Head Start

When doors start dropping off planes mid-air or your favorite online retailer gets in touch to let you know your personal details may have been compromised, it’s tempting to think you may have done a better job handling that crisis were you in their shoes.

But how well-prepared are you really to manage the many crises that can come up during the planning and delivery of your race? Anything from a late delivery of medals or an unfortunate slip-up on social media to a full blown race cancellation.

That’s what we’re discussing today with my guest, PR pro Meg Treat of Treat Public Relations. Meg has been on the podcast before, discussing DIY PR strategies for race directors, and in today’s episode she joins me once more to discuss crisis communications, that is, what you should and shouldn’t do when a crisis hits. 

How early should you look to communicate the situation to your participants and stakeholders? How should you go about doing it? And is the much-revered total transparency approach your best bet out of a tricky spot?

In this episode:

• Crises big and small: what constitutes a crisis?
• Are social media making crises worse and more frequent?
• Navigating safely around the culture war minefields
• To comment or not to comment: does acknowledging a crisis make it worse? 
• Getting ahead of a crisis: how early should you start communicating about a potential crisis?
• Turning a crisis into an opportunity
• Are there lesser or "almost" crises you can ignore?
• Balancing financial loss against reputation loss in a race cancellation
• The importance of a well-thought-out refund policy
• Showing empathy towards your participants when something goes wrong that may affect their race
• Taking ownership gracefully and staying out of the blame game
• Writing a crisis communications plan

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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It’s that time of the year again. RunSignup’s annual RaceTrends report is out for 2023, and it’s larger and more comprehensive than ever before!

Among the most notable trends highlighted in the report we see registrations for 2023 races up from 2022 and tantalisingly close to 2019 levels, entry fees continuing to climb across most race distances and event types, and encouraging trends in younger runner participation first seen in 2022 carrying through to 2023 numbers.

With me today to go through the data, the trends and their implications, I’m delighted to welcome back to the podcast RunSignup’s Director of Marketing, Johanna Goode. Among other things, Johanna is the person we all have to thank for compiling this invaluable piece of industry research each year, and with her help we’ll try to get a feel for where the industry ended up in 2023 and make sense of what the future might hold for race directors in 2024 and beyond.

As with RaceTrends reports we’ve looked at in the past in the podcast, we’ll only have time to go through the most important highlights from the report, so if you’d like to get your hands on the full set of findings, head over to runsignup.com where you’ll be able to find and download your free report copy. 

In this episode:

• The methodology and data behind RunSignup's RaceTrends report
• Are we back to 2019 registration levels?
• Are race timing companies disappearing?
• Repeat participation numbers across different events and how to increase repeat participation in your races
• The importance of integrated email marketing 
• Why are larger races continuing to lag behind smaller races in participation growth?
• Are virtual events still around?
• Participation trends in the 18-29 age group and how to foster higher participation among younger runners
• Are people registering later than they used to?
• Entry fees are going up, while the number of price increases is going down
• The rise of mobile registrations and how to optimise your race website for mobile users

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Send us Fan Mail

With more than 2 billion monthly active users (MAUs), Instagram has secured a comfortable lead as the social media platform of choice for the vast majority of online-active almost-30s and 30-somethings out there. And with Instagram’s core audience slowly aging to match running’s demographic sweet spot, it’s really important your race gets its Instagram strategy right soon, if you have an Instagram strategy at all.

So, how do you master Instagram’s highly-visual storytelling to reach new audiences on the platform? How do you build a consistent brand voice with all the tools Instagram has to offer? And how do you leverage running influencers, user-generated content, freelance contractors and free-to-use graphical design tools to make the most of the limited time and money you can commit to the platform?

That’s what we’ll be discussing today with returning guest and resident race marketing expert, Andy Reilly. Through his race marketing agency, Eventgrow, Andy has planned and executed online marketing strategies for some of the country’s top running events, including the Buffalo Marathon, Run Catalina and the San Francisco Marathon, and in his past appearances on the podcast has contributed to some of our most popular episodes, most recently a Facebook marketing two-parter that is a must listen if your race is doing anything on Facebook. 

But, today it’s all about Instagram, and with Andy’s help we’re going to be looking at Instagram from the very high level of strategy and using Instagram alongside Facebook and your other marketing channels, all the way down to the nitty-gritty of image selection, contrast plays, picking catchy headlines and even what types of faces work best on an Instagram ad. Not to mention a very practical 101 crash course on using microinfluencers to extend your brand reach.

In this episode:

• The evolution of Instagram audience demographics over the years
• Instagram vs Facebook from a user perspective
• Easy-win content ideas for starting out on Instagram
• Including (or excluding) Instagram placements on ad manager
• The most efficient way to pick copy/images for your Instagram ad
• Writing copy that works and picking the right creatives
• Picking images that work: leveraging contrast, choosing happy faces, hero images
• Thinking through your Instagram ad funnel, CTAs
• Working with freelancers and contract graphic designers
• Planning your growth path and spending money on marketing
• The importance of using Instagram filters consistently and aligning your style with your brand
• Driving engagement through humor
• Sharing user-generated content
• Microinfluencers: what are they, where to find them, and what to offer them
• Using microinfluencers to generate authentic, engaging content for your race
• Assessing ROI for your microinfluencer spend

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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As a race director, few things in the race planning lifecycle can be as exciting and enjoyable as designing a brand new race course. From picking a start area to mapping out race distances and figuring out where to place amenities, such as aid stations, race course design constitutes an important first step in shaping your race’s identity - one that will likely affect all aspects of your race experience, safety planning and logistics for years to come.

So, how do you nail this critical first step in making your race a reality? How do you design a course that is as enjoyable for participants on the main stage, as it is safe, practical and easily accessible for you, your team and emergency services behind the scenes?

That’s what we’ll be discussing today with my guest, DMSE Sports’ Director of Events, Meryl Leventon. As industry people go, Meryl’s a Swiss army knife when it comes to race planning and race day ops, and with tons of experience and a plethora of events under her belt, Meryl will help lay out for us the most important principles of effective race course design, from designing for speed and a great race experience to delivering a course that respects host communities and works well in emergencies, should things happen to go wrong around the race.

In this episode:

• Deciding on a type of course: know your town, know your market
• Working with local authorities on approving your course
• Picking and planning out your start/finish areas
• Designing your course for a specific distance
• When you should (and needn't) certify your course
• How to combine different race distances on the same course (and how to think about start times)
• Fixing course bottlenecks with a good wave start plan
• Responsible course planning: communicating with and minimizing disruption for local communities
• Publishing race day road closures through Google Maps, TomTom and other popular mapping sources
• Incorporating spectator zones in your course plan
• Designing for safety: emergency planning, access lanes and coordinating with emergency services
• Laying out alternate course contingencies in case of weather disruption
• Designing your course on Google Maps

Meryl's lululemon 10K Scottsdale Google Map:

• Public version: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Ousob6UVaQdHUBuUDL6tByBZfwdPx_A&usp=sharing 
• City, police and internal team version: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1M9T2BNTHaEo-6JIMmRZkgjuXlXfwx6g&usp=sharing

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Building a race from the ground up, as anyone who’s done it will know, is a tough business. But what about planning, coordinating and growing a whole series of races, all with a common theme and brand identity?

How do you finance and grow multiple races from scratch? How do you choose when and where to launch a new race? And how can you make use of local delivery partners to deliver new races on a budget, while ensuring your quality standards and vision are adhered to?

That’s what we’ll be discussing today with my guest Sam Heward. As the co-founder of Ultra X, the multi-stage ultraramathon world series, Sam has been at the forefront of one of the fastest-growing race series concepts of the last few years, and with his help we’re going to be taking a deep dive into the benefits and challenges of setting up a race series from scratch, including the constant strive for brand consistency, the process of cross-pollinating ideas and small successes between events, and some of the difficulties of coordinating equipment, staff and sponsorship sales across multiple event locations.

In this episode:

• Spotting gaps in the endurance event market
• Putting together a business plan and testing the waters
• Developing a brand that matches the race series' values and mission, and sets it up for long-term success
• Finding your race series' unique selling proposition in a crowded market
• Growing a race series through repeat participation
• Engaging with your audience through multiple channels year-round
• Outsourcing event planning and operations to local event delivery partners 
• Using registration fees to bootstrap growth
• Learning and iterating faster with multiple similar events around the year
• The challenges of negotiating series-wide sponsors across multiple regions

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Send us Fan Mail

First run on a whim in 1982 by Oregon Road Runners Club president Bob Foote with only 8 teams participating in the inaugural race, Hood to Coast has grown from modest beginnings to become a huge success story. More than 40 years on, the race that has come to be known affectionately as “the mother of all relays” now attracts more than a thousand teams from over 40 countries to what is one of the most spectacular 200 mile courses from the top of Mt Hood to the Pacific Ocean.

So what’s the secret sauce? What is it about this race being able to sell out for the last 30 of its 40 odd race editions? And how is it even possible to pull off recruiting 3,600 volunteers, let alone training and managing them to a tee year in, year out with a core team of just a handful of people?

That’s what we’ll be digging into today with the help of my guest, Hood to Coast race director, Felicia Hubber. Felicia, being the daughter of the man who started it all and the person driving Hood to Coast’s expansion both domestically and overseas, has literally grown alongside Hood to Coast, having been born the same year as the inaugural event, and she’ll walk us through what makes Hood to Coast so special in the eyes of the thousands of people taking part, the appeal of the mountain-to-sea race concept, the mind-boggling complexities of putting on a relay race at this size, and Hood to Coast’s unique approach to volunteer recruitment and training.

In this episode:

• The humble beginnings of the mother of all relays
• Hood to coast: 200 miles from the top of Mt Hood to the world's largest beach party in 36 hours
• The complexities of relay events
• Team-building at relays: reunions, families, military and corporate teams
• Enforcing HTC's many strict race rules
• Managing 3,600 volunteers along a 200 mile course
• HTC's unorthodox approach to volunteer recruitment: requiring local teams to provide 3 volunteers each to qualify
• Streamlining volunteer training via online video training courses
• The economics of relay racing for race organizers
• Transitioning HTC to a B Corp
• Exporting the mountain-to-sea concept overseas: HTC's international expansion

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Send us Fan Mail

Racing has come a long way since the days when women were being told that running the marathon would cause your uterus to fall out. And with women now making up 54% of all race registrations in the US, according to RunSignup’s 2022 RaceTrends report, you’d think there’d be very little holding women back from racing in this third decade of the 21st century.

That, however, is not the reality for most women out there, according to today’s guest, SheRACES founder and GB team ultrarunner, Sophie Power. Whether it’s images of uniformly male start lines, lack of reasonable pregnancy deferral policies or unnecessarily aggressive race cut-off times, races still - knowingly or unknowingly - put up more visible and invisible barriers for female athletes than they should - or realize. And that means fewer women at start lines, fewer women signing up for races and fewer women thinking they belong in the world of endurance sports racing. 

So what are those barriers holding women back and what can race directors do to remove them?

Well, the good news is we have a fairly good grasp of the former and some very easy fixes for the latter that in many cases require only a little thoughtfulness and little to no extra cost. Things like providing basic sanitary products for female athletes at toilet facilities and aid stations or trying harder to give female competitions the attention they deserve and female race finishers the properly fitting finisher shirt they have paid for. Simple things, in other words, that when implemented and communicated right can make female athletes feel more comfortable and more welcome in races.

In this episode:

• Why inclusivity is good for business
• The importance of using inclusive race imagery
• How the wrong marketing copy/language can alienate participants
• The effect of tight mid-course time cutoffs on slower runner participation
• Using cut-off pace instead of cut-off time in race communications 
• Thinking harder about toilet facilities
• Should race directors make sanitary products available on race day?
• Offering female-fit finisher shirts
• Why a lack of a pregnancy deferral policy is stopping women from signing up for your race
• Could races be offering childcare support for athletes on race day?
• Calling out verbal and sexual harassment in racing
• Setting out race etiquette and a clear anti-harassment policy

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Send us Fan Mail

Nestled in a valley in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Boulder, CO, is often referred to as the fitness capital of the US. So it was a bit surprising to Phil Dumontet, a young East Coast entrepreneur moving to Boulder in 2017 to launch his smoothie bar business, to realize that Boulder, in all its glorious outdoorsy-ness and obsession with fitness, lacked a first-rate city marathon.

For most people, that would have been just a passing thought. But not to Phil, who made giving Boulder the downtown marathon it deserves a personal passion project.

Fast forward a few years and a pandemic later, and Boulderthon, as the race got to be called, has grown into Colorado’s largest fall race series. And today, with Phil’s help, we’ll be tracing Boulderthon’s remarkable growth journey, looking at the decisions and tactics that got it to where it is today, including the deliberate effort that went into creating alliances with local businesses and the local community, the insistence on including a marketing component to all partnership agreements with sponsors and external stakeholders, and Phil’s unrelenting focus on tracking ROI across the entirety of the event’s marketing spend, from online campaigns and podcast ads to distributing flyers and working with running influencers. 

In this episode:

• Identifying opportunities in an over-saturated running event market
• Planning an inaugural event during the pandemic
• The importance of sustainable growth: capping participant numbers to preserve event quality and race experience
• Winning over the city, businesses and the local community 
• Managing the disruption of bringing a marathon to Boulder's busy downtown
• Race marketing 101: starting with the product and leaning into your race's unique strengths
• Using runner feedback to hone your race experience and marketing message
• "Be where your runners are": promoting your race online and offline
• Using coupons and dedicated registration links to measure ROI in grassroots marketing
• Laying out year-round marketing campaigns on a marketing calendar
• Seeking out and structuring win-win partnerships with local businesses, from gyms to cocktail bars
• Cross-marketing: the secret ingredient in cash and in-kind sponsorships
• Advertising on running podcasts and partnering with running micro-influencers
• Making the case for race announcers
• Including man-hours in your marketing campaign ROI
• Attracting volunteer groups with branded aid stations

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Send us Fan Mail

On April 15, 2013, two homemade bombs planted by brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tarnaev exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. In the devastation that ensued, three innocent people lost their lives, while 281 others were injured, in what was, and still remains, the biggest ever terrorist incident suffered by a mass-participation sporting event.

In the midst of all this, Boston Marathon race director, Dave McGillivray, and his team, working alongside emergency services, had to deal with a situation never before encountered by a race management team, while working under huge stress and personal risk to help runners with very little concrete information to go on on what had happened and what might be around the corner.

Today with Dave’s help, we’re going to be revisiting those remarkable events that took place 10 years ago that brought the horrors of terrorism into endurance events and forever changed the security protocols major mass-participation races around the globe have had to contend with ever since. 

We’re going to be going over the dramatic minutes and hours following the bomb explosions at the 2013 Boston Marathon, the response of the race management team, lessons learned from dealing with uncertainty when every second counts, as well as look at the aftermath of those events on security measures for the 2014 race and other races around the world, the impact these measures have had on race experience, and the legacy of the 2013 bombings on Boston Marathon and beyond.

In this episode:

• The amazing story of the Boston Marathon, the world's oldest annual marathon
• Contingency planning and emergency protocols prior to 2013
• The calm before the storm: going into the 2013 event in an upbeat mood following a near-canceled 2012 race
• Scrambling for answers and loved ones after the bombs went off
• Setting priorities in the immediate aftermath of the bombing
• Stopping the race and redirecting runners
• Working alongside and coordinating with emergency services 
• The importance of team training, planning and efficient communication in handling unforeseen emergencies 
• Improvising in the face of uncertainty
• The impact of the bombing on runners, race staff and the city of Boston
• Increasing security measures at the aftermath of the 2013 race
• The effect of additional security measures on the race experience, race banditing
• The legacy of the 2013 bombing on event operations and the "new normal"

Links:

• Boston Athletic Association - https://www.baa.org/ 
• DMSE Sports - https://www.dmsesports.com/
• Dave McGillivray Finish Strong Foundation - https://www.davemcgillivrayfoundation.org/

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about this episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Send us Fan Mail

If you’ve done the hard work of prospecting and soliciting sponsors, and got some of your prospects to engage with you, you may be forgiven in thinking your job is done.

Actually, that’s where the real work begins - understanding your sponsor’s needs and closing the deal with a sponsorship proposal that hits all the right notes.

So, how do you get into your sponsor’s head? How do you put together a sponsorship proposal that clicks with them, while maximizing the value you get out of a potential deal? And how do you gather clues on what a sponsor might be willing to pay, before you actually submit your proposal to them?

That’s what we’ll be discussing today with returning guest, Green Cactus CEO, Teresa Stas. It’s a pleasure to have Teresa back on the podcast after our very popular chat back in episode 40 last September on finding and approaching sponsors, and today we’re taking the next step on the sponsorship sales journey to look at the challenges and secrets behind researching, preparing and delivering a winning sponsorship proposal. 

Among other things, we’re going to be looking at the all important discovery session, where you get to spend time understanding the sponsor’s needs before submitting your proposal, as well as some very useful tips on efficiently drafting customized proposals, and navigating the negotiations that hopefully will get to follow your proposal submission. 

In this episode:

• The importance of holding a discovery meeting with sponsors before sending out a proposal
• Preparing for your sponsor discovery meeting
• What questions to ask during the discovery meeting
• Getting a feel for a sponsor's budget expectations 
• Easily customizing sponsorship proposals 
• The layout of a comprehensive sponsorship proposal
• Dealing with sponsor radio silence and/or rejection
• Negotiating sponsorship fees
• Drafting a robust sponsorship agreement
• Using sponsorship brokers

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about sponsorship proposals or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Send us Fan Mail