So you want to be a Race Director...

Browning Ross

I had run in over 600 races, but I never really thought about what goes into actually putting on a race until I directed my first race. I had even accompanied and assisted Browning Ross as he put on dozens of his races and that did not prepare me. Browning made it look so effortless-- pulling a clipboard, watch, Popsicle sticks and prizes from his car and—voila'! He was ready to go.

Few people (how about no one else?) have the skill to pull that off. For us mere mortals, race directing takes time, money, plenty of coordination, flexibility and constant communication and knowledge about who actually does what to make a race come together.

Since my first race directing experience, I have received a Phd. in what can go wrong—and luckily also in what can go right. At least now I now what it takes to put on a race—just how complicated it is. Before getting started, a prospective be race-director needs to know the following:

Race Timers (and what else) not included: First, did you know that race timers cost money? Most of the dozen people that call me during the year for help on their races do not. People who are interested in putting on a race as a fund-raiser and have no idea race timers are usually charging $ 800-1200 and up just to time a race. Over the years, we have seen more than one race organizer with no course measured, or course volunteers present the day of the race because they thought the race timers would provide everything, and handle all race details even though it was never discussed. We have seen many races spend $800 on race timing that have had only a few dozen runners.

You might need help with the course: Race organizers also probably have no reason to know a race timer may not necessarily map out and measure your course for you—especially if you did not ask them for the service and are not paying for it. Often, race timers have no idea of the details of your course. There is definitely no alchemy at work here—if you are paying only for race timing that is most likely all you will get.

You still have to have someone come up with a course and possibly measure and certify it.

Also, consider many parks and townships ask for permits and insurance and you may need police for traffic control if the runners are crossing traffic. These things also may cost money and the race timers will not seek these approvals automatically.

Do you have race t-shirts? Most runners expect a quality shirt as a race souvenir. Shirts cost money although sponsors can sometimes defray the cost. Speaking of sponsors, don’t be surprised if the sponsors come through the day before or even after the race have passed. You may need to pay most if not all of the race bills before then. For example, expect to pay around $10-12 for a good quality long sleeve shirt, plus art and set up charges. Finally, there is the matter of how many shirts to order. Too many and you will have boxes of them in your attic (and of course the unnecessary expense), order too few and you will have some disappointed runners.

What are you going to do for prizes? Speaking of unhappy runners, a quick way to disappoint a runner is by not meeting their expectations for prizes. One of the first races I put on had less than 50 runners but one angry runner was demanding a Clydesdale prize(first male runner over 200 lbs.) I told him I would drop it off at his house before next years’ race. Another runner was first in the over 60 category-- but was insulted that he did not get a prize for the over 70 category because, he was over 70. Don’t forget that prizes are also an expense. We have put on many races that give all the children a free entry and a shirt, medal or trophy for participation.

Expect the unexpected: Be prepared. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. For example, for a recent race, we had ordered 300 numbers and we had only 16 entries less than 2 weeks before the race. While we were busy calculating the number of future races we could use the extra numbers for, entrees started to arrive-- first as a trickle then as a deluge. We had over 500 runners show up for the race wiping out our supply of entry blanks, numbers and even pins, but the late turnout was good news for the charity it benefitted.

Should you delegate? If you delegate race duties, be sure to double check that everyone is carrying out their assigned duties as close to the race as possible. We’ve been involved with races where delegation did not work as planned-- The person assigned to bring the entry blanks for race day sign-up forgot to bring them, or the person assigned to bring the pins forgot them, and other incidentals like staples for the staple guns (for pinning race results on the board) .

Luckily for this particular race we were able to compensate. Although we were not able to pin up all the race results, we had decided in advance  to give the first 20 men and women finishers awards in the chute-- just like in the old (pre 1970’s running boom)  days. If we had age-group awards in this race we would still be attempting to sort it out. Having a plan B and C often helps.

Hey, remember me? Be prepared for “friends” you vaguely know or maybe have never even met before the race to arrive looking for a free entry-- this confuses your volunteers. We have had race day registrants say they have signed up online (before the race had implemented an online sign up) frequent racers may have been confused with another race for which they had signed up online.
     Be prepared to field a lot of strange phone calls asking about race expos, prize structures, altitude of the course (our response: “above river level”) and percentage of male to female entrants and age graded prizes, detailed course maps in advance etc. In this tight economy, people do not spend their $15-25 frivolously. We once had the manager for some 2nd tier World Class Kenyan runners ask us what the race budget was. He quickly hung up when he heard our reply $500 (which included t-shirts and awards!)

It is worth it: You have probably guessed by now that it takes plenty of time and coordination to plan to put on a race, and although it is great for us runners, it may not be the best way to raise funds. When the race comes together;  when it’s finally completed and you see the looks on the race participants faces, you get a feeling of satisfaction that it just might have been worth it after all.

Note: This article originally appeared in Runners Gazette Magazine http://www.runnersgazette.com/ along with an interview of some top race directors--Race Management 101. This accompanying article contains more detailed information on race management, and is also now found in this ramscrosscountry blog http://ramscrosscountry.blogspot.com/

Remembering Herb Lorenz

Note: Author Vince Phillips (pictured right with Herb) ran for and was a life long friend of Herb Lorenz.
Quick: name all American distance runners with both a 4:02 mile and a 2:17 marathon in their resume. Whatever short, distinguished list you were able to generate was just reduced by one. On February 27, 2011, Herbert Joachim Lorenz, arguably one of America’s greatest distance runners of the ‘60’s and early ‘70’s, and absolutely one of its greatest masters runners ever, passed away at the relatively tender age of 71.

Born in Franfurt, Germany on April 7, 1939, Lorenz’s early years were shaped by the ravages of World War II. His father was killed in the conflict when Herb was just five years old and his widowed mother re-married when he was nine. When his mother and step-father moved to the United States, Herb stayed with his grandparents in the small village of Kronberg, When Lorenz was fourteen, his mother sent for him. Traveling with his few worldly possessions in a small bag and even less English in his vocabulary, he came to his new home aboard the SS United States and eventually settled in the small country town of Pemberton, New Jersey.

Not afforded the assistance of today’s English as a Second Language courses, Lorenz sat in the back of the room, paid close attention and eventually learned the language. When required to run a mile in gym class, he cruised the track in 5:30, with his classmates far behind. His school had no track team at the time, but when word of Lorenz’ mile got to one of his teachers, the teacher decided to form a team. The “team” was Herb. As a sophomore in high school he finished second in the state in the mile and as a junior he finished fourth, running both races in the 4:30’s—all on the basis of his own, self-coached training. His senior year was more pre-occupied with getting into college than running and he ended up at Trenton State College—now The College of New Jersey—where, still virtually uncoached, he demonstrated his vast potential and range with bests of 49.7, 1:54, 4:12 and 9:30.

At a time when most runners ended their careers upon graduating from college, Lorenz continued to train and race, and in 1964 he moved back to South Jersey with his new wife Irma, took a job as a shop teacher at Burlington Township High School and began a coaching career that was to last nearly four decades and be at least as successful as his own competitive career. His runners not only earned many individual and team honors during this time, but also benefited immensely from the lessons of character that Herb imparted. Inspired by Lorenz, many of his athletes went on to become teachers and coaches themselves.

Throughout the rest of the ‘60’s he was a regular in AAU national track races at 3 and 6 miles, became the dominant distance runner on Middle Atlantic road racing scene (supplanting two-time Olympian and South Jersey native Browning Ross in that role) and was twice a member of national teams sent to compete in the World Cross Country Championships. In 1969, he won the famous Berwick, PA “Run for the Diamonds” in a course-record 45:18. At the urging of ultra-marathoner Harry Berkowitz, Lorenz moved up to the longer distances. In 1971, he just missed making the Pan-Am team in the marathon, losing only to winner Kenny Moore and novice-marathoner Frank Shorter in the trials. In 1975, he set an American age-36 record of 2:17:43 in the Boston Marathon and in 1979 he won the master’s division of the Beantown classic with a record 2:24:41. He went on to set American Master’s records of 30:41 for 10K, 47:18 for 15K (roads), 47:59 for 15K (track), 1:04:42 for 20K, 1:07:54 for the half-marathon and 1:19:58 for 25K. He was three times awarded the prestigious Nurmi Award by Runners’ World magazine, was inducted into the Road Runner’s Club of America Hall of Fame in 1989 and continued to run mind-boggling times well into his 50’s.

Recurring injuries and debilitating medical issues finally slowed him to a stop. For the past several years, Lorenz had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and Waldenstrom's macroglobulinaemia, an extremely rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. As he had done in so many races over so many years, Lorenz battled as valiantly as he could right up until “he crossed the finish line.”

Herb Lorenz is survived by his wife Irma, his son Eric and daughter-in-law Chris, his daughter Diane Stansbury and son-in-law Will and grandchildren Danielle and Brian Lorenz and Randall and Jason Stansbury. He is also fondly remembered by a vast number of his former high school athletes and fellow competitors not only for his phenomenal running achievements but even more for his enduring qualities as a truly humble and selfless human being with a great sense of humor; never particularly comfortable in the lime-light, always willing to help others and quicker yet with his unforgettable laugh, Lorenz was the antithesis of the embarrassingly chest-thumping, self-promoting athletes who unfortunately hold sway with so many of our young people today. He will be missed by anyone fortunate enough to have ever spent any time with him, and future generations of high-school athletes and runners will be poorer for never having known him.

The family requests that any contributions honoring Herb’s legacy be made to the Herbert Lorenz Scholarship Fund, c/o PO Box 1542, Medford, NJ 08055. A scholarship will be awarded to an outstanding South Jersey runner.

Written by Vince Phillips. Courtesy of Runners Gazette Magazine http://www.runnersgazette.com/

Change Is Good

I had a streak going. Twenty-eight years of running, and I had only stopped to pick up money once. The 65 cents I'd found lying on the road bought a soda in the middle of a twelve-mile run on a hot and muggy July day. However, this was different. I saw the money first, lying in a heap in the white sand of a New Jersey cross-country race-- but I couldn't stop. I had conditioned myself never to stop just for money. In fact, I couldn't even slow down for a closer look, even though I knew I had no chance of winning the race or even setting a PR. Why-- years of conditioning. Thoreau would have been proud.

"Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds Jack--that means you're a creature of habit," said my friend Harry, who had stopped to pick up the money- three dollars. Harry was known for keeping track of all the money he'd found on runs. In forty years of running, he'd probably scooped up a small fortune. Despite teasing Harry that "It was five dollars when I ran past it"… I knew he was right. He had started me thinking. Was I too proud to stop? Then for the first time, I started to think about how much money I had seen but never stopped for over the years-- and to ponder what I had missed.

"Stopping during a run to pick up money has always seemed tacky to me, Harry--kind of like an old guy wearing an earring," I said.

"Hey, I paid for these earrings with some of the money I've found running," Harry said. "You ought to give it a try."

I must have looked doubtful. "You can still change your running habits," Harry said studying me closely. "After all, you used to be fast and kind of flexible--you changed that! Try something new. At the least it will give you something else to keep track of in your log—a new kind of PR."

He did have a point--at least the point about me once being flexible, I thought.

Harry said, "You know, I have to admit, stopping to pick up change can get addicting. I once saw a dime laying in the Dunkin Donut drive-through and decided to leave it there until the next day, just to keep a streak alive of consecutive days with money found...it was still there."

Harry then ambled away to the race concession stand. With his newfound three dollars, he bought a hot dog and a soda. "And I still have a dollar left for gas," he yelled to me over his shoulder.

That was enough for me. I decided to follow Harry’s example and log all the money I've found while running this year. The count: eight dollars and forty-six cents. The biggest haul so far: two soggy dollar bills I found right after a thunderstorm. I have to admit, it's not quite a mortgage payment, but it is kind of fun. For some reason, finding two quarters while running is almost as big a thrill as receiving my (almost) yearly raise at work (which is often larger).

Here are some things I have learned from my new "found" hobby:

First, finding money can spice up a mediocre run. There is an extra payoff too--maybe the same feeling you get fishing, or playing the slots--when spying the glint of a coin-- found money, at thirty paces.

Second, when you are in the "find" mode you are receptive to a lot of other stuff that's out there that you probably never would have noticed before. This summer I also found a beer sign that's now over my bar, five new baseballs, and a plastic lizard for my son. The best spots to find money are convenience stores--teenagers can't be bothered with change. It doesn't look cool to pick it up, so often they will just drop their loose coins in the parking lot along with accumulated cigarette butts. The slimmest prospects to “mine” change are where ever kids, or senior citizens, travel on foot. They will stop to stoop.

When I saw Harry, again I let him know that there is a negative side to this newfound coin consciousness-- the risk of injury. Stopping suddenly for coins, or what looks like a coin from thirty-feet away can put a big strain on your core--and make you look pretty eccentric when you slam on the brakes--sometimes for nothing.

The second drawback is something I'd long noticed about my friend Harry; it's what I call "bird eye." You too may have noticed "bird eye" in many long-time runners. It's a condition brought on by running with one's head tilted to the side looking for some currency that others may have missed. If you should see another runner coming towards you, head tilted to the side, paying a little too much attention to the side of the road--just remember I saw it first.

Note: The author found over $16 last year. This article inspired by the late Harry Berkowitz and originally appeared in Runners Gazette Magazine. http://www.runnersgazette.com/