Location and Course

Just a few things to get you started as we rebuild: Almost any place is a good place to run. That said, you should choose a place close to home or where you have the most volunteers. Keep the race close to your organization. Next consider what facilities would be open for your use. Schools, parks, places that would be able to let you use an inside registration area with bathrooms available so you don't have to rent port a potties. Next consider your route. Look for roads with little traffic. The route should be a loop course with mostly right turns. Runners would stay on the right side of the road running with traffic. Try to avoid crossing busy streets and railroad tracks.

Volunteers

Consider your volunteers. It takes a lot of people to put a race together. You'll need someone to take charge of the course and water stops, someone to manage registration. Then you will need volunteers to staff registration, set up the course, man the waterstops, give directions on the course, man the finish line and race chutes. The longer the race, the more waterstops, turns, the more volunteers you will need. The more people registering for your race, the more help you will need at registration, and giving out t-shirts and race packets and refreshments before and after the race.

Choosing a Distance

5K, 10K, Half Marathon, Marathon are the most popular distances to run. I always recommend new directors to start out small. A 5K uses less streets, less waterstops, less volunteers. Most people, even non runners, can run or walk a 5K, so it's a good distance for a community race that encourages anyone to enter and have a good time. Longer races then 10K are more for the experienced runner and more experienced directors with a strong volunteer staff.

Awards

This is the company we use for our events. Great quality, the prices are good and the service is fast. We usually give trophies for the overall male and female finishers with a gift certificate from a sponsor. Then madals to the top 3 in each age catagory. For smaller races a ten year age catagory works, but for larger I recomend five year age catagories. And Trophies to Top 3 Male and Female. Some races like plaques instead of trophies.

Race Website
	Island Timing offers a webpage for every race we time complete with links to race applications, photo's, results, and anything a race director wants to put on a page. Or you can design a site yourself. We use several servers, including the Yahoo for www.eerunner.com   And this is what we use for this site:

Sponsors
	How are you at fund raising? Runners registration fees will just about break even with your expenses. If your looking to raise money for your cause, then you will need sponsors. Sponsors will jump to a good cause. The more things you can get sponsored the better.