Things continue to evolve as of May 17, 2020 from Week 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2 of the Coronavirus.
The transaction volume we saw the past week is 18% lower than the same week last year. The 18% is a very good improvement from the 25% the previous week and 37% the week before but still implies the endurance community and nonprofit community is having to survive on a far smaller amount of revenue.
We’ve included two charts showing the total $ amount of transactions flowing thru our system on a weekly basis both pre and post Coronavirus. The first is a simple %, and the second is the actual transactions per week on our platform. For example, this past week was $3,631,186 vs. $4,435,710 last year. Also, you can see we were having a great year (up 29%) before the virus, so this does not represent the community as a whole…
The other point is that of that lower volume, of the 20 top races over the past week:
- 14 are virtual races
- 5 are challenges (we are adding this category for the first time)
- 1 is for a race scheduled in June – the Zion at Night, which will have 50 runners every hour starting a half marathon from 7PM until 7AM.
- 0 are for for fall or 2021 races.
News
The big news in addition to the Zion at Night race from this past week was a REAL RACE! Todd Hernderlong of T&H Timing held a 200 person rolling start race in Indiana at a park. We documented it in a blog post – one of our most popular blog posts of all time.
As we have been saying virtuals are for real. This article from The Washingtonian talks about a number of examples. In it Rick Nealis of the Marine Corps Marathon is quoted as saying:
“It’s a whole new frontier. I think if race directors are not examining the virtual, they’re going to be left behind. It really is the way of the future.”Rick Nealis – Marine Corps Marathon
Challenges
We have seen a huge surge in challenges. We are putting out a lot of new features on a weekly basis to make these easy to manage and fun for participants. We have two webinars coming up this week:
Here is what things look like now for individual participants (and this will get better!). This is Bob’s wife, Marlise, who is doing the New Jersey Garden State Parkway Challenge.
Weekly Blogs
Here is a list of blogs and webinars from this past week:
- RaceJoy Anywhere for Virtual Events
- Cycling Challenge with Elevation
- Race Car Track Lap Challenge
- Free RunSignup – Facebook Fundraiser Integration Now Has Automatic Approval
- Challenge Activity Timelines and User Experience Updates
- Real Race Examples with Social Distancing: 220 Person Race in Indiana
- Race Expectations Survey: 45% of Revenue Expected in 2020
- Cross Country Summer Training Challenges
- Live Map Tracking for Challenges
- Engaging Sponsors During COVID-19
- Local Communities Embrace Virtual Events
- Virtual Race Bib and Finisher Certificate Updates
- Spending Money to Make Money: Scott Coffee Rotary Run Update
RunSignup has benefited from our large and creative customer base, many of whom have shifted to virtual and challenge. We thank you for your support!
Stay healthy.