organizing a 5k, half and full marathon

I don't have a lot of advice, but we are organizing our first charity 5K at our church right now, so I'm learning along the way.

Here are a few bits of information and ideas that might get you started.

1) If no one involved has experience, I think that the 5K idea is the right place to start - maybe a combined 5k/10k event... half marathons and marathons take exponentially more resources/volunteer support and professional management to pull off well, and are not for the faint hearted to take on with no prior race director experience.

2) Do a google search for race timing companies in your area (and/or go to a few local 5K races and talk to the people who are timing the races). Many of these companies are small (1-2 person) operations with LOTS of experience and are willing for a small consulting fee to guide organizations through the process of starting a charity race. We found a local race timing company who has been a huge asset.

3) Try to think far in advance of your planned race date about the venue... this has been the hardest part for us, since we are a small church and do not have our own facility.

4) For best success, check the race calendars from the past few years in your area to see what other races are already established around the time you want to hold your event. If there are other big events on the same day, you are limiting your audience since many runners will likely go to the established event instead of yours.

5) For a 5K event, especially a fund-raising event, consider making the event a 5k run/walk. As long as the runners are allowed to take off a little bit before the walkers (a few second - maybe 30 seconds) they don't really mind the combined event, and that makes it much more family friendly and will allow you to sign up more participants (and therefore raise more money).

6) The major categories of expense that we've been focusing on are:

A. T-Shirts. Most folks expect a t-shirt for their entry fee. This is also a good way to get sponsorship money.

B. Insurance (if necessary as an additional policy - your church's policy might cover it)

C. Port-a-potties (if necessary... depending on size of the race and the venue, there might be adequate bathroom facilities already. Fortunately, this is an expense that is fairly easy to scale up closer to race day if you end up with a lot of registrants).

D. Cost of EMS/Police coverage. If you are on open roads and/or need to close roads, you will need some police presence along the course and there is often a cost associated. Similarly, most insurance policies are going to require you to have Emergency Medical personnel on standby at the race... also with some cost.

E. Race timing services. This is normally a base fee + a per-runner cost. If you are going to try to appeal to serious, hard-core runners, be sure to look into chip timing and not just tear off tab timing.

F. Water/refreshments - adequate water and refreshments for before and after the race are essential/expected by runners. For a 5K, usually only one on-course water station is really required. For a 10K at least 2-3 are needed. But also, don't forget the before/after race water available at your start/finish.

G. Race registration fees. One of the reasons that races are becoming so popular is that online registration services take a lot of the administrative work out of the day-to-day realm and handle the registration/billing for you... but they do take a cut for their services. This can add up to serious dollars. Active.com is the 800 pound gorilla of this service industry, and from what we have found, their services are not unreasonably prices, but there usually are cheaper local alternatives. Fortunately, none of these services seems to require exclusivity, so its possible to work with more than one at the same time.

7) There are two major ways that you raise money with an event like this: entry fees and sponsorships. Whatever the combination of funds you get, a good goal is to have the sponsorships cover the costs (or nearly so) so that the revenue generated by the entry fees is almost entirely available as the funds you raise from the event.

Sponsors can receive a mention on the race t-shirt, or mentions on on-course signage, or for a big enough fee (if the size of the event warrants it) can be the naming sponsor of the event. But, since this is a church-affiliated event, don't forget the possibility of having individuals or families be sponsors as well... for a simple name on the t-shirt at a low sponsorship level.

That's a lot more that I initially intended, but its a brain dump of the issues we are facing/dealing with.

Good luck!

Ted

I put on a 5k as a fundraiser for my girls basketball program.

We are actually looking to change it from a road race to an obstacle course race this year.

Anyway, get in touch with a good timing company and get their help. That is most crucial!

Get lots of good volunteers to help you.

To make money on a race, SPONSORS are key.

Hi, you can check out our free guides. It covers items such as getting permits, acquiring volunteers, technology etc..
How to organize a 5K race
&
How to organize a marathon

I would stick with the 5k distance. A local school puts on a 5k fun run which takes out some of the expenses because no one expects a lot of the race perks. I think they were targeting the color/ glow run type people and didn't even try to have it be competitive. The entry cost is low so they get more people. They make it explicit that it's a fundraiser and don't offer t-shirts so your $10 or $15 goes further. They did have a water stop but the course distance wasn't certified (or even accurate as it was about 5.25 k) and it wasn't timed. My company was a sponsor and paid our entries so the lack of 'racing' didn't bother me. One thing they did do is have booths for sponsors and then sold raffle tickets (in addition to the one you got as a runner) for prizes.

Making it an out and back can make it cheaper but usually isn't as scenic.