putting on a road race

with about $8000 in sponsors, i was the RD of a race over the summer with just less than 200 people. after expenses, we needed about $3000. remember, we had $8000 in sponsor $$. without that, we would have been significantly in the hole.

i suspect that no matter where you are, without sponsorship, you aren't going to raise enough $$ to make it worth your while.

if you post your email address. i'll send you some better specifics on budget items.

I just directed a race for the first time this past Sat, a 5K trail race for a local charity in Ann Arbor. It is a philanthropical event for the house/scholarship organization that I am a member of. It is fairly low scale still, this being the 7th year, we had 110 runners. My goal with the race this year was to make it into a true competitive race, but we fell somewhat short, mostly due to lack of help from my fellow members who were not on the race committee.

Anyway, we raised about $500 in sponsors, plus another $1000 through bottle drives (we are college students:))

Food was donated, shirts cost about $1400, got a good deal on race equipment, clock, timer, megaphone, wheel, for like $50. Registration was $15/$17/$20. Oh, and we didn't have to pay to use the facility because it is held in a campus park area and they didn't charge us out of kindness. So, we were relatively low budget, and will hopefully come out to around $1500-$2000 total profit, all of which is donated.

Keep in mind though that the shallow resources we had this year prevented the race from being very professionally run, something i hope to greatly improve next year through bigger and more sponsors, to be obtained earlier (all of our's were local places)

Anyway, hope that helps

Hey, on this note, anyone who has directed a race:

What scoring/results systems do you use? For a small race (under 250 people) how do you manage recording finishes and times and get results in a timely manner to hand out awards? We tried a free software program this year that compiled results fairly well, but it was hard to get everyone recorded by number as they came across the line, and then took about 30 min to get all the results figured out and printed for awards. Just curious how other people handle this without expensive systems, if there is even an efficient way.

thanks

my email is tempo8k@hotmail.com . thanks for the info!

I suggest going to the RRCA website. They can help in many ways. When we first joined, they gave us a manual that we use as a bible for many things, including how to put on a road race.

My experience has been if you just want to raise money, there are better (easier / more effective) ways than putting on a race. My club puts on a 600 person race with sponsers and we barely make anything.

Lots of work and little revenue. It's really just a labor of love.

btw, we use a finishline company. They do an excellent job but charge $1.25 per runner. We use them because they have never made a mistake & we try to put on a flawless event.

race results can be done very cheap with the card system.

Have index cards made to look like this:

NAME:_____________________

AGE:_____________

SEX: M F

RUN WALK (CIRCLE ONE)

Have the cards numbered in order 1-999. Have baskets made up with each age group and sex. When the runner leaves the finsih line give him his/her card and have them fill out the info and place in appropriate box. When race is over place each age group in number order and you have your award winners. Have a result sheet made in advance with age groups and how many awards you will give. Can do awards in 15 min. with this system. The only problem we have is--when the runners just finish a race they are wet and shaking and sometimes it's hard to read the names on the cards.

Good luck. if you have any more questions

msurunner@msn.com

Instead of the cards use the tear off on the bottom of the race number. The RD can put this info on prerace and race day people can write their own when they get their number.

This is how we do it, but we have a small race (under 100), but I am confident it would work up to 250 or so depending on the length of the race. The longer the race the easier.

Have all info on race taps on the bottom of the bib. Write males in blue pen, females in red. Have each runners name age and sex on the tab.

When a runner crosses the finish line tear off the tab and put it (face down) on a coat hanger that is shaped like a carabiner (climbers clip). Have a person be the timer, a person to get the taps, and a person that does the age group awards. When someone crosses the finish line have the tab person take it and put it on the hanger while the age group person puts down the person name in the proper age group. As runners come in try to continue this, but it will be difficult. When about half the runners have come in give the coat hanger to the person that does age group awards and start a second coat hanger with a number 2 index card on it so you know that it is the second hanger and not the first one you used. Now that the age group person has the first hanger they can go from 1st place on down to compile the age group results. Have the males in blue ink and the females in red helps a lot.

I hope this helps.

Paul

test

bump...hope no one minds, this is a really good thread for new race directors like myself...please post more ideas if you have them

thanks