Ready, Set .. Start Lines are Back!

Photo credit: Scott Flathouse

Article has been excerpted from original version.

Reported and written by Leah Etling

The moment we’ve all been waiting for has been happening in some cities across the country this spring: Running events are back. Often at reduced capacity, and with varying COVID-19 safety protocols, but from the perspective of runners and race directors alike, returning to live racing brings a huge sigh of relief. For the running industry, this is what normal looks like.

“Runners want to do what they want to do. They’re not any different than bowlers or golfers. But we could have told them that they all had to wear jeans while running and they still would have come out to race,” joked Todd Oliver, president and race director of the Carmel Marathon in Carmel, Indiana. After being forced to cancel its 2020 event, the Carmel Marathon resumed on April 3, 2021 with reduced capacity, social distancing, masks and other safety protocols in place.

Around 3,300 runners turned out for the Carmel Marathon’s marathon, half marathon, 10K and 5K. And make no mistake, they came to RUN. The average finish time for the marathon, which had over 1,000 finishers, was under 4 hours. (For those unfamiliar with the running universe, that’s an impressively fast average.)

“When’s the last time a non-downhill marathon had an average finish time under 4 hours?” Oliver asked. “Everyone ran really hard. After training with no races for a year, they came to race.”

When we chatted for this article shortly after the April event, Oliver was busy preparing for his next event, the Whitefish Marathon in Whitefish, Montana on May 22. A tiny event in a beautiful setting, this year the Whitefish event had already doubled its registered participants more than a

“WHEN’S THE LAST TIME A NONDOWNHILL MARATHON HAD AN AVERAGE FINISH TIME UNDER 4 HOURS? AFTER TRAINING WITH NO RACES FOR A YEAR, THEY CAME TO RACE.”

- TODD OLIVER

month prior to race day. It was a clear example of the pent-up runner demand that is likely to explode as events continue.

“There’s nothing like the feel of a finish line,” said Oliver. “For us, that was probably the most commented on thing by runners. We sent a thank you email to all our participants and people wrote back in droves. All of the feedback was extremely positive.” Unlike many event management professionals, he believes that there are no nationwide policies or procedures that can effectively cover all U.S. events. Every state – and in some states every county or city – is looking for different requirements. However, there are best practices that can cover resuming events wherever you work and live.

“Take a pause and think through your own events instead of what someone’s doing in Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles or Minneapolis. It’s great that people have come up with so many different solutions, but if we had tried to do a 30-second interval staggered start for four people at a time, the city would have said no,” Oliver said. “They didn’t want the roads closed for that long.”

Carmel began with a socially distanced start that involved a far larger start line area than in previous years. In advance of the April 3 event, he met with local officials who were most excited about bringing out-of-town visitors to Carmel for hotel, retail and restaurant revenue. Because of that enthusiasm the full marathon was the one distance that remained at full capacity for the 2021 event – historically, it has attracted the most out of state participants, and this year was no different.

One surprise that might be easily replicated at other events this season was the degree of emotion participants had when crossing the finish line. “It was even more emotional than normal. And because of hands-off protocols, the volunteers weren’t able to provide that hug or a celebratory medal over the neck,” Oliver said. While contactless volunteer rules worked well elsewhere on the course, especially at water stops and food stations, he was struck by the emotion of the 2021 finishers. “We know historically that 40 percent of runners are ‘running for a reason,’” he explained, including charity athletes but also motivations such as honoring late family

members or personal goals. “This year it was very clear there were even more.”

A Return to Running in Austin

The Ascension Seton Austin Half Marathon, produced by High Five Events, reduced its event size by over 50 percent, and successfully held an in-person half marathon and 5K in Austin, Texas on April 25. Around 4,230 runners completed both events (total includes a few hundred virtual participants). Neither the full marathon nor the Manzano Mile was held in 2021. For all four events, there were 13,000 finishers in 2018.

COVID mitigation and participant health and safety were the clear priority for 2021, said William Dyson, communications manager for High Five Events. Host of numerous major events each year, Austin is known as a city where running is extremely popular, and the half marathon was marketed spiritedly as “Austin’s Return to Running.” But it also attracted participants from as far afield as New York City and Mexico, demonstrating that runners are willing to travel for the chance to race in person again.

“We were very proud of this event. It shows that large scale endurance events can be held with strategic planning, a dedicated team, willing partners, effective measures and extensive communication. Secondly, participants want to return to large scale, outdoor endurance events. That couldn’t have been any more evident by the chatter on race day, at packet pickup, and on social media. They were extremely grateful for the experience. There’s only so many times you can cross the same virtual finish line in your own neighborhood,” Dyson said.

Volume, clarity, and variety of communications methods were a key part of Austin’s success. In addition to traditional email, web, and social media communications to runners, they utilized app and text message (SMS) functionality to make sure that participants had all the information they would need to be successful, safe and informed on race day.

“Don’t underestimate the power of overcommunicating and the need for constant and continuous engagement,” Dyson said. “Sometimes that can be overwhelming for participants, but when you’re putting out information that’s important to their well-being, as well as the well-being of staff, partners and volunteers, it’s critical. We did a staggered start, so communicating those start times was very important.”

Participant feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive.

“The Austin Half was my first race in 12 years and I couldn’t have asked for a better event to bring me back into running,” said Jack McBee, a finisher of the half marathon in 2:06:32. “The energy was incredible -clearly everyone was ready to get back to running Austin!”

High Five Events will now take their lessons learned to the production of an in-person triathlon set for Memorial Day weekend.

“We really hope this blazes a path forward for other large endurance events,” Dyson said. “This shows that it can be done. You just have to put in a lot of work, change some of your expectations, and put it back towards the community.” //