Creating a Race Website
April 25, 2012
Start of the 2012 Mile High Mile
It’s 2012 and I think it’s safe to say the Internet is here to stay. That means if you are a race director, your race should have a website. However, I am continually surprised at how many races do not have a simple website in the year 2012 Anno Domini. I can tell you that any race that I am contemplating, I first check out their website and if they do not have a website, I would say that the odds of me not running that race increase significantly. My thought process assumes if they couldn’t spend the time to put together an informative website, the race will most likely be sub-par. It’s a generalization, but one that I have found to prove true.
A good race website does not need to be fancy, you can leave out the flash, KISS. The first decision that the race director needs to be make is whether or not to try to design their own website or pay someone else to design a website for them. Regardless you will need to decide on a content management system (CMS) that is easy to use, if you pay someone to design your website you don’t want to be dependent on them to edit the site. I personally am a big fan of WordPress, it’s free, flexible, powerful and there are vast amount of resources and templates available on the web.
When putting together your race website, here are some things to include:
Home Page
This is your landing page and it needs to make a great first impression on the visitor. Keep it clean, simple and to the point. Make sure you include what time the race starts, location, who the race benefits and how they can register for your race. Also include a link to the online registration page. However, keep the information to a minimum and have pages set up as to not overwhelm the visitor.
Schedule of Events
Outline when registration and pre-registration open up, when they close and what time the race starts, if there is a kids’ run, let the parents know the start time and if they need to register their children. Let runners know what age groups will be awarded, prizes and if there will be a raffle. Sell the race.
Race Route
Describe the race course in detail, note if the course is USATF certified and include a course map. Let runners know how many aid stations are on the course, if it’s a longer race will Gatorade and gels be provided. Let runners know if the course is run on roads, bike path,trail or dirt path.
Registration
Link to the online registration site and try to get as many people to register online as possible, to help control data integrity. If you are offering paper registration, link to the form. Outline your pricing, early entry fees, late entry, race day entry fees, etc. If you are offering onsite registration or at an offsite location such as a running store, spell out the details. Discuss race day registration, forms of payment that will be taken and what time registration will close on race day.
Results & Photos
Make results, both past and future easy to find. Link up to all of the old race results, note the course record holders and at the top put a link to where the most recent race results will be posted. Have your upcoming results link on your website a few days prior to the race, so that once the timer post results that link will be live. You can also use this page to link up to any photos from race photographers.
Contact
Establish a contact form, runners will have questions and you will want to be able to address their questions. I can tell you some FAQs will be can I run with a stroller and a dog, so address those questions on a seperate page to eliminate the possible question.
Putting together a great website, requires tinkering. If you get runners asking the same question over and over, be smart, address it on your website. I also am a proponent of establishing a blog and Facebook/Twitter page to continually communicate with your customers. This is your opportunity to brag about your race, recognize sponsors, show off your race t-shirt in advance, raffle prizes and give a shout out to any elite runners who might be running the race. After the race post photos and get people excited for the following year.
Accept Credit Cards on Race Day
March 22, 2012
Photo Credit (Commons) to shawnzrossi at Flickr
I was wrong.
I’ve been to a few local races where they took credit cards as a form of pavement and always wondered, why were they were so accommodating? I assumed that no one showed up to a race without cash or a check and that when a race accepted credit cards that they were simply letting runners who would have otherwise paid with check or cash an alternative payment method. Plus accepting credit cards means the recepient has to pay a fee, which in turn reduces profits.
At the Golden Gallop last year I decided to not take credit cards. I figured if someone showed up on race morning without cash that we would let them run the race and that we would email them after the race to ask them to send in a check and we also wrote down their credit card number as a backup. The race had about 90 race day registrations and about 12 people showed up without cash or check and were expecting pay with a credit card, that’s a lot higher percentage than I would have guessed.
After the race I sent an email out to the 12 runners and politely asked if they could send in a check to cover their race registration fee. I received six checks based off that initial email, so I decided to send out a secondary email combined with a phone call to ask for payment and three more runners paid their bill. Thus, I was left with three runners who would not respond to email or messages left on their phone. Race day registration was $40, thus the race was looking to lose $120 from these three people who would not pay.
I tried a third email and phone call, to no avail, I was too trusting of my fellow runners. Eventually we worked with our online registration company to process their credit cards for their race day entry fees and that was the end of the story. I thought I was simplifying things by not taking credit cards, but in reality I wasted a ton of time trying to collect payment and it was frustrating.
Race directors are now in luck, thanks to products such as Squareup and PayPal the process of accepting credit cards is now easier than ever. The I Run Colorado 5K was the first race that I had seen use that technology to handle race day registrations and it worked remarkable well. Since then I have signed up for a Squareup account and found it to be beneficial. I highly recommend that more race directors move to accepting credit cards via this method on race day.
Race Directors – KISS
February 22, 2012
Apple CEO Tim Cook in a recent earning call stated that at Apple “We believe in simple, not the complex.”
I’m a firm believer in Kelly Johnson’s KISS principle. KISS is an acronym for Keep it simple, Stupid!
Having timed, spectated and run, literally hundreds of races over the past few years, I am amazed at how complex some race directors make their races. Here is my KISS advice to race directors.
Multiple Events – The logic for most race directors is that the more events that I offer, the more runners that I can attract to my event.
This is partially true, what is also true is the more events that you put on the greater the chance you have of screwing up. If you’re a first time race director and you’re contemplating putting on a 5K and a 10K, my advice is learn to put on a great 5K before you add the 10K, KISS.
When putting on multiple events you open yourself up to problems. Runners will sign up for one event and run in another, which can impact results. You have to manage multiple courses and make sure that runners stay on the correct course. Those are just a few examples.
Walk Division – The logic usually goes like this, not everyone will run the race, so lets have a walk division and award prizes. The walk division is a huge headache.
When your race features a walk division, inevitable you get a few serious race walkers and hundreds of other people who see the box “run or walk” and check walk since they will be walking most of the race. The race starts and a few of these “walkers” run the first mile and walk the rest and win the race. Then you have the serious race walker coming in 4th or 5th and gripping that the “walkers” in front of him didn’t walk, they ran part of the race.
KISS, it’s a headache and a fight that’s not worth.
If you want to truly put on a race walk, then you have to hire USATF judges who stand out on the race course and judge whether or not the race walkers are truly race walking. This is an added cost, but it’s about the only way to properly put on a race walk. Wait, you thought the drama ended with the USATF judges, nope. I’ve worked several races where race walkers were disqualified by the judges and then the race walkers delayed results and argued with the race director and myself that they should not have been disqualified. This is one of those instances where a few people make it such a big headache, that I say scrap the walk division and just put everyone in the same division.
Teams – Races with team divisions can be a lot of fun, but once again if you’re new to race directing -KISS.
The problem with teams is you have to be meticulous with the parameters that you set up and state prior to the race how the team event will be scored. You need to establish the maximum number on each team, the minimum number, are you going to have male teams, female teams, co-ed teams and if you have co-ed teams how many women does each team need to have and how many will score. When you establish that team category, everything has to be thought out carefully before you start taking registrations; otherwise you will run into problems.
In conclusion, if you’re goal is to put on a 5K that grows, my KISS advice is to put on a simple 5K but do it well. Multiple events, walk divisions, and teams are one way for you to grow your numbers but you have to decide if the juice is worth the squeeze.
Properly Managing Your Race Course
January 19, 2012
I ran two 5Ks in 2010 that were close to a tenth of a mile to short, is measuring a race course really that difficult? If you advertise your race as being five kilometers, make it 3.1 miles.
First let’s talk about measuring the race course, if you’re using a race course that has already been USATF certified such as Denver’s City Park or Washington Park then your job is a bit easier. However, just because a course is USATF certified doesn’t mean that the course you laid out is the exact distance, this is what happened at the Denver Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in 2009. The course was measured properly but not laid out correctly.
If you’re tinkering around with a race course, your best bet is to us either www.mapmyrun.com or Google Map Pedometer. This is a great place to start and you can outline the course that you want to utilize. Once you have the course in mind you might want to consider having your course USATF certified, in that case you’ll have to pay someone.
If you don’t want to pay to have your course certified, then you’re going to have to measure it yourself. Now before you get in your Honda Civic and reset that odometer, let’s look at a few other options. The easiest way to measure the course and to reach “close enough” proximity would be to use a GPS running watch, which are generally within 1-3% accuracy and my experience is that they are almost always longer than a certified course. If you don’t have a GPS device find a runner who has one and ask to borrow it, in my book that’s the minimum that you have to do for measuring a course. Don’t simply use www.mapmyrun.com or your cars odometer.
Once you have the course measured, now comes the important part, marking the course. I always tell race directors that I work with that you have to dummy proof the race course. What looks obvious to you does not look obvious to someone who is racing with their heart beating at close to maximum capacity.
Course Marking 101 Tips:
• If your race course is USATF certified, know your map. Don’t wait until race morning to look at it for the first time.
• Know your race course. Even if your race is at City Park or Wash. Park go out to the course a week or two before the race and run/walk the course. Make sure there are no potentially dangerous obstacles or things that will impact the distance such as new construction. Also take this time to know exactly where the mile markers should be placed so that you can place them properly on race morning.
• Mile markers – have them and make sure they are placed properly.
• Use arrows and pylon cones to designate turns and decision points. Use chalk or spray paint (not on roads) when you can.
• Place course marshals at key decision points and where traffic control is needed.
• If you’re the race director, it’s pretty difficult to setup the course on race morning. Do NOT rely on volunteers to setup the course unless you can 100% trust them to show up and to preview the course before the race. Another option is to pay someone to set the course up for you, it’s too important to mess up. Volunteers have good intentions but they are not the most reliable as they have no skin in the game.
• Have someone who knows the race course lead the runners on a bicycle. If you can spare another cyclist, have them lead the top female runner. By simply keeping the lead runner on course you can greatly reduce the likelihood of other runners going of course.
• Just because the police offered to have a lead vehicle, that does not mean they properly know the course. I know of many races where the lead police officer on a motorcycle took all of the runners of course. Once again, have someone on a lead bike who knows the course.
• Properly mark the start and finish area.
What You Should Know About Race Logos
December 21, 2011
Clean, Simply, Stylish - Great Logo
I’m going to let you in on a secret. At RunColo we send out a monthly e-blast where upcoming races can advertise their event. I’ve gotten good, really good at being able to pick out which races will have the most click rates. You might think its name recognition or the description of the event, yes those things help, but the number one factor is the logo design. Does the logo capture the reader’s attention, if it does that generates a click. If you create a flyer or a postcard for your race and place it in a local running store the same logic applies, your race flyer will be sitting there competing with all of the other races, will the customer pick up your flyer?
It’s common for races to cut cost when creating a race logo. They hire a friend to design a logo or they simply grab a photo off the Internet or even worse from Clip Art. Spend a hundred or two hundred dollars and get a logo that is professionally done. The ROI is positive.
As they say on Madison Avenue, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” When I see a weak logo, my first thought is that if they don’t care about their logo how much are they going to care about their race? Yes, I am generalizing, but that’s what people do.
Another pet peeve of mine is a lot of races that benefit children will have a contest where the children get a chance to design a logo and the winner is used for marketing and for the race t-shirt. I’m not a fan of cute; I’m a fan of professionalism. Everyone loves art work from their kids or kids that they know, but I’m not interested in having a crayon drawn logo on a race shirt and I can assure you that those shirts go straight to Goodwill. If it’s one of my own kids, I make an exception.
Most races look at the race t-shirt as an obligation. They buy the cheapest cotton t-shirt they can find and slap a generic logo on there. Look at the race t-shirt as future advertising, advertising for next year’s race. Why spend $4-$6 on a shirt that no one wants, instead put some effort into the logo so that people will wear that shirt and your race will be exposed to future runners.
If you’re a race director get that permit and then start working on the logo, it’s money well spent.
Simplifying Packet Pickup on Race Day
December 6, 2011
Registration Table at Fans on the Field 2011
Anyone who has run a race has incurred the agony of showing up on race morning and getting in line to pick up your bib and chip and wondering why the pre-registration lines are so unevenly distributed. You’re in a line with 20 other runners and you look over at the S-Z table and notice the volunteer running the table on their iPhone with not a runner in sight. Why does this always happen?
Before becoming a full time race timer, I was a business analyst and one thing that I loathe are bottlenecks. You don’t need a black belt in Six Sigma to reduce congestion on race day but you will have to do some basic math.
One simple rule of data analysis is to look at the data before you make a decision. However a lot of race directors make the mistake of breaking out the registration tables by the alphabet and not by how the runners who have registered fall within the alphabet.
Here is the alpha breakout from the 2000 census, first letter of the last name:
US Census Alpha Breakout by Last Name
If a race director broke out the pre-registration table into halves, the above chart shows the participant distribution. Using data from the 2000 census this would create a scenario where 63% of the race day participants are going to the A-M table and the other 37% are going to the N-Z table.
What we recommend is analyzing your pre-registration information and assigning the breakouts according to the actual percentages. Utilizing the census data we would look at the breakout and find the point that allows us to most evenly distribute the participants over two tables. The larger the race the more tables and breaks you’ll want to create.
Alpha Breakout by Actual Percentages of Last Name
A lot of people with the last name beginning in M! Thus by creating alpha breaks of A-L and M-Z, we were able to distribute the breakout to 52%/48%, which will help alleviate bottlenecks on race day and create a smoother race day experience for the racers and volunteers.
This is a basic example, but carry this logic forward if you’re breaking your pre-registration tables into thirds, fourths, etc. Don’t rely on the census date, look at your data before assigning the alpha breakouts.
Gun Time or Net Time?
November 30, 2011
Turkey Trot 5K 2011 - Photo by www.pikespeaksports.us
After timing large races, we often get a few questions from runners asking why results are not posted by chip time and instead by gun time. Isn’t that the whole point of chip timing? First let’s clarify a few things. Gun time is the time elapsed between when the race starts (gun goes off) and when the participant crosses the finish line. Chip time or net time is the time the person crosses the start line mats and crosses the finish line mat; chip time will always be less than gun time.
When races are sanctioned by the USATF and for prize money awards, gun time is always used for results and rankings. If the race is a not a USATF event, then it is up to the race director to decide if gun time or chip time should be used for results and awards.
At Colorado Race Timing we default to gun time scoring unless the race director request that chip time be used instead. The logic is that a race is a race to the finish line and not a time trial, which it becomes when one uses net time.
At the Turkey Trot 5k in Colorado Springs (2011), Carl Arnold tossed in a kick at the finish to pass Kenny Foster to become the second person to cross the line, Kenny ended up taking third. However, Kenny actually had a faster net time than Carl and we are talking by thousandths of a second. Thus if we had the results done by chip time, Carl would have thrown in that surge to pass Kenny all for naught and even though he was the second person to cross the finish line the results would have had him in third.
It also applies to individuals competing for age group awards, check out this video. This video comes from the Fans on the Field 10K which had over 3,000 participants. In the video you can see Jay Survil throwing in a kick to pass Greg Diamond and winning the 50-55 age groups. Now had we calculated results on chip time, Greg would have won the division.
As a runner, I can vouch that if I got outkicked to the finish line that I would not want to win the age group award based on chip time – the effort should be rewarded accordingly and you’re racing the person and not the clock. In fact Jay told me that at another race he ran this summer they did results by chip time and the same thing happened, but this time he wasn’t awarded the age group victory even though he crossed the finish line before his age group competitor. Jay told me that he brought the issue up with the timers and they were not aware of the USATF rule.
Most small races that we time this issue doesn’t even come up as the results and standings are the same, be they chip or gun time. It’s only in larger races where this becomes an issue and questions arise as it can often take minutes for those at the back of the pack to reach the start line.
This was first the lesson in Race Timing 101; look for future blog post where we talk the ins and outs of timing, race directing, course management and logistics 101.