Great Thread
You have got my attention.
This is the stuff that I live and die on.
I have a small company - Finish Line Road Race Technicians, started back in 1978. We work about 100 events a year from as few as 100 participants to 45,000.
Most of what posters are saying here is the foundation of my business.
Different size events have different needs but they should all of these basics:
Not in any order.
1. Safety, Safety, Safety
This includes the course and start/finish areas. Plus medical onsite.
2. Accurate Course
Get it Certified with accurate splits. This includes large signage for mile/km marks as well as directional. I just did a race that had 26 turns. The director told me a few days before that he may not have all of the volunteers this year. I produced large arrow signs 2 feet by 2 feet - Red on White. It took two hours to plaster the course. It worked well.
3. Start on time. If you don't it means that you are not managing the event prooperly. It's not rocket science. The only time a race should start late is due to an accident or other emergency situation. If you do, let the runners know as soon as possible so they are not standing around. In the 30+ years , less then 10 of our races did not start EXACTLY on time. The others where out of my control.
4. Accurate Splits Times.
Whenever possible we provide clocks for every mile mark. I set them myself. One race we did had a 10k, half marathon, and full marathon going off at the same time - we used 44 clocks with color coded mile markers
5. Water Stations (Pre, Post and on the course)
Have enough for everyone then double the amount of water and cups. Position them for the most efficient distribution.
6.Registration
Spread it out. Divide and conquer. Good signage is a must
7. Flow
Design your registration area, pre-start area, finish, and post finish area for the most efficient flow of people. Example: I design my courses to have a back loaded start (as often as possible).
8. Course design.
KISS. Need I say more! It get's complicated when you are limited to certain roads with specific start and finish locations.
9. Timing, Scoring and results.
Hire a good company. Many races compromise on this because they want to save money. You get what you pay for.
Races are also limited to what they can do at the race site by the size of the event.
It's not that difficult to post results for races with less then 10,000 at the site. You can always post it in gun time order and include the net time. Obviously trying to post in net time would require the timer to repost over and over again....silly. One of most valuable things at a race is a roll of tape for posting! Some races use monitors to display results....cool by not always practical.
Many events (ours included) provide kiosks with individual printed results (receipt printers). This is easy to do and the results are almost immediate (a few seconds after crossing the finish line).
Get the results online ASAP. We get the results online as soon as the awards ceremony is over. With today's technology every timer should be able to do it unless they can't get a good cell signal.
10. Awards Ceremony
Do it as soon as possible. This of course is a problem with longer races like a marathon. Few people want to stick around. As a general rule we start the awards ceremony as soon as the last person crosses - for a 5k around 1:15 after the start. We could easily start earlier but we think it's rude to the late finishers + some of our senior runners are in the back of the pack and we want them at the awards ceremony. Quick posting of results allows those who are not award winners to leave if they want.
Do all of the age group awards, not just the top. Get an announcer that is not in love with their own voice. Do the thank you's, announce the winners and get out of there.
Our awards ceremonies with 3 deep ever 5 years takes about 15-20 minutes max.
11. Get more then you think you need- then add more!
And the above is just the starting point. If you can afford one, hire a pro. And then again there are Pro's and ther are Pro's.