A Race Really Isn't About the Awards (Part 4)

This is part 4...I'm hoping you aren't picking up right here...that would be like someone trying to start watching Survivor with only 2 episode left in the season. You don't know who can be trusted and who is a snake, and you have no idea who is blindsiding whom because you haven't been watching! Go get caught up first. Here's Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3


We were just a couple of weeks away from race day and numbers weren't what I was hoping they would be (only about 60 participants other than the kids in the Learning Center). I know from experience that people are registering later and later for races, sometimes waiting until race morning to sign up, but I was concerned. We didn't have enough runners for all the kids to have running buddies and I simply didn't know how to get more.

Not only that but I found out the group who "always" works the aid stations wasn't going to be able to do it this year. And my volunteer sign up was looking pretty thin.

I don't usually worry too much about getting volunteers for a race because I have found that most people sign up for that at the last minute. I think it was easier when we didn't have on-line sign ups but just a spreadsheet of names. Joe-Bob says "hey I can help" and you put him on the list. Now you tell him "okay...will you go online and sign up"...it's just a little bit of a hassle. I know I don't usually sign up to volunteer for a race until last minute. Maybe that's why it's not so concerning to me when I don't see a lot of names on my list...I trust that people will actually show up to help.

But without runners I wasn't going to have enough buddies. AND Daisy wasn't having much luck in the fund raising department.

Many of the races I've directed are break-even kind of events. The goal hasn't been to make money but to put on a quality event  at the least possible price for the runner/triathlete. So I get sponsors only so that I can keep the registration cost low. I usually take all the projected costs and divide them by the expected number of participants. Then I look at what I think the cost per participant should be. Ideally, in a perfect world, those two numbers would be about the same. But they never are in my world of kids triathlon. Let me give you an example...the price to put it on one of the kids triathlons I direct, without any sponsors, would be about $7K. But the expected number of participants paying the max amount that would be a reasonable fee would only bring in about $4300. (That's mostly due to how many participants the venue can realistically hold not necessarily the popularity of the event.)

Sure there are two answers, charge more money or get more participants. Okay, there's a third option to not have the event. But I think some events are worth going to the extra work of getting sponsors. Charity/fund-raising events are different...sponsors aren't simply giving to the event to put the event on, they are donating to a charity. The event is just the vehicle to raise the money. It's like no one buys the school fund-raising crap so they can have the over-priced sheets, wrapping paper or cookie dough...they are giving money to help the school (or so little Johnny can "earn" his prize for selling the most crap!). (But why not just give ALL the money you were going to spend on the stuff to the school instead of most of it going to the cookie dough, sheets, or wrapping paper company? But that's another post for another day...)

This 5K is different for so many reasons.

This race NEEDS sponsors and donors because there are about 60 kids running for "free". The LC kids all get a shirt (which costs money). Although the funds do go to a non-profit, it's not really about making money, it's about giving the kids the chance to give back. If there's no money at the end of the day then they have nothing to give the non-profit they chose.

obviously not our awards..

There's at least one more thing the money has been used to pay for in the past...awards. In the past awards were purchased. When I received the box of stuff from past races I noticed there were A LOT of left over awards in there! These were awards that were purchased but not given out (because participation was low so there wasn't a winner of all these awards). This year I asked the LC art teacher to make them...and she did. She made BEAUTIFUL awards. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

One of the many confusing things that had come up along the way was the issue of post-race food. When I was first told about the race I thought the post race food was provided by the families of the HICLC kids. I thought that was a brilliant idea! Not many 5ks have great post-race food like they were talking about (tamales, enchiladas, flan, tres leches cake...YUM!). But at some point I found out that was just for the HICLC kids' after party. The racers got your typical post race fare along with some sandwich roll-ups. That food had been either donated or purchased by the RD. Now I'm not against donating to a race I'm directing but I certainly didn't want to spend money for sandwich roll-ups when there would be a huge post-race buffet prepared by the families of the kids that could be made available to runners who decided to stick around after the race! Thankfully the parents and kids LOVED the idea too!

As the race got closer the kids were in the process of deciding if they were going to run either the 5K, the 1 mile or both distances. In the past the kids trained and they were divided up into ability groups for the distances. But I knew there would be some slower moving adults out there, even some walkers. And I knew that there was no reason a kid who was able to run (or "run") a 5k couldn't also go back out and complete a 1 mile. So I challenged them ALL to do both distances.

As the race drew near we had a wonderful benevolent benefactor (who I believe would want to remain nameless) who donated a chunk of money so that they kids would be able to give something to Graces of Gurley after the race expenses were paid. We also had a flurry of registrations, despite the fact thunderstorms were predicted--right up until the MORNING OF THE RACE!!! That was crazy...I had to prepare as if it was going to thunderstorm the morning of the race by setting up alternative race day packet pickup and runner buddy matchup sites. Thankfully the weather that morning was wonderful!

Things seemed to be going very well race morning...until they didn't...

Thanks for stopping in and sticking around...one more part of this rambling story to go....