For the last few years, I’ve written about a spring race that Kelly (my wife) and I have race-directed, the Greater Hartford Quarter Marathon. Kelly kickstarted this event nearly two decades ago, and we’ve run it together for almost the last ten years. We’ve seen pretty much everything early April in Connecticut could throw you — snow, sleet, freezing rain, rain, a nearly 60 degree temperature range, and it’s always windy. Then, of course, this was the first race we were forced to cancel due to the COVID pandemic — and all the fun that it brought (including accusations of “stealing people’s money” by pivoting to a virtual event).

It’s all brought us to this — we’ve decided to retire the event after this year’s running. There’s no one particular reason that stands out as why; it’s more of a death by a thousand paper cuts. Here are a few of them.

Runner Behavior Has Changed Significantly Post COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic changed us all in a variety of ways. Arguably the biggest change for the collective running and multisport landscape has been race entry purchasing behavior. With extremely few exceptions, most athletes are delaying race entry later and later. It’s understandable given the number of people who felt burned by a sea of deferrals and the inability for most race directors to refund entry fees. We definitely were included in that bucket — for this race, in particular, canceling the race less than two weeks before the event in 2020 meant everything had been paid for, or was contractually obligated to be paid for.

In response, runners and triathletes delay entering races until the last 30 days before the event. It makes it extremely hard to forecast participation levels, meaning that it’s also hard to justify figures needed for food, swag, port-o-johns, and even your timer. And in a world where you pay on a per bib basis, every bib that goes unused is just money wasted. For those of us operating on a purely volunteer basis, it adds some significant heartburn to an already stressful endeavor.

The Lessening Impact of Charity

Or, as I like to call it, charitable burnout. It used to feel like a big deal to choose a race that would be benefitting a specific charitable partner (for this event, that’s Achilles International’s Connecticut chapter). It always seemed important in all of our post-race surveys.

But, particularly since 2020, the intensity of that importance has diminished. And that’s not just for our races. It’s been harder and harder for anyone and everyone to recruit volunteers, to the point where you’re seeing fewer aid stations on courses due to the reduction in volunteers. What the money goes to — whether a for-profit race director or a charitable partner — seems less important to the race experience delivered — which ties into the next point.

The Increased Cost of Race Experience

Inflation is real. It was true prior to the pandemic, but it’s definitely accelerated over the last few years. Example: it now costs more for 300 screen printed shirts today than it did for 550 of them in 2017. The per shirt cost — before you even factor in printing — has doubled over that time. Food, port-o-johns, timing, bibs, medals, storage for all your materials, replacing any equipment that breaks — it’s all significantly more expensive.

And, well, there’s only two ways to offset those kinds of increases: either you deliver less, or you increase prices.

We have traditionally tried to operate our races in a niche where we were able to deliver a big-race experience — personalized bibs, quality swag, excellent post-race food — on a shoestring budget, undercutting larger race competitors on entries by $10-$20, all while delivering a check ranging from $4,000 to $10,000 to our charities. That’s simply not possible in 2024. If you want to deliver that experience for people, it’s going to cost them the same amount as racing for a larger production company’s event. And, well, when given the option of paying $80 for a half marathon with 350 people in it, or $80 for a half marathon with 3,500 people in it…you get the picture. Most people are picking the larger event. And that’s OK!

It just means that the likely hole in the market is going to be the purely grassroots event — not much more than a safe course and a bib, and keep costs to an absolute bare minimum. That’s just not an event we’re interested in producing.

Race Directing This Race Doesn’t Fit Our Lives

Kelly and I work a lot. Our estimate is that she worked somewhere north of 3,500 hours last year at her “day” job, spent nearly 100 nights in various Marriott properties, and went from zero to near Platinum status on Delta. Then there’s my mishmash of projects, including but not limited to my Slowtwitch hat. We’ve got a very, very busy seven year old who needs frequent shuttling from skiing or swimming or, as I write this, about to go from circus back home after a full day at school.

Race directing takes its toll, too. Quarter Marathon was always supposed to retire when we moved from Connecticut to New Hampshire in 2018. And, uh…well, we just kept doing it. That was because we loved putting on this race, and it’s also in part because that’s just what we do. But when we looked at our schedules, we realized that Quarter fell in the wrong time of year for us — lots of planning when at least one of us are at the mountain with Ivy every single weekend and holiday break for her ski race team, last minute baking while both of us on deadline for work projects, and still needing to also plan for the youth triathlon that we produce closer to home in June. (Which reminds me, there’s stuff to do there, too.)

The sum of it meant something needed to give. As we put it in our emails to runners pre-race, Quarter Marathon’s all grown up. Time for it to go off to college, and explore new things.

But, to borrow from our old race shirt, you really should have tried other distances. At least, while you still could.

All Photos: Kelly Burns Gallagher

The post Saying Goodbye to a Race first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

I’m going to get what seems to be an obvious statement out of the way up front: if anybody tells you that race production is a good, easy way to raise funds for a charitable partner, immediately laugh in their face.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way — 2023 marks my fifteenth year producing running and triathlon races. I’ve transitioned out of producing events as either part of my day job or as my day job. For the last eight years, my wife and I have co-produced a variety of running races in Connecticut, and for the last two years a youth triathlon here in New Hampshire. We just got through producing our first event of the year — the Greater Hartford Quarter Marathon — and wanted to share some of the experiences and lessons we learned that might help both race directors and athletes.

The Comedy of Pre-Race Errors

Whether you produce races full-time or as a volunteer, life will always manage to find a way to throw you a curveball. This year, we managed to have a comedy of errors come up at us that made our normal operations far more difficult.

First was our own time. Kelly is an attorney who is in the midst of negotiating multiple labor contracts while also arbitrating multiple cases. I, in addition to Slowtwitch and our adjacent Media House projects, also work in digital communications and technology. Between work and our daughter’s very active schedule, we found it more difficult than ever to find the hours for pre-race items (from opening registration to ordering key supplies and to our post-race food preparation, and more on that last one in a moment).

Second was me breaking my wrist. Race production is hell on your body when you are healthy and in reasonable shape; I’ve frequently said that it’s easier to race an IRONMAN than it is to work one. The race coming five weeks after putting a die-hole punch in the middle of my right radius was less than ideal timing. Simple tasks like bringing the medals and shirts into the house from our UPS deliveries turned into far more complicated jobs — and made for a hell of a mess in our house.

And then race week threw in one final laugh-so-you-don’t cry moment. In order to help drive cost down and make a larger donation to our partner charities, we traditionally will make the majority of post-race snacks: cookies, Rice Krispie Treats, brownies, etc. This also means a lot of dishes. We’d gotten through one big batch run the Monday before the race and ran the dishwasher that night. The next morning, Kelly ride leads on Zwift, so we went downstairs to pair the computer to find a lot of water near our race supplies. Yep, the dishwasher had sprung a major water leak.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Be Prepared For Attitude

It is an unfortunate reality that, as a race director, you will never be able to please everyone. And it’s also unfortunate that, in my opinion, coming out of the pandemic that we, collectively, have forgotten a little bit on how to be polite in public. This is true across the board — I’ve seen it in every facet of my life — and it is also true with both race producers and athletes alike. Ultimately, I’d implore everyone to take a lesson from the 2018 Triathlon Business International Conference: don’t be a dick.

An example from this weekend where that paid off for all parties. We cut off our race registration on Thursday so that we can print off bib lists and have things finalized before we drive down from New Hampshire. We had an athlete reach out Friday morning to ask about registering for the race. This person’s email was courteous and understanding of why we would do things as a race director. Ultimately we made the decision to allow a registration exception and got this athlete into the field by directing them to just make a direct donation to our partner charity. In a sea of emails where tone is negative, being the positive one made a massive difference.

That being said, though, pushback will come from everywhere — suppliers, permit providers, police, athletes, and more. Just be prepared to fight through with a smile as best you can.

Weather: The Great Normalizer

Producing a running event in early April in New England is not for the faint of heart. Over the prior years of the event, we’ve had everything from 25 degrees and lightly snowing to a sunny 70 degrees and literally anything and everything in between.

But the thing bad weather does do for you, that’s positive, is that it brings out a lot of gratitude. People are more inclined to say “thank you” and “we appreciate it” when weather is more challenging. It’s now three days post-event and I do not have a single negative email about the race experience yet. It’s the first time that’s happened since we had another bad weather day. So yes, conditions can be a force for good.

Last Tidbits

Runners are registering later than ever. More than a third of our race registrations came in the final month. For context, this is a race that used to sell out six to eight weeks in advance. And even with a more aggressive pricing structure in order to charge a premium for late registration (and drive people to register earlier), people still held out as long as they could to make a decision on entering.

Race Directors: Order enough port-o-johns! We ordered six port-o-johns for the race, in addition to the three that are normally at the race site. It worked out that we had approximately one port-o-john for every 30 or so athletes. Coincidentally, this is also the first time in years that this race started at its published starting time — usually because we’re holding for the port-o-john line being too long. This isn’t the place to save on. Factor it into your pricing scheme and order as many as you can fit.

It’s possible to be both a race and an event. Our race attracts both a very fast front of the field with a robust back-of-the-pack party. The key is offering an awesome experience for everybody. Despite difficult weather, the men’s winner set a brand new course record and won our race prime check, as did the men’s masters champion and the women’s overall winner. We wrote a fair number of winning checks. We have lots of awards for lots of categories, including non-binary and five year age groups. But we also make sure that there’s plentiful post-race food and course support for athletes who might be taking 1:30+ for 6.55 miles. That distance matters just as much to them as it does to the folks at the front of the race. Be there for them. Celebrate them. But also don’t assume that it’s their first event, either.

You can still do this and be profitable. It took a lot of effort. In summary, though, we wound up being about $3,500 in the black on the race. That check to our charity of choice will wind up in the mail later this week. It’s getting harder — I wouldn’t want to run the numbers on hours we spent on this and imagine if we ran this as a company — but we still wound up being able to make a sizable donation, bringing us well over $100,000 in giving that these races have contributed since 2013.

Now my list of items starts for our fall half marathon — namely, figuring out which set of forms our DOT friends in Connecticut will want this year for a road use permit.

The post Lessons From Race Directing in 2023 first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Yes, it may only be February. However, your friendly neighborhood race directors are hard at work behind the scenes, booking necessary expenditures and projecting pricing models so as to make their events at least a break-even enterprise. And that means we can take a relatively deep-dive behind the scenes to project out race pricing for the remainder of the year, and as pricing starts for 2024 events.

As we discussed in our piece last year on this topic, quite literally everything wound up rapidly increasing in price over a six month period, resulting in 10-15% price increases year-over-year for 2023 events. Thankfully, race producers should be able to see relatively flat costs for this year, meaning that races shouldn’t be seeing the same kinds of price increases again.

Let’s break down those numbers into separate categories.

The Absolute Necessities

When we’re talking about race necessities, we’re often talking about five Ps: permits, police, port-o-potties, payroll, and production.

With regard to the first two items, you are at the behest of host municipalities. And for the last decade or so, costs have been continually rising — even through the COVID pandemic. It seemed like no matter where you turned, there was some increase in costs. In one year, the application fee might increase; in another, the hourly rate for police went up, or there were new mandatory minimum time payments.

Early indications from this year are showing these costs to be holding flat to 2022. Note that for many large race production companies, like IRONMAN, hold three to five year agreements with their host communities which gives a more stable cost forecast. In turn, that pricing predictability is passed onto the consumer as holding prices where they were in 2022 despite general inflationary pressures.

Port-o-potties, meanwhile, can make or break a race. Too few and you have angry athletes and delayed starts (which can easily wind up eating into your precious permitting time). Too many and you can bust a budget, given the current average cost of a rental hovering near $200 per port-o-john. However, that number is another one that has stayed consistent from 2022 to 2023. Both race directors and athletes can rejoice.

The last two items — payroll and production — go together. This bucket includes any employees of yours or of the additional essential race service: timing. For my wife and I, as fully volunteer race directors, our payroll cost really shows up with what our respective timing companies need to cover their own operational expenses and to be able to pay their employees. Those expenses include obvious things like bibs and timing chips and less obvious ones like fuel and hotel rooms. This, too, is flattening, after two straight years of increases.

This bucket also includes that bug bear of insurance. Policy pricing appears to be holding steady through sanctioning bodies; your mileage may vary if your race producer is insuring outside of that umbrella.

Aid Stations and Food

This is probably the one area that still has the most pricing volatility. Luckily for most racers, because this is an expense budgeted far in advance, it is also the least likely item that will have a direct impact on race cost. (It certainly has an impact on race profitability, but that’s another story for another time.) For example, we order race nutrition about three months before race day, and will dial in post-race food within a few weeks of race day.

The Other Stuff

Slowtwitchers, when asked, will refer to the above list as everything they need for a race. “Make it cheaper! Make swag optional!”

I hear you. Just, hear the other side of this for a moment. Many athletes talk significantly about how a shirt or a medal is important to them or was a determining factor as to their racing experience. Charging a fee for those items on top of the base race cost has brought many a race director heartburn for being accused of a bait and switch. And it simply doesn’t make for much of a bottom-line difference for a race director. Frequently, it is more expensive to order 400 of something than it is to order 500 of them, simply based on where pricing breaks exist. The economies of scale dictate that you’re better off ordering for everyone than trying to manage orders based on who paid what during the registration flow.

Looking at the cost of swag for a moment, the price of medals has stayed constant over the last couple of years. This is in part due to some manufacturers, like Ashworth Awards, deciding to create a “Made in America” product line-up that reduces shipping lead time and cost. Although the medals may not be as intricately molded as options from overseas, they have been well received by athletes and race directors alike. As for shirts, we’re seeing more pricing stability for both cotton and synthetic tees, as well as for printing cost.

In Summary

The worst of the pricing increases appears to be over. Barring any specific global economic event or significant change in service from a race (e.g., a luxury travel option), that should translate in similar race prices for the rest of the year and into next.

The post Race Pricing Trends for 2023/2024 first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

We had a nice local race for a decade or more that fizzled out a couple of years ago, which meant the racing community was without a local anchor triathlon. This is not an unfamiliar story. Triathlon has had a rough past few years at the grassroots level.

Something that always puzzled me is that those at the pointy end only like the pointy end. At some point the pointy end has nowhere to go. Successful, fun, inexpensive and supportive local races are good for all of us, and if done right can be contagious in a community.

A few of us discussed the idea of starting a new local race. Our conversation coincided with the two-year anniversary of the death of a loved local triathlete and one of my best buds, Richard Smiley. The bell went off in my head, and we decided on the Smiley Sprint Triathlon. Sort of a double entendre.

Our imperatives: Provide a memorable experience for the athletes (world class or newbie); and welcome beginners. Focus on the athlete experience. Laudable as other goals are, our primary goal wasn’t raising money, nor was it about the spectators. We felt a true, first-class race has to be about the athletes, and then the other stuff will come.

The first order of business was to hire the best race timing and logistics company in the area. We worked closely with them on picking the venue, course, and date. They handled some of the details of timing, permitting, sanctioning, and provided their expertise in planning and in day-of execution. Jones Racing Company was awesome. We also followed Slowtwitch recommendations, posted to the Reader Forum, and got advice.

We asked local athletes what they wanted. Most common response we got? Good food and good beer. With that clear directive, we contacted the high-end restaurant next to Richard Smiley‘s former gym, where he was a personal trainer, and they immediately signed on to cater food. The restaurant hooked us up with a local craft brewery and we had excellent beer.

Next we turned to the athlete perks that you only get at marquee events. We personalized race numbers with the athlete’s name. This is really cool for newbies and inexperienced athletes who have never had the BIG race experience. We also personalized swim caps, and made sure that all of our first-time competitors had a unique welcome.

We gave all first-timers a rainbow wristband (made to support a local children’s hospital) so we could identify newbies the day of the race. Then we had a team of 18 Ironman veterans/elite athletes on our Concierge Team. They were our welcomers, and helped any newbie who needed anything.

I saw them help organize transition areas, put race numbers on bikes, make sure tire pressure was good, and give advice on pacing yourself through the race. Any question the newbies had, the Concierge Team was on it! These wristbands also helped me identify the first-timers at the finish line, so that I could give them a very warm welcome over the sound system. I believe – and they told me so! – most newbies will come back to compete and will bring a friend with them.

We also made sure our athletes did not feel alone on the course. In addition to our orange-shirted volunteers lining the roads, we also had two motorcyclist friends guide the leaders onto the looped bike course, and then kept circling for all of the athletes. A local bike shop provided rolling tech support. We had local boys and girls high school cross country teams volunteering and providing encouragement on the run course. We recruited the cheerleaders from the local high school to literally cheer the runners up the longest hill on the run.

I had the bright idea of having live music at the finish line, something I have not seen in any of my 194 Triathlon finishes, which included 28 Ironman events. As a consequence of this ambition of mine I found out that music is expensive! However, my little brother from Big Brother/Little Brothers (we have the longest running continuous relationship in the history of the organization at 37 years) is a piano player and singer at his church. I asked him if he could put a group together, and he did, and they did a wonderful job! Their long format version of “Don’t Stop Believin” made everybody feel like Journey actually playing.

To enhance the music and overall vibe of the finish line and race venue, I called up an old favor from a soundman with 20,000 Watts of power and told him I was not sure if I would ever be able to pay him. He just said tell me where to be and when.

I saw a friend of mine who owns a tree service drive his bucket truck past my office window. Could I get him to hang a huge American flag over the pool off a bucket truck, and take the other truck to hang a large welcome banner over the transition area and finish line? Of course the answer was yes and the results were memorable.

To be honest, I personally had many sleepless nights with visions of 25 people at the start line. And looking at the forecast for the weekend, I became more and more concerned. The morning of the race there were torrential downpours. The sound man and I were the first ones on site in the mud and rain. I went to the Porta Potty, sat down, and cried in fear that no one would show up.

Three hours later, the race was about to start and I cried again in disbelief at the number of athletes, and hundreds of family, friends, volunteers, and community supporters who showed up. Despite the monsoon conditions, nobody I was depending on no-showed us. The skies cleared and we did not have a drop of rain until the sky opened up again just as we were concluding the award ceremonies.

I cried many more times with happy tears as I hugged each and every athlete (some spectators too!) with a finish line reception.

As I said, we haven’t had a triathlon in our area in several years. The last one, with a 10 year history (and a good race) had 176 participants. We were told we’d be lucky to get 170, and that 200 would be a home run. We ended up with about 270, and many first timers. The weekend weather served us lemons and we took it as an opportunity to make the best lemonade ever!! Our team had to reroute the run course, redesign the stage area, expo area, finish line, etc. all in the 48 hours before the race. They did an outstanding job! I believe all in attendance had a great day.

Even our experienced racers – we had a USAT National Champion racing – said it might be the best race they have ever done. Live music, real (good) catered food, craft beer, free massage. It was a pool swim with a time-trial start. I went first (with an old man buffer) and when I got to the finish I stayed, announced, and hugged every single person when they crossed the line – large, small, young, old, the great big shirtless dude with a beard – every single one of them.

Interestingly, pool swim races tend to have a long tail. That is, the winner was done two and half hours before the awards ceremony started. Usually a lot of folks leave and the award ceremonies only have (some of) the award winners remaining. The vibe was so good that the place was still packed with athletes, family, and friends.

My takeaway from the experience: I think the biggest ingredient is passion, and zero profit motive. Passion can’t be faked.

[Editor's notes: Here's a link to the event. They already have next year's date advertised. All PHOTOS are courtesy Robert Hill Photography.]

The post Hug Them All! first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

This kind of event isn’t supposed to be a hit at the box office. Pool triathlons aren’t what the cool people do, right? For that matter, triathlon as a popular activity is on the decline, so I hear. How come there were lines around the block to enter this thing?

Triathlons are like Western movies (two things for which I have a great affinity). Consider the history of Westerns. Westerns had their moment, in the teens and 1920s, but began to wane and were considered passé by the last 30s. Their time had passed, until the great move year of 1939 when they stormed back with Union Pacific, Dodge City and, of course, Stagecoach.

So much for the death of an experience that speaks to universal themes! Westerns celebrate the benefit of hard, honest work; prevailing over adversity; discovering the hero inside you; enjoying the camaraderie of those of a like mind. Sound familiar?

Behind the camera of this event is Delmo Sports. Stephen Del Monte is our John Ford, and this production hit the big screen only 6 months after it began, in his brain, as a thought experiment.

A well-made Western will put a smile on your face. Well, on my face. I can recognize an expertly-produced triathlon because, when I get the photos of the race, all the competitors are like these pictured here: smiles as shiny as a new set of spurs.

Triathlon’s popularity waned in the 1990s, only to come storming back. Just like the Western. After the Western’s second run its popularity was largely exhausted. By the mid-60s the Western was considered passé. Only to see its popularity return in the mid 70s and 80s, with Clint Eastwood’s Westerns and one of my favorites: Silverado.

Triathlon’s obituary keeps getting written too, just like the Western. And then in gallops a race like this one, which just goes to show you: Universal themes and archetypes resonate with any audience, generation, genre or nationality (Magnificent 7 was a remake of The Seven Samurai).

Of course you need a gang. A posse. Here’s the Mullica Hill Triathlon Club, an all-women’s tri club in Northern New Jersey and whether in Triathlon or Westerns (The Over the Hill Gang) it helps if there’s a Hill in there somewhere.

Cowboys and cowgirls start not knowing which end of the horse the hay goes in. The thing about the Mullica Hill gang, they love newbies. Everyone who joins the Mullica Hill Tri Club is assigned a mentor. (There's a big lesson here!) This is one reason why that club has grown so fast and is so successful.

A lot of people gave Stephen grief over the idea of a pool swim, with the swim first, and 1,500 people in it. "Imagine a rodeo, or a stampede!" they said. But it's gone off like a well-oiled prairie schooner both years. Delmo Sports is now the instant expert in this format.

Clint Eastwood revived the Western a second time, with Unforgiven, and there’s been a pretty steady stream of successful and well-made Westerns since. Hollywood has finally stopped trying to put a fork in the thing, and at some point folks will stop eulogizing Triathlon.

It’s hard to throw a lasso around what makes a Triathlon successful, that I’ll admit. I think it’s just like running a cattle ranch. Saddles are involved. Always best not to get bucked off your steed. If the bikes are placed in transition the day before, somebody’s got to keep watch on the herd. Maybe we need a singing cowboy to keep the bikes happy all night long.

For consumer, race organizers and everyone else with a stake in triathlon race organizer, this is what success looks like. In a couple of days I’m going to write about another race, where a Slowtwitcher not in this business, with his own business to run, decided to take matters into his own hands, put on his own race, and we'll consider whether that race was also a success.

Yippy I O Ki Ay.

The post Images from the Philly Women’s Tri first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

This is not an exhaustive list of costs, but it'll give you an idea of what you're up against for starters. It's also a nice exercise for those of you who think $80 is too much to charge for a sprint. Yes, it's a lot to spend, but if you think sprints ought to cost $35 or $40, well, have at it cowboy — put on your own race and show us all how it's done!

Per Person: You're going to get hit right out the gate with $15 to $20 per person just on T-shirts – if you offer these – swim caps and online registration costs. Don't think it's just the cost of the T-shirts you give to each person you have to incur. It's the cost of the T-shirts you buy, and you always buy more than you need by a considerable margin (because you don't know how many registrants you'll eventually get, and you don't know for sure what the size breakdown will be). So your $5 T-shirt isn't really costing you that price, but probably more like $8.

* T-shirts
* Online registration
* Swim caps

City costs: This is the great unknown. The hard thing about dealing with cities is that these costs are generally very hard to nail down, pre-race. You can scream and whine all you want, but invariably you'll get a bill that is quite a bit higher than anything you expected to get. And it’s getting worse!

I'll give you an example from a bike race I put on about two decades ago. I got a public works bill that included an extra $4000. Why? Because they had to fill the potholes on the course. Didn't they have a responsibility to fill them anyway? Sure. But this was a convenient excuse to get someone else to pay for it. After this experience, I now know to slip into a side-letter somewhere a mention that I'll expect not to bear any costs associated with making the course roadworthy.

Obviously, you have to know what your costs are going to be. You've got to try to nail the city down on this. If you've got a big race, and the city wants you, and you get a "grant" against city services, don't fall for this ploy without scrutinizing it. They'll "grant" you $5000 and charge you $20,000, netting you a debit of $15,000. I just don't like this. Better to just settle on a price, and make the city's departments each come up with a cost. You can then work with them to abate or mitigate these costs by using volunteer personnel instead of paid police, etc. When I go to a city to put on a race, almost the first thing I say on the first meeting is, "If you see me as an opportunity to help your cops pad their overtime, just tell me now so I don't waste anyone's time."

* Permits
* Police
* Public works

Can I just note a couple of things on this. First, I say, right up front, that if you see me as that guy to whom you can charge police overtime-pay, and so forth, that is to say, if you think I’m the guy who’ll help you shore up the things the community doesn’t have budget for, tell me know. I’m not that guy. Let’s stop before we start.

Second, this is one reason I’m high on gravel! The less you need police, traffic control, public works, the lower the costs.

Site Construction costs: In my nomenclature there is the "site" or the "venue" and by that I mean the swim start, the race finish, the transition area, the expo area, tents, barricades, scaffolding, flags and so forth.

Scaffolding, fencing, barricades, and all that stuff can cost an awful lot of money. "Why do I need scaffolding?" you might ask. Where is your announcer going to announce from? And from which vantage point will he be perched so that he can see the race he's calling?

Then there is the sound system he'll need so that he can be heard. Sometimes your announcer will bring his own sound system. Sometimes the scaffolding guy also does the sound system. Either way, you've got to plan for this. You can't assume anything. You must account for everything. Otherwise you'll have scaffolding, an announcer, and no sound system.

Is your race headquarters close to electricity? If not, you need a generator. Maybe more than one. And lots of extension cords. Thick ones, if you need to pull a lot of amps (like for a portable air conditioner or an air compressor). Speaking of the latter, don't overdo it. If you need to fill swim buoys, you don't need a lot of pressure, such as a compressor would give you. You need a lot of cubic feet per minute, such as a hair dryer would give you. You don't need a 200-pound compressor that costs $300. You need a hand-held inflator that looks just like a hair dryer that costs $50. After you've put on a few races you'll identify all the overkill that’s been killing you. You don't necessarily need huge swim buoys, for example. It might be cheaper to borrow small buoys and, if they have a ring attached to the top, anchor an arch of helium-filled balloons to each turn buoy, plus the finish line. It's a nice look, and people provide these arches relatively inexpensively.

What else to you need for your site? Port-a-johns, tables, chairs, pop-up tents, everything that makes a site a site. If you're going to be putting on a race, go to a few races you admire, with a pad and pencil, and list everything you see that you think you might want at your race. List everything. Don't take all that fencing for the transition area, to keep the bikes secure and the spectators out, for granted. Amazing what that fencing costs to rent.

There are plenty of companies under the heading of "party rentals" that rent much of this sort of stuff to you. Write all this stuff down and give your list to a couple of these companies. See how much of it they'll provide, and for how much.

There are almost certainly people who own bike racks in your area and who'll rent both the racks and the assembly and disassembly of them. Almost everybody in the RD biz makes their own racks with the assumption that they will have to rent them out. Don't make your racks until you check out the price of renting someone else's. One word of advice: get more racks than you think you need. One of my pet peeves as a racer is a transition area that doesn't leave enough room to rack all the bikes.

Also, realize that for all these categories of things you need, you need volunteers to erect and put away the hardware. This is your "construction crew." When you rent scaffolding and pop-up tents, you just rent the stuff itself, not the assembly of it.

* Scaffolding
* Fencing
* Sound system
* Port-a-johns
* Bike Racks

Course costs: I differentiate between "site" or "venue" on the one hand, and then the costs of the "course" on the other. The "course" is your triathlon route after it leaves and before it returns to your "site." You'll be unpleasantly surprised when you see how much traffic cones and barricades cost to rent. I always try to get the city to come up with as much of this as possible as a throw-in — they have a bunch of this stuff, as does the county and state highway construction organizations. Ask them all if they'll loan you their cones, barricades, etc. All they can say is no. And don't forget the vehicles you'll need in order to place and retrieve all these items. If you're coning a lane of a bike course, you can't place all your cones with just a pick-up truck.

Yes, I have chairs and pop-up tents listed below. Didn't I cover these items above? Yes, for the "site," but not for the course. Remember your aid stations.

* Cones
* Barricades
* Signs
* Swim buoys
* Aid stations
* Cups
* Tables
* Chairs
* Pop-up tents
* Fluid replacement
* Coolers/trash cans
* Ice
* Aid station food
* Vehicles

Race specific costs: Perhaps you don't need everything listed below. But you'll need a lot of it. Realize that on-site registration and timing is not the same as online registration. You need to hand that online data over to a company that will time your race, and they'll also be handling your late registration (with the help of the volunteers you provide).

You might find the idea of "volunteer costs" oxymoronic. How can a volunteer cost? While it's true that the volunteer doesn't charge, the organization to which he's attached does charge. Often it's your charity and, really, you need to be strategic when picking your charity. If it can't deliver a lot of volunteers, then you might think about another charity. The point is, nobody works for free. Even volunteers.

* Timing
* On-site registration
* Announcing
* Supplemental Insurance
* Volunteer costs?
* Volunteer T-shirts
* Post-race food
* Race awards

Advertising costs: I'm not just speaking of the ads that are geared toward getting the athletes to register for your race, although that's part of it. Do you have sponsors? Do they have banners? Are they expecting you to advertise their name for them at your race? Are they named on your finish banner? If so, then you've got to make a finish banner. Whatever signage you promise, you must execute. I can't remember a race in which I didn't incur costs of this sort.

* Banners
* Start/finish
* Posters
* Ads
* Website
* Prize money/pro appearance?

The other stuff: Then there's the stuff neither you nor I could even contemplate. Once I put on a race at which a bunch of cars that were on the race course ended up getting towed. Yes, we mailed notices saying when the course must be free of cars, and we put up signs, and all that. But these were people who came in the night before the race — people who rented vacation houses, or who only visited their vacation homes occasionally. They didn't feel like they ought to have been towed. The city certainly wasn't going to come up with the cash to pay the towing companies. So we did. The next year we rented the use of a tow truck for the morning and, with the help of the city, designated an empty lot that would be only a couple of blocks from anyone's home whose car was towed. Okay, it cost us a few hundred bucks for the rental of the tow truck and driver, but it was thousands cheaper than what we had to pay the year before.

You never know what's going to happen. Best to budget a slush fund for Acts of God and man.

I haven't yet written about the revenue side of your budget. Frankly, I don't feel that need for that. It's easy for prospective RDs to figure out where they think the money is coming from — race registration, sponsors, expo booth sales — but it's a lot harder to properly account for all the expenses. My best advice to you on the revenue side it, count on half the entries than your most conservative guess would total. In other words, if you're reasonably sure you'll get 700 in your first year, but you'll certainly at least get 500, budget for 250.

You might find it unfathomable that all those costs above could be covered, revenue-neutral, at a race with 250 people. But, that might be $25,000 in revenue, and a lot of your costs might be offset by volunteers, or in-kind donations. You might decide you don’t need T shirts. A local somebody might make the awards. The police or Highway Patrol might have volunteer traffic operators (they do in our area). Maybe you don’t need scaffolding. Maybe your race occurs in a park with a lot of public toilets, and you don’t need to rent Port-o-johns. The list above is to apprise you of the stuff you may need; you can determine how much of it you do need.

The Series:

• How to Be a Race Director
• Picking a Course
• Pacify the Locals
• Getting That Special Event Permit
• Assembling Your Race Committee
• Your Race Budget
• Traffic Plan
• Getting Volunteers
• Getting Sponsors
• Attracting Media
• Filling Your Race
• Aid Stations

The post Your Race Budget first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

The most important task for you to do is build your committee, for three reasons. First, you don't want to do all the work yourself. Second, if you tried to do it all yourself, or with just a few people, you'd fail miserably and be (rightly) castigated by your customers. And third, if you do build a strong team, your event in subsequent years will be much easier to produce, and you can add further events to the schedule.

Where do you get these people? It would be good if you were knitted into a local triathlon infrastructure. Obviously a tri club is ideal, but also clubs or groups that make up the constituent sports, such as a master's swim team, are options. But you'd do yourself a favor if you hunted around for that first and most important person, the Volunteer Coordinator.

Volunteer Coordinator: This is the cornerstone of your organization. It is no coincidence that the late, wonderful Sharron Ackles —among the most successful RDs in the Hawaiian Ironman's history — started as that event's volunteer coordinator. If you can find the right person to do this job, you're already halfway to the goal. Who is the successful candidate?

She's got to be shrewd, well-spoken, gregarious, likeable, and maybe the smartest person in your organization. She has to be able to ask people to wake up at oh-dark-thirty and sweat all day long for a t-shirt, some yogurt, and half a banana. She's got to be a tireless worker. And no, she doesn't have to be a she, it’s just uncanny how often a man does this job with less skill and success than does a woman.

I like this as your first choice, because she's going to be able to help you fill out the rest of your team. You're going need her, because you aren't going to be able to pay anyone on your team, at least not until you can prove to yourself that this race can afford it, and you need someone who can help you make that case.

Information Technology Coordinator: You need a good race web site, and someone has to build it. You'll probably be using online registration, and this person will be the liaison between you and your online registration engine. This person will need to be able to format your results into a usable file for USAT (assuming you sanction), as your customers will want to have your race included in USAT's national rankings. Or perhaps the timing company you contract with will do that, but you need someone on your team that speaks that "language," and can make sure that stuff is going to get done. This person may well be your social media manager.

Transition Area Coordinator: You'll need someone to coordinate the construction of your bike racks, cones, chalk marks, barricades. This person will plan and execute the traffic flow into and out of your transition area. This can make or break you, and when you get your key course staff — swim, bike and run coordinators — together for your regular meetings, this person must be involved.

Site Manager: There are two elements to your main race site. Yes, there's the transition area, but there is also what we used to call, "The Look." Do you want your race to look good? To look professional? What will your finish line look like? And your swim start? Where will your announcers sit? Do you have sponsors, and if so, where will their banners and signage be? Where will you do awards? Will you have a podium for finishers?

Your "site" guy also controls your construction crew. If you're building anything, like a dais, or if your scaffolding contractor needs help, or your P.A. guys needs help, your Site Manager will have found out what the needs are beforehand and arranged with the volunteer coordinator for the appropriately trained volunteers.

Clean-up Coordinator: Here's the dirty truth. If you don't arrange for a clean-up crew, you are the clean-up crew. I've discovered this on a couple of occasions.

Registration Coordinator: This person liaises with your registration company, that is, you've got to somehow get from online registration to actual bags that people can pick up with their race numbers. This person takes care of day-before registration, the waiver, waiver explanation, body marking, bag stuffing, accumulating other stuff that goes in the bags, getting bags, and all that. This is a big job, and requires a lot of coordination. You'll find that out the first time you've got to get all the numbers and goodies into 700 bags.

Aid Station Coordinator: This person makes sure everything that makes an aid station an aid station is what it's supposed to be, including the volunteers to man it. You can't imagine how often this gets messed up. Well, being triathletes, maybe you can. The biggest problems? Not enough water, not enough ice, fluid replacement doesn't show up, volunteers don't show up, and biggest of all: nobody's figured out in advance how to get the volunteers to their respective stations. Well, actually, no. The biggest problem is getting volunteers not to yell "Gatorade!" to passing runners when it's actually Infinit in the cup.

Swim Course Coordinator: This person will liaise with lifeguards, arrange to obtain the swim buoys, and to set the buoys, arrange for kayaks, paddleboards, balloons, start/finish banners, and so forth. Bad things can happen in the water. This person needs to know what he or she is doing, and more often than not this is a lifeguard, ideally a lifeguard employed by the jurisdiction in charge of guarding the body of water in which you're swimming.

Bike Course Coordinator: If someone is going get hurt badly at your race, it's more likely to be on the bike than anywhere else. Best, then, to pay special attention this element of your race. What corners need marshalling? Where ought cones to be? Is the course wide enough? Ought a lane be blocked? Where ought signs be alerting drivers that there are cyclists on the course? Who will make these signs, and place them? Who will pick them up when it's all over? Are routes to churches being blocked? Are there any unsafe corners or descents? Do the corners need to be swept? Who obtains the brooms? Who will sweep the corners? Is the course marked? Who will make sure the highway patrolmen are where they're supposed to be? Is there a media vehicle, or does the media need transport on the course? Are there course officials? Who will arrange for their transport on motorcycles?

I've listed about half of what a bike course coordinator does. This person is extremely important, because your customers will be going 20 to 40 miles per hour suspended a couple of feet off the ground by two very skinny patches of rubber, in close proximity to two-ton metal objects going twice that speed driven by absolute morons who'd have been swept from the planet long ago were it not for the artificial suspension of the rules of natural selection.

Run Course Coordinator: Sets and measures the course, figures out where aid stations go, works out your traffic plan for the run, marks the course, figures out road or lane closures, and what sort of resident notification ought to go out pre-race.

VIP Coordinator: You've got VIPs. Most notably and importantly, the people who are allowing you to put on this race: city council, mayor, all the department heads, and so forth. Then there are the sponsors. This is also where media is headquartered. Finally, there are certain invited athletes, perhaps their managers and also, in my view, prospective sponsors (things change, including your sponsors). You need a special tent or tents for all these people and a person, with a staff, to make sure these people have everything they need to feel comfortable. They need special food and drink, they need to get printed results in a hurry. They need badges. They need someone who'll get them directions to the course, badges and vehicle passes, before the event. They need to see a show, and they need someone who can help them see it.

Risk Manager: Simply put, you need an attorney. No problem. Many or most firms do pro-bono work. If I was an attorney and I needed to do a certain number of hours pro-bono, this is what I'd want to do. This ought to be a pretty easy person to get.

Why do you need a Risk Manager? Here are a few questions for you. Has your online registration engine got the right wording for the online waiver? Is the online waiver enough, or ought everyone to sign one in person? Can everyone read a waiver and just sign on one common page, or must each contestant sign an individual, personalized waiver page? Should the waiver's paragraphs be initialed, or is a signature at the bottom enough? How big should the type on the waiver be? Is there anything about this waiver that can render it subject to a pierce? How much insurance is appropriate? What are the insurance requirements of the sponsors, and the cities and jurisdictions you're passing through? Who needs to be named on the waiver? Which parties require certificates of insurance? Are you doing a pre-race bike and/or helmet check? Is the water safe? How do you know?

Do you feel qualified to answer those questions? If not, then get yourself a Risk Manager. This person ought to be familiar with the laws and recent decisions governing special events, and should also know something about insurance. Quite a few years ago USA Cycling went through the first half of the year covered by a policy written by a fraudulent party. America's governing body in charge of all sanctioned cycling races was essentially uninsured, and so were all its sanctioning race directors. You don't want that to happen. Your Risk Manager will take care of all this for you.

Adjacent you see an organizational chart, and the arrows represent those entities that are needed by other entities. For example, you'll see that almost everyone needs what the Volunteer Coordinator controls. Also, the Transition Coordinator is needed by the Swim, Bike and Run Coordinators, because he has to take their athletes from one event and in a streamlined fashion get them to their next event. The V.I.P. Coordinator needs the I.T. Coordinator to get results to the media and sponsors as quickly as possible in whatever format is appropriate (wouldn't it be nice to hand every sponsor, city father, and media a thumb drive just after the race with results and photos?).

Therefore, there are certain smaller committees who'll be comprised of various coordinators above, and they'll need to meet on a regular basis. For example, there ought to be a Traffic Committee comprised of you (if it's your race), the RD (if you're not the RD), and the Swim, Bike, Run and Transition Coordinators. These need to be specific meetings where the needs are shared. For example, everyone who needs volunteers needs to meet at a volunteer meeting, and then this group needs to meet a couple of more times to make sure volunteers are being acquired at an appropriate pace (and for the Volunteer Coordinator to be apprised if certain volunteers have been successfully recruited by the an individual coordinator, freeing up volunteers for other purposes).

Your race is going to require a lot of stuff. The Registration Coordinator needs race bags into which things will be stuffed (and the stuff to stuff them with), swim caps, chip straps, and black markers for body marking. The Aid Station Coordinator needs tables, pop-up tents, water bottles, cups, fluid replacement, large coolers or trash cans for mixing, trash bags for discarded cups and gels, and so on. Have each of your coordinators make a list of what they'll need, and don't rely entirely on that list. Go over that list in group meetings, so that everyone else can think of what might've been forgotten.

Don't wear out your staff with meetings, but figure out in advance just what meetings you do need, schedule them, and have specific reasons for those meetings.

The above is a bare-bones explanation of what sort of a staff I would require to put on a race. But that's just your staff. You'll also have contracted personnel, people you'll probably have to pay:

• Online registration
• P.A. system: this is separate from the announcer, this is what the announcer announces into.
• Announcer
• Scaffolding
• Bike racks, cones, etc.: You'll probably not own these, but rent them, or rent them along with the person who'll erect and take down all this stuff for you.
• Signage: You're going to need a signage guy. You'll need banners for your sponsors who don't have their own banners, you'll need maps of the course — both smaller printed maps and maps on big boards for people to look on at the race site. You'll need a start/finish banner, or separate ones for the swim start and race finish, and placards for the course such as "Caution Cyclists Ahead". Will you need to mail pre-race post cards to residents and businesses alerting them to course closures or inconveniences? Will you need laminated badges? Vehicle and parking passes? You see what I mean.

Then there's all the other stuff you've got to rent or buy:

• Portable toilets
• T-shirts
• Awards
• Swim caps
• Race numbers
• Aid station supplies
• And on and on… (we'll get to that)

Perhaps you can see why triathlons tend to cost a lot more than 10K races cost. "Wow, can you believe $125 and all I got was a t-shirt?" Sometimes some races aren't a good value, but the races I used to put on had all the stuff mentioned above and more, and I got a bit of flack for charging $65. Maybe my races didn't need all that stuff above. But I never had a serious injury or death at any of my races — knock on wood — and everyone got what was promised. I wouldn't put a race on with less than the staff and amenities above. Fortunately, people like to be a part of something fun and challenging like a triathlon. With a little work you can build a team of key coordinators, and you won't have to pay them money (unless your race gets very big, but by then you can afford to pay them).

One last thing. I didn't include a Marketing Coordinator in my list above. Your race will not be a success unless you hit the pavement and do a lot of grass roots marketing. I'll write about that next. Presumably someone on the flow chart above also takes care of that chore, but if not, draw another circle and add this person.

The Series:

• How to Be a Race Director
• Picking a Course
• Pacify the Locals
• Getting That Special Event Permit
• Assembling Your Race Committee
• Your Race Budget
• Traffic Plan
• Getting Volunteers
• Getting Sponsors
• Attracting Media
• Filling Your Race
• Aid Stations

The post Assembling Your Race Committee first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

If a race is going to die before the starting gun ever gets fired, this is the burial ground filled with the most corpses. You've got to decide where to start the permitting process, and I generally prefer to start at the top, not where I'm told to start.

When I decided to resurrect the (now re-defunct) United States Triathlon Series in 1997 I chose to approach the city of Oceanside, California. This eventually became the scene of what is now the Oceanside 70.3.

But in 1997 Oceanside had not had a triathlon in years, and was considered a dead venue. But I thought it had promise. The problem was convincing both the city and adjacent Camp Pendleton Marine Base to play ball. I had a strategy.

I called the largest area newspaper and asked for the reporter who covered the local Oceanside city politics beat. I got the reporter on the phone and asked, "Who's the city council member with the most ambition, who is good at building a consensus, and who's got juice when it comes to getting things done?"

"Oh, that's easy," said the reporter. "That's Carol McCauley."

So I scheduled an appointment with Councilperson McCauley, and explained what I wanted to do. She said, "Come back Tuesday."

So I came back Tuesday, walked in, and there were the head of lifeguards, fire, city police, parks & rec, risk management, harbors & beaches, harbor police, special events, and public works.

"Tell these people what you told me," she said. So I did. Then she turned to all the department heads and said, "Is there any reason why we can't host this event?"

I didn't have to make a sale to anyone else. Yes, these people had the power to make my life difficult, so I had to be politically astute all along the way. But they all reported to the city council and the mayor.

My advice: Do not ask where you're supposed to go in order to get a special event permit application. Go straight to the top. I've put on a lot of races, and I don't believe I ever met the person at the window who takes special event permits.

Of course, it helps if you go in prepared. I started the process not only with the demographics of triathletes, and what I thought might represent a reasonable financial impact, but also unquantifiable elements, such as: "Solana Beach has a triathlon, so does La Jolla, Carlsbad, Pacific Beach. San Diego and Carlsbad have big marathons. Carlsbad has a huge 5000-meter road race. What does Oceanside have? Why can't Oceanside play? It's got better physical attributes than any of these cities. It and its citizens deserve their own first-class endurance event, don't they?"

Fast forward to today, Oceanside is the triathlon capital of San Diego. Carol McCauley had the vision to see that it could happen, and the willingness to stick her neck out. No special events functionary could make that call. You need a person with heft on your side. You need to find out who that person is, and make that one sale.

But what about Camp Pendleton? I didn't have to worry. Carol McCauley made the sale for me. I didn't rank on that marine base. But the camp's municipal neighbor to the south certainly did.

Perhaps the person you need to make the sale to isn't a council member or mayor. Perhaps it's a county supervisor. But here's a hint: Most county, state and federal agencies want to be good and helpful neighbors to their local towns and cities, and what you need is a local booster. If it's not someone in government, it's someone in business. Nowadays I go straight to the local tourism authority; the local Chamber of Commerce; or whatever group is in tight with business.

It helps to know the rules and regs. In California we have lakes and reservoirs that must, by statute, be used for recreation, because that sort of multiple use was part of their original charter, when funds to build these reservoirs were appropriated. Putting on a triathlon is not a bother to them. It is a welcome to them. They have staff whose sole job is to go out and find people to use their bodies of water. (Just, sometimes they need to be reminded of that statute, and to be shown how easy it is to be in compliance by doing business with you.)

Also, though, please make sure you know when a permit is required. I called before entering a race I saw on the calendar. I couldn't imagine the RD getting a permit for a particular stretch of state highway. I got him on the phone. "I'm requiring everyone to follow the rules of the road." He replied. "I still need a permit?" This was last year, in 2018! Needless to say, I didn't enter his race.

In some bodies of water you need 3 or 4 permits: From the owner of the water (often a water company); the entity that controls the area (city, county, National Forest); and the concessionaire (if any). This may all be very easy. I've gotten the okay from all these in a day.

But! The trick is not to start at the bottom, where traveling up does represent work for those who must sign off on permits. It's to start at the top, where a successful special event represents a feather in one's cap.

The Series:

• How to Be a Race Director
• Picking a Course
• Pacify the Locals
• Getting That Special Event Permit
• Assembling Your Race Committee
• Your Race Budget
• Traffic Plan
• Getting Volunteers
• Getting Sponsors
• Attracting Media
• Filling Your Race
• Aid Stations

The post Getting That Special Event Permit first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

The important thing is to pick a venue and a course that'll provide you a race that won't cost much to produce. That in turn will mean you can start small, and let your race have a chance to grow, and your abilities as an RD can grow with it.

I spent last weekend scouring Mexico for gravel bike triathlon courses. Mexico! My friend Jaime Cadaval is the great race production success in that country, and when I’m done I email him: Have you seen this lake! Look at this place!

Throughout California I see venues all around me in which there are no races. Has the accessibility of the venue been tested? When I hear that someone has "already checked out [this or that] body of water," and you can't put a triathlon on there, I rarely take that as a firm "no." I'd want to know to whom the presentation was made, and how strong was the sales job. Here’s a hint: The final reservoir before the water goes into the public supply is almost always off limits to human body contact; every reservoir upstream from that one is almost always available for swimming, regardless of what the water company that owns that water might tell you. I’ve won that battle numerous times.

Just because you can put a race on in a certain location does not, however, mean you should. I have two questions in my mind, beyond whether it’s fun and scenic, which are paramount: Will the course be safe? Will the race be cheap to produce? Usually, the two go hand-in-hand. "Safe" means very few intersections, extremely sparsely traveled roads or, failing that, roads with wide shoulders. You want bike courses which are easy to marshal, meaning that you'll need few marshals, and if they're straightforward intersections — especially rolling right hand turns — you may be able to get away with using quasi-official traffic controllers (instead of expensive, time-and-a-half sheriffs or highway patrolmen).

Here is a short checklist for choosing the right venue and the right course:

1. It goes without saying, the water needs to be clean and safe. It would be reassuring to know there's a vibrant inlet and outlet, and it's not out of line to ask the appropriate person charged with the water quality whether the water's safe for swimming, and what sort of testing might they do to know that. The source also must be reliable, that is, water needs to be there each year when you're contemplating having your race.

2. There has got to be a good spot for a transition area, and a way to easily get from the water to the transition. Most often it's the boat ramp, and there's usually a parking lot close to the ramp.

3. There have got to be good, easily-managed roads and intersections. Best is if there's a loop made out of right-hand turns (Wildflower's 56-mile bike course is a good example). Out-and-back courses are often problematic, because they require double the road width for bike travel. The alternative to this is an entire road closure, which might be workable if the road is rural; and if no one, or almost no one, lives on it; and if there is an alternate route that can be used as a detour.

4. If you've got all of that, you're usually able to figure out some place to run.

5. Are there places for people to stay? Motels? Camping spots? Is there electricity on-site? And running water? Is the water potable, and does it taste good? Otherwise, you've got to truck water in for aid stations.

6. Is this course going to cause a lot of displacement among the locals? Are you making a church inaccessible for parishioners on a Sunday morning? Are you closing off commercial concerns from being able to do business?

7. What time of year will you be holding your event? Is the weather conducive? Will it be Africa-hot? Or, if it looks like a great spot in August, and you want to have your race in May, are there seasonal road closures that will still be in effect? If the swim venue looks great in May and you want to have your race in September, will the water level still be high? Are there times of the year—usually during high runoff—when the water is less likely to be clean?

Be creative in your thinking. Don't necessarily assume that problems with the above checklist are deal breakers. I put on a race where I hemmed in the bait shop, making it impossible for it to do business on race day. To make matters worse, we were closing the boat ramp at 7AM. The bait shop owner complained to high heaven. A lot of RDs would've resorted to the power play, getting the city council to side with the us over the bait shop owner

Instead of that, I asked the bait shop owner how much bait he intended to sell that day. “I might sell $300!” You know what I did, right. Just the offer was enough. He refused the check, and the bait shop owner became a big ally of ours. He just wanted us to be sensitive to his concerns.

There are 3 things that are paramount to me: Is the course scenic and fun? Is it cheap to produce? Can I satisfy the locals? Those last two elements are critical to success, because, think about it. What are the most successful triathlons you know of? Ironman? Wildflower? What are the events you really like? Survival of Shawangunks? Savageman? American Triple T? Here’s my question: How many of them started out big? You know, with 2,000 people? Wildflower had 87 its first year. Ironman? 16. The best races, the longest lasting, the icons, were produced out of love. If what fuels you is love, not money, then you need a cheap course.

Realize what I didn’t list as paramount: Proximity to a major metro area. Look at the races above I listed. Which are within a 45-minute drive of most of their contestants? If you put on a great race, people will travel. It’ll take a couple of years, maybe more, so, make sure your race is cheap to produce! Folks will travel to get to a good race.

The Series:

• How to Be a Race Director
• Picking a Course
• Pacify the Locals
• Getting That Special Event Permit
• Assembling Your Race Committee
• Your Race Budget
• Traffic Plan
• Getting Volunteers
• Getting Sponsors
• Attracting Media
• Filling Your Race
• Aid Stations

The post Picking a Course first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Two ways you can handle this. The power play. That’s one. I prefer the second way.

Once I put on a criterium, on Sunday, and a big church was inside the circuit. How were the parishioners going to get across the street and into the church?

I could’ve appealed to the Chamber of Commerce to overpower the church’s needs. Instead I just drove to the church, parked my car, went in and met the pastor. I told him what I wanted to do, and asked his advice. He changed the time of the service on that day, and his parishioners became race volunteers.

The moral: Be prepared for failure, but plan for success. Getting the locals on your side – making it their race as much as yours – is how you plan for long-term success. It’s also much cheaper to produce a race that locals look forward to.

I put on a race that, in year-1, caused a lot of problems! We needed streets to be free of cars. We flyered, we direct mailed, we put up signs, we had the newspaper run a story. Don’t park your car on the street on this day! What we didn’t reckon with were vacation rentals – people driving in from out of town the night before the race, who had no idea there was a race. A lot of cars got towed. I wrote a lot of checks. So…

The next year, I asked the city, “Do you have a lot proximate to these streets I can use?” Yes. I then called up a tow truck company. “Can I just rent a truck and driver for 2 hours?” Yes. It was cheap! We towed all the cars to the nearby lot. Of course people ran down to the beach, screaming, “Where’s my car?”

“What kind of car is it? Is it possibly that car? There? Is that yours?” “Yes! Thank you!” Everyone was happy. Relieved. And, impressed that we had the forethought to anticipate the solution.

If you’re going to produce a race that you want to have on the calendar 5 or 10 years into the future, you’d better get to know the locals. Go door to door. Are you bisecting the town with your race? Think about who you are going to inconvenience! Spend some time with the churches, farmers markets, wherever it is people tend to need to get to on a Saturday or Sunday.

I promise you, if you think controlling 51 percent of the political power is sufficient, your race won’t survive and, even if it does, it’ll be a struggle every year. County supervisors change, as do city councils, mayors. Churches, newspapers, cafes, they don’t change. Make sure they feel that it’s not just your race, but their race. Not only will this create great goodwill, your direct customers – your registrants – will note the positive vibe in the town, and this will become part of the fabric of your event.

The Series:

• How to Be a Race Director
• Picking a Course
• Pacify the Locals
• Getting That Special Event Permit
• Assembling Your Race Committee
• Your Race Budget
• Traffic Plan
• Getting Volunteers
• Getting Sponsors
• Attracting Media
• Filling Your Race
• Aid Stations

The post Pacify the Locals first appeared on Slowtwitch News.