We have a series Customer Case Studies, in which we take your stories and share your challenges and successes as a learning tool for other RunSignup users. This Tomoka Marathon Case Study focuses on using RunSignup as a central data point for everything from registration to race day and volunteer coordination.
Tomoka Marathon and RunSignup
Runners High Timing and the Tomoka Marathon use RunSignup to maintain a central data point for various facets of their Race Management.
The Tomoka Marathon was the second edition of a local marathon, half marathon, and 5K. They brought out 1,400+ runners to celebrate and enjoy the Old Florida Charm and beauty of their area. Don of Runners High Timing and Race management walked us through the outline of their event.
A Professional Appearance
The Tomoka Marathon website is a beautiful, easily navigable, and informative website. To keep things simple, and to keep runners on their website (instead of redirecting them), they use RunSignup Widgets for Registration, Results, and Volunteer SignUp.
Using the Integration with the Race Director
Don takes advantage of the two-way data syncing between RunSignup and the Race Director to keep track of all his participants.
- Leading up to Race Day, he manages all data from within RunSignup.
- He assigns Bibs for all pre-registered runners in RunSignup, and exports them to Race Director.
- On Race Day, Race Director becomes his master, and he enters all paper registrations and Bib Numbers into Race Director.
- The integration allows him to load Results to RunSignup (hosted on his website via a widget) live on Race Day. While he will still need to double-check the results prior to awards, runners appreciate the ability to check their finishing times immediately.
“I like the integration with RD – it really makes things easier for me from a Race Director & Timer perspective. Previously, with other systems, I had to export, format, and import. This way, I can have everything, including a results link – set up before the event – and when the race is done, I’m done.”
– Don, Runners High Timing & Race Management
Race Day Solutions
- To make it easy for his runners to find their online results, Don includes a QR code on his Bibs that links to the results page.
- In addition to online results, they print results at the finish line for runners less comfortable using the internet on their phone.
- Tomoka Marathon offers text and email notifications to runners and spectators, and had a high adoption rate in 2015 – a total of 1,536 notifications were sent out.
- The race was RaceJoy enabled as a tracking option for runners who planned to carry their phones.
Volunteer Coordination
Recruiting & Managing Volunteers: The first year of the Tomoka Marathon required more work to find volunteers, but they were able to draw on existing relationships from other races they manage, and are now able to build on that base and brin many of the groups back each year. To manage their volunteers, they stress communication. The have a pre-race meeting, but also utilized the Volunteer email capability in RunSignup to make sure Volunteers have clear directives.
Using the RunSignup Volunteer System
Volunteers for the Tomoka Marathon used to be managed in a Spreadsheet – while that worked, it was time consuming. The RunSignup Volunteer System allows them to move all the data for volunteers into the same umbrella as their Participant Data, and provides easy emailing with Volunteers.
Tasks: Tasks are set up with Timeslots (some Tasks have multiple time slots), and minimums and maximums for each task. These Min/Maxs help them to keep track of what tasks need more volunteers when they view reports.
Categories: They have 4 categories of Volunteer: Course, Packet Pickup & Registration, Start/Finish Line, and Water Stops. Each Category has several Tasks that fall within that Category.
Volunteer Coordinators: Many Volunteer Tasks are staffed by groups. A leader from the group can then be assigned the role as Volunteer Coordinator, allowing them to provide communication to the group for the Task they are responsible for.
By using RunSignup for Registration, taking advantage of the integration with Race Director and utilizing the Volunteer System and it’s communication feature, the Tomoka Marathon is able to maintain a single database for each of the elements of the race.
If you have a success story about your race, store or club, big or small, email us…we’d love to explore a Case Study on your topic!