Head Start

Selling merchandise is a great way to increase brand loyalty for participants outside race day, and, of course, a very good way to increase revenue from your event.

So, how do you get started selling race merchandise, both online, on packet pickup and on race day? How do you pick and test merchandise items that sell? And, very importantly, how do you manage inventory well to maximize sales while minimizing the risk of costly leftover items?

That’s what we’re going to be discussing today with my guest, Greelayer apparel President, and merchandising expert, Kim Bilancio. Kim has spent decades in the race apparel industry, where, among other things, she has been running the race merchandise programs for Hood to Coast and other prestigious events up and down the country. 

And today Kim will be helping us get a feel for what race merchandising is, how it works, what types of events it is (and isn’t) best suited for, and how, when implemented right, it can help increase your race’s revenue, while giving your participants a piece of your race to keep, cherish and showcase year-round. 

In this episode:

• What race merchandising can do for your event
• On-site (race day, packet pickup) vs online (registration flow, website) merchandise sales
• Starting out selling race merchandise as part of your registration flow
• Outsourcing merchandise sales to an apparel vendor vs doing it in-house
• How small things like weather can affect merchandise sales
• Guesstimating apparel sizes to order from past data and registration trends
• What types of races merchandising is (and isn't) well suited for
• Working on a commission vs flat-rate basis with merchandise vendors
• Choosing where to set up your merch store on packet pickup and race day
• Choosing products to sell in your merch store
• Picking shirt styles and qualities for your store that work alongside your finisher shirt
• The tech shirt vs tri blend debate
• Including non-wearables in your merch offering
• Including cycling kits and other specialized merch for multisport events
• Printing items on-demand for registration flow merch stores
• Shipping merch to participants pre-race day

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 race merchandising, growing your race's revenue or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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From the minute the first participant shows up on race day till the time the last one leaves, responsibility for the wellbeing of everyone on and around your race course rests with you - the race director.

So, how can you make sure your medical preparations are up to scratch? How do you figure out how many - and what type - of resources to dedicate to your race? And where does your duty of care as the race organizer towards your participants even begin and end, practically, legally and morally?

That is what we’ll be discussing today with my guest, Natasha Beach. Besides being the medical director for such prestigious events and organizations as the Manchester Marathon, London Triathlon and Cancer Research UK, Natasha runs her own multi-award-winning event medical cover company, SportsMedics, as well as heading some of the most high-profile efforts to formalize race medical planning in the UK through her positions as Chief Medical Officer of England Athletics and medical advisor to UK Athletics. 

In this episode:

• Understanding the stress the human body goes through during a race
• Why men are at a higher risk of suffering a medical incident during a race than women
• How speed, herd mentality and participant excitement make everything worse on race day
• How the incidence of specific medical issues evolves over the duration of a race
• Duty of care: what is expected of you as the race director
• The pitfalls of relying on public medical resources
• Doctors vs nurses vs paramedics vs first-aiders: what's the difference?
• Using in-house stuff and volunteers as your first-aid team on race day
• Vetting third-party first-aid cover providers and medical companies
• Working out how many and what types of medical resources you'll need
• Sharing your race medical plan with emergency services
• Collecting medical history notes from participants to use in case of an emergency
• Requiring mandatory participant medical certificates: do they help?
• Recording race-day medical incidents and compiling a post-race medical report

If you are based in the UK, you can sign Natasha's petition on extending regulation of health services to medical services at events here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/633938 

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 medical, risk and contingency planning or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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If you’ve been following our industry updates on race and participation growth, you may have picked up on the fact that trail running, and trail races, have been doing particularly well over the last few years. In fact, trail racing seems to be one of the few spots within racing still growing at a healthy enough rate as other areas in racing are stagnating or slowly falling behind.

So, what is fueling trail racing’s amazing growth? How different are trail races to organize, promote and grow compared to your typical road race? And, despite the robust growth, what challenges, if any, does trail racing face as it matures into a more popular sport?

With me today to cover this very interesting ground is veteran trail runner, trail racer and trail race director, John Lacroix. Through his Colorado-based Human Potential Running Series, John has been at the helm of dozens of trail and ultra races through the years, and with his help we’re going to be taking a look at all aspects of the trail racing business, from the culture and community that has been at the core of the sport’s success to the nitty-gritty everyday details trail race directors have to contend with in operations, course maintenance and marking, and, of course, safety management.

In this episode:

• The appeal of trail racing
• Improving diversity and inclusivity in trail and ultra running
• Is ultra running's inability to attract younger participants spelling trouble down the line?
• The lack of dedicated educational materials and accreditation for trail race directors
• The complexities (and costs) of obtaining permits for a trail/ultra race
• The challenge of finding and attracting volunteers
• Marking a trail/ultra running course (hint: it's not for the faint-hearted!)
• Managing risk and keeping participants safe in a trail race
• The economics of trail and ultra races
• The reality of attracting sponsorship dollars in trail races
• Marketing trail races: word of mouth, social media, race calendars, event cross-promotions
• Race director collaboration in trail racing

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 the business of trail and ultra races or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Over the last decade or so, lots has changed in the social media landscape. Facebook has gone from exciting upstart to the mature granddaddy of social media, Instagram has grown by leaps and bounds to become the platform of choice for visually engaging content, and TikTok has emerged as the new contender in the battle for social media supremacy, favored mostly by younger audiences, looking for the next cool and exciting network to join.

So, how should your organic social media presence adapt to this ever-changing landscape? Should you still be spending time on Facebook? Should you be switching to an Instagram-first mentality? And what kinds of content should you post? How often? And with what purpose?

This and many many other questions is what we’ll be discussing today with the help of my guests, digital marketing pros Leigha Pindroh of Pittsburgh Marathon organizers P3R and Alex Ross of the Denver Colfax Marathon. 

With tons of practical experience between them, Leigha and Alex are here to take us from high-level social media strategy all the way down to your everyday content writing tactics, including tips on managing your content schedule, mixing up value posts with marketing content, leveraging user-generated content, as well some off-the-beaten-track stuff you may not even be thinking about, like using LinkedIn to tap into your local corporate wellness market. 

In this episode:

• Is organic social media reach dead?
• Understanding the effectiveness of your social media posts/campaigns
• The most effective social media platforms for races: Facebook, Instagram
• The challenges of making it on TikTok
• Promoting your race to local businesses and corporates through LinkedIn
• Engaging with your audience with Stories, Reels, polls
• Types of content to put out through your social media
• The 80:20 rule: posting 80% value posts (entertainment, education etc), 20% sales posts
• Leveraging user-generated stories and other content
• Hashtags, emojis: where to use and how
• Designing content with an Instagram-first mentality
• Planning your social media content schedule
• Productivity tools: Hootsuite, Canva, Facebook Publishing tools

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 social media, digital marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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In a number of our past podcasts, we’ve touched on the issue of race waste - and specifically a particularly significant and persistent part of that issue which is water cup waste.

In an ideal world - or shall I say in a trail running world - we’d all love to put on cupless races, where racers themselves are responsible for bringing along their own water containers to the race. But, unfortunately, that high standard may be a little ways off still for the majority of road running and multisport races out there.

So what can we do to take some of the strain of water cup waste off of our industry?

One approach, coming out of Florida-based company Hiccup is reusable water cups, that is, durable cups that are collected, professionally sanitized and reused between races. And today I have the great pleasure of talking to the person at the forefront of that movement, Hiccup owner Kristina Smithe.

Kristina started Hiccup in 2019 through her frustration with the rate at which water cups were being consumed in races, and has since had her Hiccup silicon cups used in such great events as Grandma’s Marathon, Rocket City Marathon and Around the Crown 10K. And she’ll be telling us today how the Hiccup service works, from delivery to collection, and how you could potentially bring Hiccup’s reusable water cups to your race next year.

In this episode:

• How Hiccup's reusable cup service works
• What races Hiccup is best (and less well) suited for
• Setting up Hiccup on race day
• Runner's reviews of using Hiccups
• Recovering, sanitizing and reusing Hiccup's silicon cups
• Compostable vs reusable cups
• The cost of bringing Hiccup to your race

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 sustainability, reducing race waste or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Gravel racing has been one of the fastest growing sectors in mass-participation sports over the last decade or so, particularly in the US, where high-profile races like UNBOUND Gravel, Rebecca’s Private Idaho and Belgian Waffle Ride have grown massively in popularity, attracting a broad range of both veteran and newcomer cyclists to the sport.

It’s against this backdrop that in 2019 professional road racer Amy Charity launched her own gravel race around the ski resort town of Steamboat Springs, CO, where she then lived. As Forbes magazine put it, SBT GRVL went on to become a remarkable overnight success, selling out in just 9 minutes in its second year and becoming one of the best gravel racing experiences in the world. 

So what has been the secret to the race’s massive success? That’s what we’re here to find out with Amy’s help - and in the process learn a thing or two about the unstoppable sensation that is gravel racing. 

In this episode:

• An "overnight success": planning and launching SBT GRVL 
• The importance of local infrastructure in supporting a world-class race
• Building community relations and being a respectful "guest" in the local community
• The appeal and insane growth of US gravel racing
• Road racing vs gravel racing vs mountain biking
• How inclusivity helped propel gravel racing's growth
• The cost advantages/disadvantages of organizing a gravel race vs a road race
• Making SBT GRVL a more welcoming event for female athletes and newcomers
• Including a non-competitive e-bike category into the event
• Activating sponsorships year-round through grassroots and team-building events
• Offering a VIP package/experience option
• Bringing the SBT GRVL brand to Europe with FNLD GRVL

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 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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Besides race medals and finisher shirts, the one experience item participants have come to expect from a race, particularly in this digital age, is a good set of professional race photos.

And perhaps because of the cultural changes that have come with the digital age, the purpose of race photography within the endurance events business has been swinging back and forth between race photos as a secondary revenue stream vs race photos as a marketing tool.

So, do you offer paid photos, as a means of boosting your current bottom line? Or do you give photos away for free, as a marketing investment aimed at higher participation growth in the future?

This and other questions is what we’ll be discussing today with the help of my guests, race director, race consultant and general race-jack-of-all-trades Josh Reed of On Path Events, and professional race photographer John Kelly of John Kelly Photos. 

Among other things we’ll look at how modern race photography works, from snap to download, how you can work with your race photographer to create some really memorable shots for your participants, and, as mentioned earlier, we’re going to be looking at the various business models around race photography, how they’ve been trending lately, and which might be best suited for your event.

In this episode:

• The difference between event promotional photos vs participant/race photos
• Enhancing the participant race experience through race photos
• Who buys race photos and why
• The cost of race photography for different types of events
• Looking at your course through the eyes of a race photographer
• Picking good spots to shoot from
• Creating spectator areas
• Working with your race photographer
• The journey of a race photo: from shooting through sorting and tagging to being delivered to participants
• Is delivering race photos fast important?
• Free participant photos: the argument for and against
• Typical purchase rates for paid photos, and impression/download stats for free photos
• Getting sponsors involved in race photos
• The future of race photography

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 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 race photography or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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If there’s one thing that often sets apart races that go on to do really well from others that struggle to gain traction in their community, it’s the ability of the former - and the inability of the latter - to engage with the non-race world. And nowhere is this more evident than the way in which events interact with local media.

The truth of the matter is, very few people participate in races. And very few people outside of those who do care about anything race-specific a race has to say.

So how can races hope to reach out to the broader public? What stories can they tell that are relevant to many more people than the ones who show up at the start line on race day? And how can you, armed with those stories, get out and pitch them to your local paper, radio or TV station?

That is what we’ll be discussing today with my guest Race El Paso owner, Gabriela Gallegos. Gabriela is a triathlon race director, so it’s not totally unfair to describe her audience as a bit niche, by broad-appeal standards. Yet, Gabriela managed to make triathlon the talk of the town in El Paso, TX through a series of media engagements culminating in the live broadcast of her all-female Mighty Mujer triathlon by her local NBC affiliate, an achievement for which she was recently recognized with USA Triathlon’s annual Innovation Award. And today she’ll be helping us break down the art of engaging local media, from finding the story to pitching the people that matter.

In this episode:

• Why developing a local media strategy matters
• Which kinds of stories get the local press excited (and which don't) 
• Being deliberate about bringing out the stories in your event
• Human interest stories: what they are, and how to promote them
• Writing engaging press releases: the 5Ws + who cares?
• Beyond human interest stories: expert advice stories & op-eds
• Matching the tone and content of your story to your target press outlet
• Finding the right press contact and pitching your story to the press 
• Media alerts and monitoring online media
• Working with TV stations on live race coverage

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 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 engaging local media or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Whether you’re putting on races through a for-profit or a nonprofit organization, having a good grasp of your race budget can often make the difference between a profitable bottom line and days of post-race head-scratching about what went wrong to land you in the red.

Admittedly, building and maintaining a race budget is not a lot of fun - not to most people, anyway - but it is something that has to be done, and has to be done right.

So to help us understand what “right” looks like for a race budget, I’ve got the pleasure of being joined in the podcast today by SRSE Sports’ Sean Ryan. 

Sean has been a veteran of the industry with almost 20 years of experience in race directing, marketing, operations and financial planning, and was once hailed as “the most overeducated race director” in the industry, holding an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. And today he’ll be helping us understand the value of good budgeting practices, how to put together a transparent and practically useful race budget, as well as sharing his thoughts on managing budget shortfalls and juggling the complexities of cost cutting while trying to maintain a quality race experience. 

In this episode:

• Why putting on races is a capital intensive exercise that requires sound budgeting
• Where most race budgets fail: over-exuberance and erroneous assumptions
• The importance of keeping an updated working copy of your budget at all times
• Top line revenue vs bottom line revenue vs gross profit vs operating profit vs net profit
• Organizing expenses by category: administrative, operating, marketing
• Fixed vs variable expenses, and why fixed expenses can break your budget
• What you should aim for for a healthy bottom-line profit
• The perils of underspending on marketing
• How to build a budget from the ground up
• Calculating your budget breakeven point
• Managing budget shortfalls
• Transparent vs non-transparent cost cuts, and why, if you have to cut costs, you need to start with the latter
• You can raise prices or reduce quality, but you should not try to do both
• How to treat donations and in-kind sponsorship on your budget
• The true cost of race volunteers

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 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 race budgeting or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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When you want to know what’s happening and trending in the endurance events industry by the numbers, where do you turn to? Well, for me and many people I know, the definitive source of event data for the industry is, and has been for some time, RunSignup’s annual RaceTrends report.

The report leverages RunSignup’s extensive registration data from tens of thousands of events to point to trends in overall event participation, event pricing, participant demographics, registration trends and a myriad other things.

The most recent edition of the report was out a couple of weeks ago, and, despite a weak start to 2022, the data does seem to suggest that the post-pandemic industry recovery is picking up pace with some races recovering better than others and noticeable entry fee increases across the board on all race distances and disciplines.

With me today to discuss the numbers, the trends and their implications for individual events and the industry as a whole, I’m delighted to have RunSignup’s own Bob Bickel and Johanna Goode. Bob and Johanna will be helping me make sense of some of the more interesting data points in the report and offer their own takes on what the numbers might be telling us for where the industry could be heading in 2023 and beyond.

In this episode:

• A few words about the RunSignup Roadshow 
• 2022 overall registrations compared to 2021 and 2019
• The outlook for registrations in 2023
• Why registrations growth for larger events underperformed smaller races in 2022
• Event churn (=percentage of races that haven't returned in consecutive years) since 2019 and 2021
• Repeat participation trends, and why they matter
• Virtual race participation stats
• Increasing inclusivity in races and making the most of the post-pandemic running boom
• Age group participation trends and Gen Z runners
• When people register and how it's changed since the pandemic
• Are higher entry fees having an impact on participation numbers?

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 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 the numbers in today’s podcast, registration trends or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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