Yesterday, the little town of Fayetteville, TN had it's first official 5K trail race. All proceeds went to the Imagination Library for our county.
After 3 months of lots of problems w/ the actual site for the race (I won't bore you w/ all the political mess that has entailed) we actually had this incredible day w/ very few problems and lots of fun.
My husband says I now officially qualify to be on the Apprentice! I am really good at delegating, that much I've learned. So we had about 75 runners and 50 walkers (it was a 5k and a 1 mile fun run). The scary part was at the race packet pickup when ALL these people showed up to register at the last minute. Whew! Then Sat. morning, twice as many showed up to do the same. But we were ready...we didn't even run out of t-shirts and made lots of "late registration" money to boot.
If I could look at what to do differently for next year, it would be to measure the course myself. I did, actually, but then relied on my friend to "fix" the shortage of .2 miles. He did not. So I heard about this before the race even started from one of the elite runners who had come from Huntsville and just ran the course before hand to check it out. Fortunately, no one else complained about it, and there were lots of PR's so everyone was happy!
The other biggest problem was that we ran out of printed certificates (what we chose to give instead of medals) to give the age group winners. Someone couldn't count. Oh well. Fleet Feet was kind enough to donate gift certificates, so all was good.
I was most worried about the timing, as we could not afford to rent a computer system. We used clickers and call out w/ the clock. I was in charge of coordinating the winners and the overall results so that was nerve wracking, but fortunately my door prize person kept the crowd busy w/ the anticipation of getting a freebie whilst my timing crew and I got things straight. Everything started and ended on time, and hey, we made Imagination Library almost $2000!
This has been on my bucket list, so I can now cross it off and concentrate on # 2, which is completing my first marathon in December. I have not done well this week on training....
...helen//...this is SO COOL...........
what a great expierince, and double great you get to give back to a sport you love.
Congratulations!!!!
..nothing takes the place of persistence.....
Carolyn
Congrats, RD! You rock! Too bad about the short course, but a lot of PRs is OK, I guess, for those who didn't know (or care) about the real distance!
I hammered down the trail, passing rocks and trees like they were standing still.
Congratulations on doing this, and for a great cause too. I was very interested in reading about your experience, thanks for sharing.
Wow, you're far braver than I! I admire those who tackle this job, especially for an inaugural event! Congratulations on a successful race and having fun while doing it. Having the weather cooperate is a big plus.
Great job, Fussy! It takes guts to tackle such an adventure. So you gonna do it again next year??
Leslie Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain -------------
Trail Runner Nation
Sally McCrae-Choose Strong
Bare Performance
woohoooo YOU ARE A RACE DIRECTOR!!
denise
fussy, I'm not brave enough to attempt what you did but I'm sure glad there are people who will organize races. Kudos to you.
TomS
Renee the dog
You know how people always hold up signs during races about only x% ever attempt the marathon?
Well the percent that put on a road race is much smaller than that! You are in rare company! Congratulations!!!!
GOALS 2012: UNDECIDED
GOALS 2011: LIVE!!!
Great job; great lessons learned. I'm sure your runners appreciated the opportunity.
Be safe. Be kind.
Trails are hard!
Sounds like an excellent effort for your first race. Your bravery is commendable to make a first of its kind your first. And I would think it would be a lot more difficult to measure a trail race accurately than one on the roads.
Need a fast half for late fall. Then I need to actually train for it.
Hi Helen,
Congratulations on what sounds like a great job of organizing your first race! Organizing a race is a continual learning process, and there are always going to be things that you'll want to do differently the next year.
Being able to delegate is great, and is critical to the success of a race - no one person can or should have to do it all. But you also have to stay on top of your folks to ensure that they have done what they were supposed to do. It seems that the few problems you had didn't interfere with it being a successful race, so just chalk them up to part of the learning.
Having a correctly-measured course is critical for most runners, so that is worth spending time on. I also measured our course this year (we changed the start location), and I was out there 5 times to make sure I got it right. If we stick with this course, we'll get it marked by someone certified to do so (the cost is $300-400), and then we'll be sure the distance is accurate.
Packet pick-up and registration, especially on race day, is always a frenzy of activity. So you just have to make sure you have enough volunteers on hand to handle the masses.
In regard to timing, see if there are any local running clubs that time their own races. If so, they may be willing to time your race for you for free, or for a nominal donation to their club. As your race grows, you WILL need a timing service to handle that aspect of the race for you. Imagine the challenge of timing the race manually when your field doubles in size (which it likely will do)!
Getting a road race from the concept to the reality is the biggest challenge, and you nailed it. Now forget about it while you focus on #2. Then you can start thinking about next year's race...
Good luck in the marathon!
Jay
Without ice cream there would be darkness and chaos.
Hey Fussy
I'm in the process of doing the same thing for the YWCA Battered Womens Shelter. We are organizing a Half Marathon / 10k / 5k on 9/10/11.
This too will be an inagural race. We have an experienced team of runners who are not experieced race put-er on-ers. It is a daunting task and I commend anyone who takes this on.
We have an RD, a board of directors and the race commitee. I am on the race committes and I am in charge of the courses......So I'm learning the importance of having a correctly measured course.....plus the politics involved of securing streets for the route...Oiy !
Fantastic job on pulling this off !
I forgot to add earlier that we have established a race director's forum on the web. We held a roundtable meeting for new and established race directors earlier this year, and this forum is an outgrowth of that. It is set up for race directors in the north east ('cause that's where we are), but the same issues apply anywhere. You are welcome to take a look and see if any of the information posted is helpful. You can also join and post a question if you want to get opinions about issues that have not previously been discussed. Here is the link: http://groups.google.com/group/road-race-directors-of-northern-ne
Thanks Jay....I'll check that out !