Head Start Race Directors HQ

If there’s one thing that often sets apart races that go on to do really well from others that struggle to gain traction in their community, it’s the ability of the former - and the inability of the latter - to engage with the non-race world. And nowhere is this more evident than the way in which events interact with local media.

The truth of the matter is, very few people participate in races. And very few people outside of those who do care about anything race-specific a race has to say.

So how can races hope to reach out to the broader public? What stories can they tell that are relevant to many more people than the ones who show up at the start line on race day? And how can you, armed with those stories, get out and pitch them to your local paper, radio or TV station?

That is what we’ll be discussing today with my guest Race El Paso owner, Gabriela Gallegos. Gabriela is a triathlon race director, so it’s not totally unfair to describe her audience as a bit niche, by broad-appeal standards. Yet, Gabriela managed to make triathlon the talk of the town in El Paso, TX through a series of media engagements culminating in the live broadcast of her all-female Mighty Mujer triathlon by her local NBC affiliate, an achievement for which she was recently recognized with USA Triathlon’s annual Innovation Award. And today she’ll be helping us break down the art of engaging local media, from finding the story to pitching the people that matter.

In this episode:
Why developing a local media strategy mattersWhich kinds of stories get the local press excited (and which don't) Being deliberate about bringing out the stories in your eventHuman interest stories: what they are, and how to promote themWriting engaging press releases: the 5Ws + who cares?Beyond human interest stories: expert advice stories & op-edsMatching the tone and content of your story to your target press outletFinding the right press contact and pitching your story to the press Media alerts and monitoring online mediaWorking with TV stations on live race coverageThanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about engaging local media or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Whether you’re putting on races through a for-profit or a nonprofit organization, having a good grasp of your race budget can often make the difference between a profitable bottom line and days of post-race head-scratching about what went wrong to land you in the red.

Admittedly, building and maintaining a race budget is not a lot of fun - not to most people, anyway - but it is something that has to be done, and has to be done right.

So to help us understand what “right” looks like for a race budget, I’ve got the pleasure of being joined in the podcast today by SRSE Sports’ Sean Ryan. 

Sean has been a veteran of the industry with almost 20 years of experience in race directing, marketing, operations and financial planning, and was once hailed as “the most overeducated race director” in the industry, holding an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. And today he’ll be helping us understand the value of good budgeting practices, how to put together a transparent and practically useful race budget, as well as sharing his thoughts on managing budget shortfalls and juggling the complexities of cost cutting while trying to maintain a quality race experience. 

In this episode:
Why putting on races is a capital intensive exercise that requires sound budgetingWhere most race budgets fail: over-exuberance and erroneous assumptionsThe importance of keeping an updated working copy of your budget at all timesTop line revenue vs bottom line revenue vs gross profit vs operating profit vs net profitOrganizing expenses by category: administrative, operating, marketingFixed vs variable expenses, and why fixed expenses can break your budgetWhat you should aim for for a healthy bottom-line profitThe perils of underspending on marketingHow to build a budget from the ground upCalculating your budget breakeven pointManaging budget shortfallsTransparent vs non-transparent cost cuts, and why, if you have to cut costs, you need to start with the latterYou can raise prices or reduce quality, but you should not try to do bothHow to treat donations and in-kind sponsorship on your budgetThe true cost of race volunteersThanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about race budgeting or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

When you want to know what’s happening and trending in the endurance events industry by the numbers, where do you turn to? Well, for me and many people I know, the definitive source of event data for the industry is, and has been for some time, RunSignup’s annual RaceTrends report.

The report leverages RunSignup’s extensive registration data from tens of thousands of events to point to trends in overall event participation, event pricing, participant demographics, registration trends and a myriad other things.

The most recent edition of the report was out a couple of weeks ago, and, despite a weak start to 2022, the data does seem to suggest that the post-pandemic industry recovery is picking up pace with some races recovering better than others and noticeable entry fee increases across the board on all race distances and disciplines.

With me today to discuss the numbers, the trends and their implications for individual events and the industry as a whole, I’m delighted to have RunSignup’s own Bob Bickel and Johanna Goode. Bob and Johanna will be helping me make sense of some of the more interesting data points in the report and offer their own takes on what the numbers might be telling us for where the industry could be heading in 2023 and beyond.

In this episode:
A few words about the RunSignup Roadshow 2022 overall registrations compared to 2021 and 2019The outlook for registrations in 2023Why registrations growth for larger events underperformed smaller races in 2022Event churn (=percentage of races that haven't returned in consecutive years) since 2019 and 2021Repeat participation trends, and why they matterVirtual race participation statsIncreasing inclusivity in races and making the most of the post-pandemic running boomAge group participation trends and Gen Z runnersWhen people register and how it's changed since the pandemicAre higher entry fees having an impact on participation numbers?Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about the numbers in today’s podcast, registration trends or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

It isn’t every day that an entirely new mass participation racing concept emerges that can take the world by storm. But, that’s exactly what’s happened over the past few years with the rise of HYROX, a new racing format, combining functional fitness and endurance in an indoor mass participation race.

Launched in Germany in 2017 by veteran multisport race organizer Christian Toetzke with the help of co-founder Moritz Fuerste and a select team of colleagues, HYROX has exploded in popularity to become the fastest growing mass participation fitness concept in the world.

So what is HYROX? What makes it so special? How does it relate to other race formats out there like obstacle racing? And, how does the highly lucrative business of HYROX work? Well, we’re going to be going through all that and more today with the help of my guest, HYROX USA & UK Managing Director, Douglas Gremmen.

In this episode:
Combining fitness and endurance in coming up with the HYROX concept/formatThe history of fitness racing before HYROXBringing mass participation racing to gym goers (and giving gym goers something to train for)Rolling out HYROX in Europe, the US and the rest of the worldObstacle races vs HYROX: differences and similaritiesHYROX in the Olympics?Designing a scalable race format: making workouts accessible, safe, easy to monitor and easy to transport between venuesRace timing in a HYROX race (it's complicated!)Getting thousands of people around an indoor racing courseHow large can a HYROX race get?What it costs to enter a HYROX event (and what you get for it)Involving spectators in the HYROX race experienceGrowing HYROX internationally through franchiseesHYROX' gym partnerships driving growth and secondary revenueA look at HYROX' growing competitionThanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about HYROX, the business of races or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

When races grow from scratch, particularly as passion projects, there often comes a time where growth grinds to a halt. Participation seems to gradually plateau around a few hundred participants and any progress beyond that seems impossible.

So, how do you break through this resistance point to grow a race from the hundreds to the thousands? What changes should you make to your team and event to take your growth to the next level? And how do you manage this next stage of growth while avoiding the pitfalls that come with growing too fast?

That’s what we’ll be discussing today with my guest, Glass City Marathon race director, Clint McCormick. When it comes to systematically scaling up races, Clint has been there, done that and got the T-shirt, having grown the Glass City Marathon from a club race of a few hundred runners to a nationally recognised event of almost 10,000 runners, while increasing revenues for the race by over 20 times in the process. 

In our discussion today we are going to be touching on all the key elements for success in scaling up a race, including race branding and rebranding, building processes and systems for the long run, analyzing and reinventing your product offering to make it more appealing to sponsors, and using sponsorship to fuel your future growth. All this while putting safeguards in place to make sure you don’t grow too fast and get yourself into trouble.

In this episode:
Moving a race from volunteer staff to professional/paid staffUnderstanding your brand and rebranding your raceNurturing local runners from 5K through to longer-distance events Examining your race distance offering and culling/adding events accordinglyFueling growth through sponsorships, and building a product that sponsors wantTips on scaling up your teamThe pitfalls of growing too fastManaging growth sustainably by capping participant numbersInvesting in race ambassadors and other grassroots marketing programsIn-house marketing vs employing a marketing agencyThanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about scaling up and the business of races or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

In RunSignup’s latest RaceTrends report, registration data showed that less than 13% of race participants in 2021 races fell within the 18-30 age group - a number that used to be almost 18% as recently as 2017, and keeps on falling.

So why is it that races fail to attract younger audiences?

That’s what we’ll be exploring today with the help of my guest Pacers Running Marketing Director, Ryan Callahan. Ryan and the Pacers Running team recently pulled off the remarkable feat of getting more than 40% of their DC Half start line made up of 18-30 runners, and we’ll be going over a number of deliberate strategic and tactical decisions the team took to encourage participation within that younger demographic. Among other things, we’ll look at intentional branding and website design as a means of appealing to younger runners, and initiatives undertaken by the team in offline as well as online marketing to reach that target demographic. 

Today’s discussion probably doesn’t hold all the answers to this very complex challenge facing the industry, but there’s some very big clues in there about what races can do to improve their appeal among younger audiences.

In this episode:
Participation trends in the 18-30 age groupWhy the Gen Z problem is fixable, and some races are doing better than othersHow DC Half managed to attract 3 times more 18-30 runners than the US race averageThe making of the DC Half brandBeing intentional with your event choices: race name, logo, swag, website, course designWhy it's important to keep your race website clear of information clutterBeyond cliches: building a DC race from the perspective of a DC localChecking boxes vs being thoughtful about your race swag choicesOffline marketing strategies for reaching 18-30 runnersBuilding an engaging race brand on InstagramLeveraging community and grassroots efforts to reach your target audienceThanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about branding, marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.