Head Start

It isn’t every day that an entirely new mass participation racing concept emerges that can take the world by storm. But, that’s exactly what’s happened over the past few years with the rise of HYROX, a new racing format, combining functional fitness and endurance in an indoor mass participation race.

Launched in Germany in 2017 by veteran multisport race organizer Christian Toetzke with the help of co-founder Moritz Fuerste and a select team of colleagues, HYROX has exploded in popularity to become the fastest growing mass participation fitness concept in the world.

So what is HYROX? What makes it so special? How does it relate to other race formats out there like obstacle racing? And, how does the highly lucrative business of HYROX work? Well, we’re going to be going through all that and more today with the help of my guest, HYROX USA & UK Managing Director, Douglas Gremmen.

In this episode:

• Combining fitness and endurance in coming up with the HYROX concept/format
• The history of fitness racing before HYROX
• Bringing mass participation racing to gym goers (and giving gym goers something to train for)
• Rolling out HYROX in Europe, the US and the rest of the world
• Obstacle races vs HYROX: differences and similarities
• HYROX in the Olympics?
• Designing a scalable race format: making workouts accessible, safe, easy to monitor and easy to transport between venues
• Race timing in a HYROX race (it's complicated!)
• Getting thousands of people around an indoor racing course
• How large can a HYROX race get?
• What it costs to enter a HYROX event (and what you get for it)
• Involving spectators in the HYROX race experience
• Growing HYROX internationally through franchisees
• HYROX' gym partnerships driving growth and secondary revenue
• A look at HYROX' growing competition

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

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When races grow from scratch, particularly as passion projects, there often comes a time where growth grinds to a halt. Participation seems to gradually plateau around a few hundred participants and any progress beyond that seems impossible.

So, how do you break through this resistance point to grow a race from the hundreds to the thousands? What changes should you make to your team and event to take your growth to the next level? And how do you manage this next stage of growth while avoiding the pitfalls that come with growing too fast?

That’s what we’ll be discussing today with my guest, Glass City Marathon race director, Clint McCormick. When it comes to systematically scaling up races, Clint has been there, done that and got the T-shirt, having grown the Glass City Marathon from a club race of a few hundred runners to a nationally recognised event of almost 10,000 runners, while increasing revenues for the race by over 20 times in the process. 

In our discussion today we are going to be touching on all the key elements for success in scaling up a race, including race branding and rebranding, building processes and systems for the long run, analyzing and reinventing your product offering to make it more appealing to sponsors, and using sponsorship to fuel your future growth. All this while putting safeguards in place to make sure you don’t grow too fast and get yourself into trouble.

In this episode:

• Moving a race from volunteer staff to professional/paid staff
• Understanding your brand and rebranding your race
• Nurturing local runners from 5K through to longer-distance events 
• Examining your race distance offering and culling/adding events accordingly
• Fueling growth through sponsorships, and building a product that sponsors want
• Tips on scaling up your team
• The pitfalls of growing too fast
• Managing growth sustainably by capping participant numbers
• Investing in race ambassadors and other grassroots marketing programs
• In-house marketing vs employing a marketing agency

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

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In RunSignup’s latest RaceTrends report, registration data showed that less than 13% of race participants in 2021 races fell within the 18-30 age group - a number that used to be almost 18% as recently as 2017, and keeps on falling.

So why is it that races fail to attract younger audiences?

That’s what we’ll be exploring today with the help of my guest Pacers Running Marketing Director, Ryan Callahan. Ryan and the Pacers Running team recently pulled off the remarkable feat of getting more than 40% of their DC Half start line made up of 18-30 runners, and we’ll be going over a number of deliberate strategic and tactical decisions the team took to encourage participation within that younger demographic. Among other things, we’ll look at intentional branding and website design as a means of appealing to younger runners, and initiatives undertaken by the team in offline as well as online marketing to reach that target demographic. 

Today’s discussion probably doesn’t hold all the answers to this very complex challenge facing the industry, but there’s some very big clues in there about what races can do to improve their appeal among younger audiences.

In this episode:

• Participation trends in the 18-30 age group
• Why the Gen Z problem is fixable, and some races are doing better than others
• How DC Half managed to attract 3 times more 18-30 runners than the US race average
• The making of the DC Half brand
• Being intentional with your event choices: race name, logo, swag, website, course design
• Why it's important to keep your race website clear of information clutter
• Beyond cliches: building a DC race from the perspective of a DC local
• Checking boxes vs being thoughtful about your race swag choices
• Offline marketing strategies for reaching 18-30 runners
• Building an engaging race brand on Instagram
• Leveraging community and grassroots efforts to reach your target audience

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 branding, marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Today, we are going to be taking a trip down memory lane, looking at some of my favourite podcast highlights from the past year. It’s been an amazing year for Head Start - our second year on the air - and, as we head into 2023, I wanted to say how grateful we all are at Race Directors HQ for your support of the podcast and everything else we do. So thank you guys for continuing to tune in and for your kind words about the work we do here at Head Start.

Of course, there’s a special thanks due to our awesome podcast sponsor RunSignup, so a big big festive year-end thank you to the amazing folks at Moorestown, NJ, helping us bring great content to the entire race directors community. This really wouldn’t have been possible with RunSignup’s support, and we’re very grateful to have such a great company on our side.

If you are looking to make a fresh start with your event technology partner in 2023, there’s no better place to look than RunSignup, so make sure to check out all their awesome technology platform has to offer your race by visiting 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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If you’ve been following the podcast for a while, you’ll know that what we try to do at Head Start is bring you actionable, expert advice you can learn from to grow and improve your race - hopefully, with a bit of entertainment on the side.

Today marks the first episode in a new way of helping you on your race director journey. Spotlight is a new type of episode where we go inside some of the most innovative, best run races and race concepts to learn how the things we touch on in other episodes, like building a sponsorship portfolio, developing a grassroots marketing strategy or elevating the race experience, actually work in practice when executed by some of the brightest leaders in the industry.

And in our first Spotlight episode, we travel to Charlotte, NC to see how race director Brian Mister has been re-imagining the urban 10K with his hugely successful Around the Crown 10K. In the short history of that event, Brian and his team have managed to build an event that is a masterclass in community engagement, practical inclusivity, sponsorship development and grassroots marketing. And I hope you’ll be as inspired by some of the initiatives undertaken by this amazing race as I have been getting to know more about it.

In this episode:

• Putting on a race on the Charlotte inner beltway
• Defining your mission statement - and staying true to it for the long run
• Practical inclusivity: making your start line look like your community 
• ATC's First Timers Club, Pay What You Can, Stroller Division
• Running a large paper-cupless road race
• Rethinking offline marketing
• Engaging a specialist marketing agency that understands running
• The importance of Public Relations (PR)
• Growing a diverse sponsorship portfolio 
• Valuing in-kind sponsorships
• Auction-based marketing (made the term up, but it's an interesting concept)
• The future of ATC10K

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 public relations, earned media or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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It’s another bonus episode for you today, and as we were discussing reducing your race’s carbon footprint last week, this week’s episode falls quite neatly in the same area of sustainability and decarbonization.

Today, I’m joined by race director, race timer and solar power enthusiast Lowell Ladd, of 2L Race Services, to talk about how you can switch your race day headquarters over to solar power, so that your entire race day operation runs on sun juice instead of diesel. 

We’re going to be looking at the stepping stones to building out a solar power setup, from getting started on a single solar generator to gradually building out a full-fledged mobile solar power station. And we’re going to be answering your questions on the feasibility, reliability and cost of such a setup when it comes to powering race day. 

In this episode:

• The benefits of switching to solar power
• Energy consumption by hardware, and what a solar-powered system could support, depending on size
• The anatomy of a solar-powered setup: components, connectivity, outlets
• The cost of building your DIY solar-based system
• Panels: what to buy and how to scale up
• Li-based vs acid-based batteries: pros and cons
• Taking care of, maintaining and upgrading your setup

Additional resources:

• Off-grid solar power resources: https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/
• DIY solar power forum: https://diysolarforum.com/
• Mobile Solar Power Made Easy (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Solar-Power-Made-yourself/dp/1546567119/

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 setting up your race day mobile solar power system or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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In a previous episode of the podcast with guest Brian Schmidt of P3R, we saw how it is possible for even a very large race like the Pittsburgh Marathon to achieve zero waste status - that is, the goal of diverting more than 90% of total race waste away from landfill.

But what about carbon emissions? Is it equally feasible to aspire towards carbon neutrality, that is to say, putting on an event with net zero (or perhaps even negative) carbon footprint.

Well, that’s what we’ll be discussing today with my guest Porter Bratten, owner of Washington-based Blackfish Ventures and a passionate practitioner of sustainability in all the races he puts on. We’re going to be looking at what makes up a race’s carbon footprint, how to formulate a practically achievable carbon mitigation strategy, and how carbon offsetting can help bridge the gap to carbon neutrality where further improvements in lowering carbon emissions may not always be possible. 

In this episode:

• What contributes to your race's carbon footprint
• Direct emissions, indirect emissions and purchased energy
• Understanding which emissions you can measure and control
• Estimating your race's carbon footprint
• Making participant carpooling work
• Offering a no-medal/no-shirt option
• Green electricity: what it is, how much it costs and how to get it
• Involving your participants in your sustainability strategy
• How carbon offsetting works
• Doing due diligence on and selecting carbon offset projects
• Using carbon offsetting to offset participant travel and shipping emissions
• Are participants wiling to pay a "sustainability premium" for greener races?
• Making the most of sustainability sponsors

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

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Most races only come around once a year. So when you’re working to improve a race for your participants, you’ve got precious few opportunities to receive feedback from them. How do you use those opportunities right? And what feedback should you look to gather from them?

Well, my guest today, Laurel Park, has the unique privilege of being both a race director and a PhD in survey design, and has helped countless organizations develop effective surveys that leverage customer feedback to inform strategic decisions. As the President of the Ann Arbor Track Club, Laurel knows running and races inside out, and today she’ll help us understand how to craft an actionable race survey, how to maximize survey response rates, and how to avoid some of the common pitfalls of survey design, like asking things you shouldn’t care to know about or asking things you do care to know about in a way that delivers poor quality or unusable results.

If you do send out a race survey after your event, or have thought of doing so, this is an excellent crash course in getting the most of the one shot you get each year to gather productive feedback from your participants.

In this episode:

• The purpose of a race survey
• Working backwards from what you need to know to what you're going to ask
• Collecting demographic information from respondents
• Do people respond truthfully to surveys?
• Reducing survey friction and question bloat
• Avoiding distractions/cognitive load with clean survey styling
• Types of questions to ask and areas to explore with your race survey
• Avoiding leading respondents with biased question phrasing
• Using open-ended vs close-ended questions
• Best practices for sharing your race survey
• Increasing survey response rates with incentives
• Survey software options for designing your race survey
• Analyzing and presenting survey results

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. 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. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.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 designing race surveys or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Looking into the business of putting on races from the outside, as a passionate runner and racer, you might be mistaken in thinking that putting on races is a fairly straightforward, relaxing, comfortably profitable thing to do. I can hear some of you chuckling there…

Well, my guests today, brothers Jeremy and William Fermo, are exactly the type of passionate runner that would try to make a business out of directing races. Which is why in late 2021, they put aside their medical degrees and took the plunge into planning their first race, Shannon’s Run in Orange, Texas.

Coming into race directing with few preconceptions, they tried everything to make their inaugural race a success - including an early round of crowdfunding for their business, 3 Bros Running, and a go at securing local business grants to support their revenue. 

The result? Not half bad - 366 signups from more than 40 cities across the state, and with that, a growing appetite for directing more and larger races.

If you’re just starting out as a race director, there’s valuable lessons here for you on the challenges and the joys you’ve got ahead of you, and the importance of focusing your planning on the things that matter. And, if you’re well into your long-term career as a race director, there’s a couple of interesting gold nuggets here for you as well - and perhaps a little nostalgia about why you went into this really special business in the first place.

In this episode:

• Taking the plunge into race directing
• The importance of focusing on the race experience
• Launching a crowdfunding campaign to get the race off the ground
• Going after local business grants 
• Putting yourself front and center of your race brand
• Telling your race story through video on social media
• Promoting your race like it's a Hollywood movie
• Reaching out and pitching to local sponsors
• Big learnings from the guys' first year in race directing

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. 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. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.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 starting out in race directing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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“A game changer”, “TV on steroids”, “the future of content” and “ridiculously addictive”. That’s just a few ways to describe TikTok, according to my guest today, but, chances are, if you have teenagers in the house, you already knew that.

So what is so special about this app that has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years? Is TikTok really just a place for 12 year olds? And, very crucially, is it worth your time trying to market your race on the platform, and how do you go about it?

Well, we are going to be going through all that and much much more with my guest today, Oli Hills. As the CEO of a dedicated TikTok marketing agency, Nonsensical, Oli is here to tell you why short-form video is the future of content, and why TikTok is the place where it’s all going to be happening.
 
We’re going to be talking about how to produce content on TikTok, what kind of content works best, and how to scrap your preconceptions about TikTok demographics and video editing, and just take the plunge into a brave new world of marketing.

In this episode:

• TV on steroids: how TikTok changed the social media game
• TikTok's fastest growing demographics (hint: it's not teenagers!)
• Nailing your niche and training TikTok to recognize your target audience
• How to produce and publish videos using the TikTok app
• Grabbing your audience's attention with snappy video hooks
• Why short form video is the future (and why TikTok is the place to do it)
• Boosting your video reach with Spark Ads
• Cross-posting TikTok content to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram
• What types of content to post on TikTok
• Paid marketing on TikTok: creating ads, audience targeting, retargeting
• The importance of getting in on TikTok early

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. 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. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.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 marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Send us Fan Mail