Park Districts and Parks & Recreation Departments

Tips for Successful Parks & Recreation Event

Running events offer an exciting activity for residents. They promote health and fitness, bring people into parks and recreation facilities, and often attract media attention. These events sometimes present a challenge to organizers, though, because they require a great deal of time and personnel to produce, entry fees don't cover the costs, and most participants come from outside the community.

Still, a popular, well-managed event can establish the community as a visitors' destination, increase support for area businesses, build a local volunteer force, and generate neighborhood pride.

Tips for event success

  1. Decide whether you are holding a fun run or a race. A fun run has no winners, no awards, no finish line results, no split times. A race has all of those things. Even people who are running for fun want to run in a race. Don't call your event a fun run if it is a race.
  2. Determine sponsorship fees based on the value of the entitlement you are offering a sponsor, not the cost to you. If you simply ask a sponsor to reimburse your expenses for an item or activity, you may be selling that benefit for too low a price.
  3. Print and distribute a race entry form – separate from the Parks & Recreation program brochure – to attract entrants. 96% of the general public does not run, so 96% of the people who receive the program brochure won't be interested in the run.
  4. Distribute the entry form to runners. Send it to running clubs, running stores, fitness clubs (even if you operate one), physical therapy offices, and other places where runners congregate. Mail it to previous participants of your race and of other races in your area, running club members, customer lists of running stores, etc. Don't waste postage on mailing to the general community.
  5. If you list race information in the program brochure, make sure it is identical to the information included in the printed entry form and posted on the web site.
  6. Make it easy for people to contact you. Include specific contact information in all of your race materials – web site (if you have one), email, telephone number, mailing address (with zip code), and office location (if different from the mailing address).
  7. Post race information on running calendars – the local running magazine, local running club, local running store, sports section of the local newspaper. General community calendars are also helpful because they build local support for the event (although they don't attract a lot of runners).
  8. State specific times and locations for all event activities. Don't assume that everybody knows where the park field house is located.
  9. Do not charge a non-resident fee to people from outside the community. If you must have a fee differential, charge non-residents a reasonable fee and offer a discounted rate to local residents.
  10. Post race information on your web site with a link from your home page. Don't force runners to click through pages of classes and programs – they aren't interested in those. The more clicks it takes to get race information, the less likely runners are to participate in your event.
  11. There is no such thing as “check-in” at a race. Nobody takes attendance and there is no need for you to determine who showed up. There is only “registration” and “packet pick-up.” Give specific times and locations for each.
  12. Set up race day registration (and computers) in a location most accessible to runners. The front desk is usually a poor location for this activity. Instead, use a large, multi-purpose room or gymnasium where people can line up without interfering with other activities and without waiting in vestibules or on staircases. If registration is held outside, place it in a large tent.
  13. Offer cold, pre-poured water near the start area before the race. Water fountains are not sufficient for pre-race hydration. There may not be enough of them, they may not be in the right locations, and they may not be operating. Nobody should have to wait in line to drink water.
  14. Provide portable toilets, unless you have a large number of indoor facilities close to the start line that are functioning, supplied with toilet paper, and restricted to runners only. Field houses rarely offer an adequate number of functioning toilets for exclusive use of runners.
  15. Modify your evaluation form (if you use one) to obtain race feedback from runners. Omit references to “class” and “instructor” since a race doesn't have either of these.