There have been a number of races in the area this past month. What made me think of the races is that they were all near a holiday. The Pumpkin Dash 5K was named after Halloween. The Thankful Turkey 5K was celebrating Thanksgiving. The Jingle Bell 5K is with Sights and Sounds celebration and Christmas. I wrote a ‘Small Town Race Directors Guide’ to give some direction to organizations planning on trying a road race for a fundraiser. There is one section that talks about selecting a date and time. The first sentence asked if the town you were planning on the race site had a celebration that drew lots of people. Working with the celebration organization that is the sponsor is a win-win situation. The race will bring in more people for the celebration and the runners will be able to take part in the celebration. Both will see an increase in attendance. Other possible holidays that work include MLK Day, Juneteenth, Patriots Day, Valentines Day, Presidents Day, and May Day — a few examples.
The only celebration that might have a conflict is New Year’s Day. The best advertisement is to “Start the New Year Off With A Great Run”. Most serious runners do not celebrate the evening before a race but New Year’s Eve is a different kind of celebration. Think how many of your friends want to drink a toast to the New Year. Running a race with a hangover is not the best way to shake that foggy feeling from the evening before. And since the sole reason for the party is to stay up until after midnight and welcome the New Year, which makes running with a lack of sleep and maybe a hangover, the runner will have to be a very serious runner to show up.
The celebration might benefit with a race the same day if it is more of a local event. High Schools have Homecomings and a football game or even a parade. Having the runners lead the parade is one way to draw some attention. Lockhart Kiwanis had a rodeo to go to after the race. Same with Wimberley. San Marcos has the Firecracker 5K with a fantastic display of fireworks that evening to watch. One year the race was held in the evening to make it easier for the runners to hang around for the display of fireworks. These are a few examples of selecting a date for the race.
Other considerations to selecting a date are to look at a race calendar such as Athletes Guild or a runners club web page. If there is a large and well-established race near your area try another date. And once the date is selected, get it on a race calendar so other race organizations will see your race and then they will select another date. A minimum of three months is a good standard in posting the race date. Almost all races are held on a Saturday. A date other than Saturday eliminates a working runner from coming to your race, but I have seen signs posted on a door of the shop stating a different opening time if the business is serious about running the race. For longer races such as a 10K, 15K, or half marathon distance, Sundays seem to be better. Sundays for the longer races bring in the consideration that they will cover a much longer or larger area and the traffic will be less. One consideration of having a longer race is the number of volunteers needed for direction, aid stations and trail vehicles for the slower runners. Depending on the course layout, the number of volunteers can be substantial. For the ‘Better Half Marathon’ we needed about 30 volunteers: registration, putting out the direction signs and mile markers, aid stations, and finish line volunteers. If the race will draw a large number of runners, the number of volunteers goes up. Instead of one or two volunteers at an aid station the number is more like six or more to man the cups of water for the runners.
And after that advice an organization does not need a holiday or celebration to have a race. With a holiday it is easier to select a race name like ‘Thankful Turkey’ or ‘Pumpkin Dash’. With nothing to celebrate, the need for a catchy name for the race is a must. And the logo on the shirt has to be one that runners will enter for the nice-looking tee shirt. I tried a long sleeved hooded high tech tee shirt for the Pumpkin Dash, and while the runners liked the shirt, it didn’t bring in large numbers of runners. I have tried three-quarter zip shirts, runner’s jackets and sleeveless hooded tee shirts with varying degrees of success. With all that extra detail to putting on a race the first step is selecting a date. And along with the date, the small detail of where the race will be held is a necessary part of posting a race. Have fun.
