Customer Snapshot
- Evens Produced Annually: 100+
- Years in Business: 19
- Located: Houston, TX
- Full Time Staff: 5
About Houston Running Company
What started 19 years ago as a single Earth Day 10K born out of a restaurant opening has grown into a powerhouse event production company spanning owned races, managed events, and national series. Houston Running Company (HRC) — and its Texas-wide brand, Lonestar Running Co. — now owns and manages over 100 events across the state, with some reaching national scale.
HRC’s portfolio includes beloved owned races like the Houston Holiday Series, the Summer Dash Series, the Pearland Half Marathon, and two Turkey Dashes. Through a sister company. they also own the Breckenridge Road Marathon and the Santa Hustle Series, a nationally recognized holiday race brand. On top of that, their contract services arm — Race Assist — provides end-to-end event production to municipal and nonprofit races across Texas.
To support this growth, HRC has scaled from a single full-time employee to a team of five full-time staff, six part-time staff, and approximately 45 contract workers. They currently produce 30 to 40 contract events per year, ranging from equipment rentals to full-service race production — with plans to expand even further, including potentially franchising their Summer Dash Series into new markets.
The Challenge: Managing Complexity Across a Growing Portfolio
As HRC’s event portfolio expanded, so did the operational complexity behind it. Series management was a particular pain point. Their Summer Dash Series spans multiple cities — Houston, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio — with participants wanting to compete across locations. Their Holiday Series includes up to nine races in Houston alone, with over 100 participants completing all nine events each year.
Their previous platform couldn’t deliver the series tracking and cross-event functionality they needed. On top of that, the team was relying on multiple disconnected platforms and spreadsheets to manage everything from volunteer coordination to donor tracking. The result was a time-consuming, error-prone workflow that pulled staff away from the things that mattered most.
Like many established event companies, HRC was heads-down running a high-volume operation — and switching platforms simply wasn’t at the top of the priority list. With dozens of races to manage and a full team in motion, the timing never felt right to take on a migration.
The Solution: A Streamlined Transition to RunSignup
When RunSignup offered hands-on support to migrate events that were six months out from opening registration, HRC made the move — and it happened faster than they ever expected.
With the help of RunSignup’s support team and training resources, HRC transitioned their entire event portfolio in a single, focused effort. They built out templated websites to ensure a consistent look and feel across all their brands, and quickly got their full team — including two race directors, a customer service manager, and a sponsorship assistant — up and running on the platform.
I wish we had transitioned sooner. — Owner/Partner, Houston Running Co.
RunSignup also became the primary website solution for many of HRC’s contract clients, replacing standalone WordPress, Weebly, and Wix sites. This consolidation saved clients significant costs while giving HRC’s team a single, familiar platform to manage across their entire book of business.
The Results: Growth, Efficiency, and a Better Participant Experience
Series Management at Scale
RunSignup’s series tools gave HRC exactly what they were missing: a simple, centralized way to set up and track participants across multi-city and multi-race series. The Summer Dash Series and Holiday Series are now fully managed from a single dashboard, with templated event websites that ensure brand consistency while reducing build time for each new race.
Referral Rewards: An Organic Ambassador Engine
One of HRC’s most unexpected wins came from the Referral Rewards program, which Randi described as a “silent sleeper cell” that quietly built their ambassador community. Without any manual management, the program organically identified 20 local ambassadors — real community members who genuinely support HRC’s events — and rewarded loyal participants automatically. This allowed HRC to move beyond relying solely on paid influencers and tap into authentic, grassroots word-of-mouth growth.
Automated Emails = Fewer Customer Service Headaches
After transitioning away from Constant Contact to RunSignup’s email tools, HRC built out scheduled email campaigns that keep participants informed throughout the entire registration window — without staff having to lift a finger. The result was a significant reduction in inbound customer service inquiries, freeing the team to focus on event execution and marketing.
Registration is open email
Volunteer email
Race day info email
Volunteer & Race Day Operations
HRC regularly uses RunSignup’s volunteer tools to recruit past volunteers and streamline race-day check-in, eliminating paper forms entirely. The RaceDay Check-In App has simplified packet pickup for both participants and staff.
RaceDay CheckIn App Stats
Donations Impact
Transitioning contract clients to RunSignup for race weekend has also opened up new donation opportunities. In one notable example, a client captured 27 additional race-day registrations and over $800 in donations after moving their event onto the RunSignup platform — revenue they would have otherwise missed.
What’s Next for Houston Running Company
HRC is continuing to expand their use of the platform. On their radar:
- Chatbot implementation to further reduce customer service volume
- Franchising the Summer Dash Series into new markets beyond Houston, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio
- Deepening their email strategy as they continue to fully transition away from Constant Contact and build out more sophisticated campaigns within RunSignup
Automating routine workflows has allowed our team to focus more on marketing and enhancing the participant experience — something every race director can benefit from. — Owner/Partner, Houston Running Co.
Key Takeaway
Houston Running Company’s story is a testament to what’s possible when a growing event production business finds the right platform partner. By consolidating registration, email, volunteer management, series tracking, and race-day operations into RunSignup, HRC has replaced fragmented workflows with a streamlined system — giving their team the time and tools to focus on what they do best.