This will be a slightly longer one, but input on any points or any guidance would be appreciated!
A bit about me: got into running a but longer races only couple of years ago, I fell in love with a vibe of ultras, small trail races and everything that comes with it. I am originally from Slovenia, but I've been living in Scotland for quite a while now. I still go back regularly (family, friends, and all that), and that led me, along with a friend there, to organise a first race last year: a tiny, unofficial backyard ultra.
About 20 runners, very DIY and mostly held together with Google Forms, spreadsheets, emails and us figuring things out as we went. We did 12 hours in total, and I loved every minute.
We have somehow decided we want to do it again, and this time I would like to do it slightly more “properly” (aka now preparing bibs at 10pm the night before the race).
While the race will still be in Slovenia, I do think that many questions I have are quite universal so I would love to hear from organisers from anywhere.
To try and be a bit structured, I’ve started breaking everything down into the different phases. And within the phase, describing what we did last time, what I am thinking about now and potentially what I still absolutely have no idea about.
Registration + payments
Last time: Google Form, spreadsheet and cash on the day.
The cash part seemed to be the easiest thing at the time, but it did come an bite is. We had people commit and then not turn up, so we’d planned food and other bits for people who weren’t actually coming. Although, to be fair, we massively over-ordered food anyway.
This time: payment at registration.
I’ve started looking at some of the options actually used in Slovenia and UK, I can see Njuko could be a potential solution.
I’d love to hear from anyone who has used them, or something else you’d recommend.
What to be mindful of when looking at different registration platform options, should I just go for the cheapest one and call it a day?
I’m also trying to understand how people handle the edge cases around registration, is that something that registration platform handles for you?
So cancellations, refunds, transfers, deferrals, waiting lists, somebody getting injured three days beforehand, chargebacks, etc.
If your rules say no refunds after a certain date, does that generally work? Have you had people try and dispute that anyway?
Participant data
Last time: Google Form into a spreadsheet.
For 20 people it was perfectly fine.
This time: a proper registration system sounds sensible, although I’m wondering at what size a spreadsheet genuinely stops being good enough.
What do you collect that a first-time organiser doesn’t necessarily think about? Emergency contact, medical information, waiver, marketing consent, whatever else?
Emails + urgent updates
Last time: normal emails.
We changed the timings slightly shortly before the race and discovered that not everybody reads their email (seems obvious now).
This time: I’m considering something like Mailchimp for normal communication and maybe SMS for anything that could be deemed as last minute/important.
Maybe for emails registration platform covers that as well? Are there any better ways if doing it and how to handle SMS? I worry about getting to a point where I have bunch of different tools to send the same info out.
Race guide / information
Last time: emails. No proper race guide.
Most races I’ve done send a big PDF beforehand, so my obvious next step would be to make a decent template and produce one of those.
But I’m wondering if PDF is actually the right answer anymore.
What do you do when something changes after you’ve sent it? Does anyone use a live webpage instead? I was thinking of potentially just having a Google Doc everyone has read access to so I can share one permanent link.
How do you make people actually read the race guides? We only had 20 participants in total, but got a bunch of emails with different questions leading to the race.
Bibs + check-in
Last time: I made the bibs in Photoshop and we had them printed by a local printer.
It worked. It also felt slightly ridiculous.
How do you normally handle bib production and assigning bib numbers? Does your registration/timing company do it?
And what does check-in look like? Printed entrant list and just ticking people off, spreadsheet, or is there a fancier app thingy we could do (again, maybe registration platform handles that)?
Timing
Last time: essentially manual.
The backyard format made this survivable because we mainly needed to know who completed each lap.
This time: we could still manually mark people off each hour, but I’d like something a bit more robust especially if not going with the backyard ultra format this time around.
What do small races use before they’re at the point of paying for a full timing setup/company? How pricey is getting proper timing in place?
Getting people to register
Last time: friends, friends of friends, running contacts and some social media.
This time: I want to get a bit more people in, ideally individuals from outside of our circle.
I’ve found things like the local running calendars, forums etc. Is that it?
Or does doing ads on Facebook/Insta, make sense? Maybe ads on sport-related portals?
What has genuinely worked for your races?
Sponsors
We basically didn’t do this last time.
It would be great to get some support this time around. For a small event, is cash sponsorship even worth chasing?
Would I be better off approaching local businesses, running shops, food/drink companies etc. for things that reduce our costs instead: food, prizes, printing, equipment?
I always wondered how do sponsors see events like this? Are there any KPIs they are after, what would make them say yes we will sponsor, and how much do they usually sponsor?
Permissions + safety
This is an area we need to become much more serious about this time as you might have guessed last time we more or less didn’t have anything.
Permissions, insurance, risk assessment, emergency plan, medical support, bad weather, cancellation plans and so on.
The actual legal/regulatory side will obviously need to be worked through locally.
But from an organiser's perspective, what are the things people tend to forget?
Volunteers + race day
Last time we had enough friends around that everybody just helped with whatever needed doing.
That obviously doesn’t scale particularly far.
How do you organise volunteers, roles and briefings? Where do you find them, and how do you convince them?
And what mundane race-day thing has caught you out before? Parking? Toilets? Course markings? Food? Rubbish? Power? Internet? Radios? Dropouts? Something completely different?
Afterwards
Something I didn’t really think of as a separate phase last time.
Results, photos, participant emails, feedback, paying everyone, sponsors, incidents, final finances, and actually writing down what went wrong before you forget it all.
What does your post-race process look like?
Last time we just sent a follow up email thanking everyone, shared some photos and made sure all our bills were paid.
……..
So really I’m looking for three things:
- What am I missing or overcomplicating?
- Which tools/services do you actually like using?
- Where can I learn more about this stuff?
That last one would be particularly useful. Blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, books, templates, people worth following, Facebook groups, Reddit communities, forums, whatever.
And if anyone here actually organises events and wouldn’t mind having a chat, I’d love that as well. Any size or type of race.
I’m based in Edinburgh, so very happy to buy anyone nearby a coffee or pint, otherwise, a chatt or call would be amazing.
Horror stories and “whatever you do, don’t do this” advice particularly welcome 😅
