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Event Organizer Diary: Pre-Race Week
By Steve Nearman
November December 2011
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.”
Seven days from the second running of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon and I have my finger firmly on the pulse of the most pressing matter for the race at the moment. If things do not go our way, it could shut down the race completely.
I’m glued to my computer, then radio when I am in the car. One moment things are looking good, next moment bleak.
I am not a huge fan of seven-day weather forecasts, and that is not of any concern to me at this point. But the prospect of a government shutdown on October 1, just a day before my race, is annoying me.
It is funny, in a sick way, that this is the second time that my race director , Kathy Dalby, has been faced with a potential government shutdown with Washington apparently running out of money. Her first was in April with the George Washington Parkway Classic. In the eleventh hour, that race was spared.
I have little faith in our government leaders. So I query people on The Hill. One insider says it is about a 1-2% chance of a shutdown; another says 20%. I like the first guy’s numbers. On the advice of my race director, I apply for event cancellation insurance.
On Monday evening, the Senate approves a deal to keep the government open. Dodged that bullet. Tuesday morning the insurance company calls and declines my application. Saved me more than $10,000.
Every event director has different challenges and responsibilities in the final week of preparation. Every event director delegates certain tasks while performing a set of tasks of his/her own. I spend part of the last week signing contracts with vendors and cutting checks. But the part I enjoy the most is working with the sponsors and compiling the seeded athletes list.
Tuesday I receive the database via e-mail, nearly 4,000 names. I then meticulously scrub the database. The more problems you can resolve early on, the better your results will be.
I find discrepancies. One of the entrants is age 0. Another is age 2. Obviously typos. When mistakes happen at sign up, people wonder why results are not correct.
After correcting a few dozen apparent errors, I enjoy working on the seeding of the runners. While perusing the database, I take note of local celebrities, politicians, business leaders, sponsors, and anybody else with whom I would like to curry favors. For my friends, I match age with bib numbers--only with my male friends, for obvious reasons.
That evening, our packet stuffing begins, ably managed by volunteer coordinator Taimeka Butler. I hang out with the volunteers on Tuesday and Wednesday and again on Friday. I might as well enjoy the pizza I am buying! But I am getting concerned about the heat and humidity. Nonetheless, the long-range forecast, I am told, is perfect.
Throughout much of the week, I am fielding e-mails and phone calls from my race operations people and sponsors as well as from many of the almost 4,000 entrants. Many of my vendors want to be paid up front and in the midst, the vendors max out my $5,000 daily limit. A quick call to my bank on Friday raises the limit to $50,000.
Then come the dozens of requests (and demands) for refunds, deferrals, and exchanges. Our policy, posted prominently on the Web site, says no refunds, but you can defer up to four weeks before race day and exchange up to two weeks before race day. During the week before race day, there are no options and that doesn’t sit well with many people who lost a family member, got injured or pregnant, got assigned a business trip, didn’t train, dog ate their racing flats, etc.
Friday morning, I run over the bridge on a gorgeous sunny morning. On the way to the National Harbor later that evening, the chill and the rain begin. And it would rain all Saturday and looked like more on Sunday. I feel cursed. Miraculously, we stage between rain showers and even got a bonus rainbow.
With year 2 in the books, there is no time to rest. Year 3 is a little over a year away and we need to get planning.
Steve Nearman is a long-time running writer and event director of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon. A regular contributor to WRR, Nearman last wrote about Discovering Kenya in our Sept/Oct 2011 issue.