RUNNERS' PERSPECTIVE - Number ONE reason Half Marathon Runners PAY to Run in an Organized Event- 2011 Poll Results

2011-11-06T03:09:00.000-07:00

November 6th 2011 - By Nicole Blomgren - MBA, USAT, USATF member

Founder & President of Fifty States HALF Marathon Club and HalfmarathonSearch.com

The 2011 poll results are in Half Marathon Race Directors. We decided to conduct a Poll to half marathon runners “What is the NUMBER ONE reason you PAY to run a half marathon?” The reason for the curiosity was encouraged due to a few recent very under-supported races quite a few members of our Fifty States HALF Marathon Club had experienced. Some of these races were run with lack of water (one water stop aside from the finish line), lack of sports drink (none for some races), or lack of transportation back to parking at the end for all runners, and more. The surprising factor was these races still charged a full somewhat pricey registration fee! We decided to see how many runners voted that the number one reason they choose to PAY for a race is for the water and sports drink support along the course, since this is the number one complaint we hear as an organization.

The results of the poll indicate that 54 percent of half marathon runners’ NUMBER ONE reason they PAY the fee for an official half marathon is because “running with others motivate” them. Many comments were made as a follow up to this answer indicating many runners use the races as a gauge for their own performance improvement as well, in conjunction with the motivation of running with others.

The second most voted NUMBER ONE reason a runner PAYS to run a half marathon is for the water and endurance drink support. The poll results indicated 18 percent of half marathon runners PAY for a half marathon specifically for the water and endurance drink support as their top reason they would pay to run an event. Race directors, guess what, …... yes this beat out your great medal you give at the end of the race. Most runners do not want to run with a water belt, hence the reason they specifically pay a fee to run in an organized event when it starts to get into the longer distances such as the half marathon or longer.

Next up was the medal. Fifteen percent of half marathon runners’ NUMBER ONE reason they PAY the fee for an official half marathon is to receive a medal at the end. The medal actually came in higher than Tshirts & Swag!

Lastly, 11 percent of half marathon runners’ NUMBER ONE reason they PAY to run an official half marathon race is for the swag, T-shirt, totes, hats, etc.

The conclusion is to recognize that runners are never going to complain that they ran with too few or too many runners. Runners are going to complain about a poor experience when a race is under-supported with water and/or sports drink and wonder what their registration fee went to providing. The results are apparent that having sufficient amount of water stops and sports drink (or at minimum water along the course) is a very important item a race should provide for the fee the runners pay. Our feedback from the Poll is really only intended to bring awareness to Race Directors, to understand what really matters to runners. There are so many half marathon events that are absolutely awesome, well run, well supported and have already done their homework in this department. I personally have been to organized events on both ends of this spectrum, from the most well run race, to running a race with one water stop and having no transportation back to the start at the end of the race, not exactly my idea of a well spent $80 for a runner. I hope our poll and results provide an insightful perspective and encourage event organizers to really focus on water stops as a top priority when it comes to planning. Thank you and happy running!

© copyright 2010 Nicole Blomgren & Fifty States Half Marathon Club

FOR RACE DIRECTORS & EVENT ORGANIZERS: EVENT WEBSITES IN OUR CHANGING WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY, SOCIAL MEDIA & ACCOMMODATING THE EVER-GROWING TRAVELING ATHLETE

2011-11-06T01:38:00.003-07:00

November 7th 2010

As new Marathons, Half Marathons, Triathlons and many other events continue to pop up all over like a spreading fire, the importance of knowing your audience is key. As Founder and President of Fifty States HALF Marathon club and being a key contributor to endurance runners and Half Marathon race calendars on the web, I myself couldn’t be more frustrated with an event website when I land on the webpage and can’t even find the city and state on the homepage of the event. Sometimes even the date of the event is missing from the homepage and you have to dig for it buried in other sub-pages.

Race organizers and Race Directors creating a website sometimes seem to create their website catering to believing that most participants are local and already know where the race is. The growing popularity of the traveling athlete, desire to travel to various states or countries to participate in events, makes information on the event website valuable to attain market share to the traveling athlete.

TIPS FOR RACE DIRECTORS AND EVENT ORGANIZERS TO CREATE INFORMATIVE TOP NOTCH EVENT WEBSITES

CHECKLIST FOR THE “MUST HAVES” ON HOMEPAGE

1) City & State (You’d be surprised how many event sites do not have this. Very frustrating for non-local participants and maintaining national race calendar sites)

2) Date of event (believe it or not there are a lot of sites that do not have this on their home page and participants have to dig for it)

3) The DAY of the event is also very helpful (ie: Saturday or Sunday).

4) ALL Race distances (Marathon, half marathon, 5k, etc) listed on “home page”, not buried in other links to figure out if there are various other distances in addition to the main event distance.

5) A CLEAR and CONCISE “Link” to “EXACT LOCATION” with FULL ADDRESS

Most participants that are not local have to do a lot of extra work to find the location because event organizers do not put the address of the event location anywhere in the website. Participants like to use online maps or utilize GPS in their car or rental car when traveling, to locate the event, so I can’t emphasize enough how important a “full address” is of the event location.

6) And finally, having a “race date” planned well in advance, ideally one year ahead. Many traveling athletes plan their race calendar one year in advance. The sooner you have the date published on your website, the sooner it is updated on sites like our Fifty States HALF Marathon Race Calender , and the sooner athletes can add that race to their race calendar for their travel plans. We start looking for new race dates a year in advance when updating our website.

NICE TO HAVES

In addition to the “must haves,” social media and various websites definitely follow as “nice to haves” on an event website. Connecting with the running community, triathlon community, and other athletic event communities on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc. (where participants can read about feedback about the course, connect with others about their experience of the event in past years, and join the community of others who will be participating in the upcoming event and share the excitement of the anticipation), and partnering with Race Calendar (advertising your event where the community looks for the best race to attend), can all go a long way in increasing participants and giving visibility to your event.

INEXPENSIVE OPTIONS TO HAVING A WEB PRESENCE OR WEBSITE FOR YOUR EVENT

For smaller local community events who do not keep an all year round web page for the specific event, like some of the YMCA’s, YWCA’s or events just starting out, this ALL can be accomplished at NO COST or very little cost. Race Organizers can create a one page Blog in Google Blogger to appear almost exactly like a website (kind of like our official blog http://halfmarathonclub.blogspot.com/ but “without the ongoing content added”, and leave this posted with all the above mentioned “must have” checklist” posted on the BLOG. This is FREE, and at least gives your event its own identity and a place for the public to look for the details of the event. You can then share your blog link via facebook or twitter, and with race calendar sites like ours. This can be a valuable tool to at least avoid your participants having to click on an expired Active event listing from previous years, with no event site to go to for future details. Another very inexpensive means for an ongoing event site is Yahoo business. It is inexpensive and you can create your own website within an hour with their easy to use templates, walking you through step by step how to set up your website, allowing your event to have its own domain you choose.
In summary, the number of events popping up will continue to grow and the market will remain competitive. Even though the trends show there is no shortage of participants in the ever-growing events such as marathons, half marathons, or triathlons, it is still important to be aware of the “user experience” you are providing your participants, starting from the very first step of when that individual visits your website and decides if it is an event they would like to add to their calendar for the year.

© copyright 2010 Nicole Blomgren & Fifty States Half Marathon Club LLC

RUNNERS PERSPECTIVE

RUNNERS' PERSPECTIVE - Number ONE reason Half Marathon Runners PAY to Run in an Organized Event- 2011 Poll Results

FOR RACE DIRECTORS & EVENT ORGANIZERS: EVENT WEBSITES IN OUR CHANGING WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY, SOCIAL MEDIA & ACCOMMODATING THE EVER-GROWING TRAVELING ATHLETE