Never easy putting together a running event

I noticed a couple of things this week that made me recall my race directing days.

One was several posts of friends at races showing the medals they had won at the race.

The second thing was some clips of the Senior National Track and Field meet. One clip showed the 100-meter race for women aged over 90 years. Another clip had the 95–99 age group men running the 50-meter dash.

It is a great accomplishment to reach that advanced age and to be able to still run in a race is even more astounding.

When organizers put on a race the two biggest cost items are the race tee shirts and the awards to the age group winners.

Putting on a race without sponsors is lucky to break even in costs unless the race has a large number of runners.

A race with about 100150 runners will cost upwards of $2500-$3500 for those two items.

Sponsors may not feel like their company will get much recognition if their brand name is only on 150 tee shirts.

The point of having the company logo on 150 T-shirts does not seem like a worthy investment.

What companies must realize is that their logo on a shirt is not just on the runners shirts the day of the race.

If the race shirt is of good quality and has a neat shirt design the runner will wear that shirt to many other races.

I still wear race shirts from 10-15 years ago. That business logo is seen every time the runner wears that shirt and it might be seen for 10 years.

Now that sponsorship investment is paying off.

For race organizers this means getting a good quality shirt and having a design that runners will want to wear at other races or just as an everyday shirt.

Whether the shirt is a good quality cotton blend shirt or a hi-tech fabric is a toss-up for race organizers to decide on.

The crucial part is the design that is on the front of the shirt. If it is too big runners do not necessarily like it because the design could be printed and is too warm or hot to wear during a race.

Printing processes have now been able to print a breathable logo on the shirt that allows a cooler run.

When ordering the shirts this needs to be made clear to the company that is printing the shirts.

And the color of the shirt is important also. My experience seems that runners like a colorful shirt that will stand out versus a very bland color shirt.

It seems the recent posts I have seen from friends is a medal on a ribbon.

This is the least expensive award and needs to be an unusual design to make it one a runner will cherish.

The standard trophy is good for most races. The problem is unless the runner has a shelf of trophies from other races where are they going to put it.

The standard victory figure on top will often find the trophy in a closet after a time. Unusual awards make the trophy unique and will probably make it to the mantel shelf.

The other important thing to consider for race organizers is how many awards they have for their race.

Ten-year age groups versus five-year age groups; overall awards versus masters overall, senior masters, and grand masters over all. Overall trophies usually cost more and for race organizers that means ordering four overall trophies versus eight overall trophies. Ten-year age groups will be approximately 48 awards and five year age groups will be 72 awards.

That is a big cost difference to consider. The thought behind the five year age group choice is that it will bring in more runners.

The age group limit is also a consideration. If you do not have an age category for the senior age runners they will not come to the race. This can be a major issue when it comes to getting runners to enter your race. Watching the Senior National Track Meet and seeing runners over 90 years and a few in the 100 year old category makes an interesting debate to the upper age limit for race organizers.

Each age category is a total of six trophies (first, second, and third for male and female). That is a cost of about $55 to $100+ for each age group. Organizers have to know a little background of previous races. Will there be six (3 male – 3 female) runners in those upper age categories?

If there is an upper age and you only have two or three runners in the age group it costs organizers the cost of the remaining four trophies to pay for. And left over awards can’t be returned because of the age group on the metal label along with the name of the race, etc. will not be good for another race.

Most races in this area have an upper age limit to over 70 years but this is not fair to the 80+ year runner. T he decision of trophy cost versus having the older runners enter your race is a tough decision.

Still want to put on a race?