Setting up the event:
My wife and I acted as race directors for this event as a fundraiser for the church. They do an annual fundraiser for an international charity called Hope Worldwide. The goal is to raise as much money as possible for Hope to do work around the world such as a free hospital in Cambodia, rebuilding and cleanup after natural disasters and all of that stuff that people don't generally think about. This fundraiser was going to support Aid packages to the Ivory Coast.
We began the organization at the end of April. The Church has 700 people. In the past they have done a walk-a-thon and were looking to change things up in effort to attract more people.
The previous fundraisers were held in Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island. The first obstacle was to see if a 5k run and a 1k kids' dash could "fit" into the park.
The 5k time was 25:25.
I identified the above courses. It is a 2 loop course that is 3.07 miles and utilizes all of the major trail-space in the park. The Kids' Dash ended up about 900m. The Church is renting out the park for a carnival and other fundraising activities. Because the run is in the park, we don't need to close down any streets or get any permits. The only downside is that it is an open-course, which means that other people have just as much right to the race course as the racers do. This caused concern in the parking-lot areas and other open portions of the course. Gratefully there weren't any issues and everything worked out just fine :D
With the course identified, we needed to identify a way to time the event. We chose Budu Racing as they are fairly local and have done the timing on an event that I participated in. (Snoqualmie St Paddy's Day Run)
Race Bibs:
RoadId has a race sponsorship program in which they will give you up to 250 bibs in any number sequence and gift certificates as long as you give a flyer (which they give you) to all of the race participants.
Now we had to get registration and results set up:
The Registration was done as an immediate donation to Hope worldwide. Hope handled the online registration process by creating a webpage using Kintera.org. The final registration page is here:
http://hopeww.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=480968
Next time, I would like to use a different webpage as we didn't have control over all of the content on the page. It was managed by somebody else.
I attempted several times to get results set up with onlineraceresults.com, however I had username/password issues and I finally gave up after setting up multiple accounts and event editing not working. Gratefully, Budu Racing posted results on their website.
So at this point, we have a course, timing, and results. Everything else is just details...These are the details that we put in:
Course Markers:
We used the following for course markers:
-Sidewalk Chalk
-Arrows cut out of construction paper
-Caution tape
-sandwich board signs
-Cones generously provided by "TriFreaks".
Power:
As the Church is doing a carnival, they are having inflatable castles there. We had them throw an extra generator on the order. Generators can be rented in a lot of locations. Just make sure it is big enough to handle the soundsystem, computers, and inflatables.
Advertisement:
The church handled the advertisement of the event through announcements and brochures. The event was somewhat short notice so there wasn't much else that could be done. In the future I would like to create flyers for dog parks, posters for running stores, and create an online presense. Technically, we are able to begin planning now and create a website for it in which we can begin advertising.
Sound:
-I used to do a fair share of DJ'ing, so we have a 2500 watt sound system in our garage. I brought the speakers, the 2500W amplifier, a mixer board, and a laptop.
-My wife created a 2 hour playlist of music that got rave reviews from people. Everybody was happy and having fun.
Volunteers:
I asked for several volunteers to watch the areas that could cause problems for the runners and public. We put volunteers in the parking lots and at a few areas in which the directions could get confusing to the runners.
Prizes:
There were a few companies that donated prizes to the cause. Mr Crampy's Multisport donated t-shirts, Hope Worldwide donated water bottles, and a few local restaurants donated gift cards. Procurring prizes was by far the most difficult thing to do. The prizes were good enough to make the runners happy, and all of the runners knew that the procedes were going to a charity anyways. The top 3 males and females got prizes, and the top 3 canines got dog chews.
Next time we do this, it would be nice to have finishers' medals.
T-Shirts:
T-shirts were handled by a company that Hope had used in the past. A Church leader placed the order for shirts and got 150 adult shirts of various sizes and 50 kids shirts of various sizes. This was the next big money item other than the timing company. Next time I would like to use other shirt resources to get a better price on shirts.
Refreshments:
We set up a water station 1 mile into the race and at the start/finish line. Since the race is 2 loops, this gave 3 opportunities for water...1 mile, 1.55 miles, 2.55 miles. This should be ample water for non-runners. At each water station we set up a table, 2 volunteers, cups and water, and a bowl for dogs to drink if they needed.
Behind the finish line, we set up a table with oranges and bananas. We got the fruit from a discount grocer and cut the bananas in half and cut the oranges into wedges. We got enough fruit for 200 people. This was waaay too much for this race.
Registration Table:
-We had a laptop with the spreadsheet open that is used for the timing system.
-We had a cash box
-We had the t-shirts and race bibs
Warmup:
My wife and I did a running event the year previous and a local gym led a warm-up before the race. It was enough to get the blood pumping and get the muscles loose before the event. Mack Strong (13 year Seahawks fullback) attends the church and agreed to lead a warmup just before the race.
The Day of the event:
I arrived at the course at 6:15. I anticipated marking the course from 6:15 - 7:15. I anticipated being back at the race start by 7:15 to set up the sound system and make sure the volunteers were prepped for what to do.
The gate to the park didn't open until 6:30. We still began marking up what we could on the course while we waited. We unloaded the car and began making our way around the course with the chalk, arrows, signs, and cones. I used our kid's "offroad" wagon to carry all of the supplies.
About 2/3 the way through the course, somebody noted that it was 7:35. Registration was supposed to be open and everything was supposed to be set up. I freaked out. I dropped general direction arrows and trusted the guys helping me could finish the job.
I raced back to the start line, and my wife was doing a great job. The registration tent was set up, Budu racing was setting up the start/finish chute, the fruit was getting cut up, and people were lining up for registration and packet pickup. The only work that hadn't been done was the work that I needed to do. I put the soundsystem up, talked to the volunteers, told them their roles and went to start playing music. We were ready to go except for one problem. There was still no generator.
by 8:00 we were pretty much set to go. Volunteers were ready, water tables were set up, the course was set, people were registering and getting ready...we just didn't have any music. Shortly after 8:00, the amusements truck pulled in and a few guys helping went to go get the generator.
We had music going by 8:10 and the event was on.
The Banner hanging in the Registration tent.
The race setting: You can see the warm-up being led by Mack Strong, The Timing Tent, the start/finish chute, and the registration tent.
People lining up for the race with the race leader on a mountain bike in the foreground.
On your mark...Get Set...
Final results..
After the race:
-We began cleaning up the course and relieving the volunteers after the last group began their second lap. Budu Racing would post the race results at the registration tent.
-We brought up the top 3 males, females, and canines for prizes.
-We began to set up the Kid's course and got a couple of volunteers for the Kids course.
-We started the Kid's race.
-I took my kids (3 and 4) and followed behind on the kids race and cleaned the course as we went.
After that, we left the sound up for the carnival and tore down all of the race gear. I then tore down the sound system and went home.
My wife and I acted as race directors for this event as a fundraiser for the church. They do an annual fundraiser for an international charity called Hope Worldwide. The goal is to raise as much money as possible for Hope to do work around the world such as a free hospital in Cambodia, rebuilding and cleanup after natural disasters and all of that stuff that people don't generally think about. This fundraiser was going to support Aid packages to the Ivory Coast.
We began the organization at the end of April. The Church has 700 people. In the past they have done a walk-a-thon and were looking to change things up in effort to attract more people.
The previous fundraisers were held in Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island. The first obstacle was to see if a 5k run and a 1k kids' dash could "fit" into the park.
The 5k time was 25:25.
I identified the above courses. It is a 2 loop course that is 3.07 miles and utilizes all of the major trail-space in the park. The Kids' Dash ended up about 900m. The Church is renting out the park for a carnival and other fundraising activities. Because the run is in the park, we don't need to close down any streets or get any permits. The only downside is that it is an open-course, which means that other people have just as much right to the race course as the racers do. This caused concern in the parking-lot areas and other open portions of the course. Gratefully there weren't any issues and everything worked out just fine :D
With the course identified, we needed to identify a way to time the event. We chose Budu Racing as they are fairly local and have done the timing on an event that I participated in. (Snoqualmie St Paddy's Day Run)
Race Bibs:
RoadId has a race sponsorship program in which they will give you up to 250 bibs in any number sequence and gift certificates as long as you give a flyer (which they give you) to all of the race participants.
Now we had to get registration and results set up:
The Registration was done as an immediate donation to Hope worldwide. Hope handled the online registration process by creating a webpage using Kintera.org. The final registration page is here:
http://hopeww.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=480968
Next time, I would like to use a different webpage as we didn't have control over all of the content on the page. It was managed by somebody else.
I attempted several times to get results set up with onlineraceresults.com, however I had username/password issues and I finally gave up after setting up multiple accounts and event editing not working. Gratefully, Budu Racing posted results on their website.
So at this point, we have a course, timing, and results. Everything else is just details...These are the details that we put in:
Course Markers:
We used the following for course markers:
-Sidewalk Chalk
-Arrows cut out of construction paper
-Caution tape
-sandwich board signs
-Cones generously provided by "TriFreaks".
Power:
As the Church is doing a carnival, they are having inflatable castles there. We had them throw an extra generator on the order. Generators can be rented in a lot of locations. Just make sure it is big enough to handle the soundsystem, computers, and inflatables.
Advertisement:
The church handled the advertisement of the event through announcements and brochures. The event was somewhat short notice so there wasn't much else that could be done. In the future I would like to create flyers for dog parks, posters for running stores, and create an online presense. Technically, we are able to begin planning now and create a website for it in which we can begin advertising.
Sound:
-I used to do a fair share of DJ'ing, so we have a 2500 watt sound system in our garage. I brought the speakers, the 2500W amplifier, a mixer board, and a laptop.
-My wife created a 2 hour playlist of music that got rave reviews from people. Everybody was happy and having fun.
Volunteers:
I asked for several volunteers to watch the areas that could cause problems for the runners and public. We put volunteers in the parking lots and at a few areas in which the directions could get confusing to the runners.
Prizes:
There were a few companies that donated prizes to the cause. Mr Crampy's Multisport donated t-shirts, Hope Worldwide donated water bottles, and a few local restaurants donated gift cards. Procurring prizes was by far the most difficult thing to do. The prizes were good enough to make the runners happy, and all of the runners knew that the procedes were going to a charity anyways. The top 3 males and females got prizes, and the top 3 canines got dog chews.
Next time we do this, it would be nice to have finishers' medals.
T-Shirts:
T-shirts were handled by a company that Hope had used in the past. A Church leader placed the order for shirts and got 150 adult shirts of various sizes and 50 kids shirts of various sizes. This was the next big money item other than the timing company. Next time I would like to use other shirt resources to get a better price on shirts.
Refreshments:
We set up a water station 1 mile into the race and at the start/finish line. Since the race is 2 loops, this gave 3 opportunities for water...1 mile, 1.55 miles, 2.55 miles. This should be ample water for non-runners. At each water station we set up a table, 2 volunteers, cups and water, and a bowl for dogs to drink if they needed.
Behind the finish line, we set up a table with oranges and bananas. We got the fruit from a discount grocer and cut the bananas in half and cut the oranges into wedges. We got enough fruit for 200 people. This was waaay too much for this race.
Registration Table:
-We had a laptop with the spreadsheet open that is used for the timing system.
-We had a cash box
-We had the t-shirts and race bibs
Warmup:
My wife and I did a running event the year previous and a local gym led a warm-up before the race. It was enough to get the blood pumping and get the muscles loose before the event. Mack Strong (13 year Seahawks fullback) attends the church and agreed to lead a warmup just before the race.
The Day of the event:
I arrived at the course at 6:15. I anticipated marking the course from 6:15 - 7:15. I anticipated being back at the race start by 7:15 to set up the sound system and make sure the volunteers were prepped for what to do.
The gate to the park didn't open until 6:30. We still began marking up what we could on the course while we waited. We unloaded the car and began making our way around the course with the chalk, arrows, signs, and cones. I used our kid's "offroad" wagon to carry all of the supplies.
About 2/3 the way through the course, somebody noted that it was 7:35. Registration was supposed to be open and everything was supposed to be set up. I freaked out. I dropped general direction arrows and trusted the guys helping me could finish the job.
I raced back to the start line, and my wife was doing a great job. The registration tent was set up, Budu racing was setting up the start/finish chute, the fruit was getting cut up, and people were lining up for registration and packet pickup. The only work that hadn't been done was the work that I needed to do. I put the soundsystem up, talked to the volunteers, told them their roles and went to start playing music. We were ready to go except for one problem. There was still no generator.
by 8:00 we were pretty much set to go. Volunteers were ready, water tables were set up, the course was set, people were registering and getting ready...we just didn't have any music. Shortly after 8:00, the amusements truck pulled in and a few guys helping went to go get the generator.
We had music going by 8:10 and the event was on.
After the race:
-We began cleaning up the course and relieving the volunteers after the last group began their second lap. Budu Racing would post the race results at the registration tent.
-We brought up the top 3 males, females, and canines for prizes.
-We began to set up the Kid's course and got a couple of volunteers for the Kids course.
-We started the Kid's race.
-I took my kids (3 and 4) and followed behind on the kids race and cleaned the course as we went.
After that, we left the sound up for the carnival and tore down all of the race gear. I then tore down the sound system and went home.
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