effort you put into the planning and execution of this event. It sounds like it was a big success.
2013 goals: 800m: 2:20 | mile: 4:59 | 5k: 18:59 | 10k: 39:59 | HM: 1:32 | Marathon: 3:20