Local race is too popular - any ideas how to cope?

5 watchers

DeeGee Nov 2015 8:27am, 4 Nov 2015 16,774 posts	0 DeeGee Our club organises a monthly 5k race up and down the prom in Cleethorpes, first Tuesday in every month. For the past year or so, entries have been growing. It has always been entry on the day, turn up, sign in, pay 3 quid and get a number. Yesterday we took the best part of an hour doing entries and ended up with 180 or so runners, which the course can cope with, just, but if it gets any bigger it'll be bedlam! Has anyone else ever found themselves in this situation? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to restrict numbers? There was a suggestion of making it online entry in advance, but I don't want to go down that route if at all possible. Problem is, we're a rural community and some people travel some distance to get to the race. I'd be gutted to have to turn them away.
willdowney Nov 2015 8:39am, 4 Nov 2015 34 posts	0 willdowney If you want to keep it informal and entries on the day and not cap it then I would suggest running two races (Two start times) - Say Sub 22mins (Or a suitable time looking at past results) go first and then the rest after that race has finished.
Ultracat Nov 2015 8:54am, 4 Nov 2015 11,318 posts	0 Ultracat Increase the price. Prepay to do a series of 3 or 4 races.
Curly45 Nov 2015 8:55am, 4 Nov 2015 2,903 posts	0 Curly45 Offer a discount for entry in advance/put up prices for EOD. Offer a season discount for say 4 of 6 races (that works well at races down here). I love EOD races, but I know when I do them I need to arrive EARLY and I will pay a bit more.
The Teaboy Nov 2015 8:57am, 4 Nov 2015 13,249 posts	0 The Teaboy Snipers
Spleen Nov 2015 9:18am, 4 Nov 2015 1,241 posts	0 Spleen You want less demand, increase the price. Economics 101. And seriously consider using online entry - you can still take entries on the day (with an additional cost) but allowing people to sign up early will reduce the pressure on the registration desk.
jdarun Nov 2015 9:18am, 4 Nov 2015 435 posts	0 jdarun Is the problem really too many runners or too many EOLs or both? £5 on day / £4 pre-entry would probably help with both. And if not it would at least make significantly more money for the club. So I'd start with that and see what happens.
Autumnleaves Nov 2015 9:22am, 4 Nov 2015 7,247 posts	0 Autumnleaves What a great problem to have though!
Scott S Nov 2015 9:39am, 4 Nov 2015 884 posts	0 Scott S Adding £1 to that price wouldn't put me off - barely noticeable and to be honest, there aren't that many races around Grimsby/Cleethorpes to spread things out. Not sure how many club runners turn up to support Cleethorpes A.C. (especially if maybe the first/last race or so of the year) I like being able to turn up as I can never guarantee I'll be out of work in time or be able to drive there in time. As for running two races on the same night, I do see the point in this but then I personally want to try and run faster in these short races and "competing" against sub-20 runners may well force me to run faster than plodding along with people averaging 25min/5km. Or at the very least, do a free-for-all on the Tuesday night and faster runners on the Thursday (but this depends on whether you've got the time and enough people will turn up to make the time/effort worthwhile).
LazyDaisy Nov 2015 9:58am, 4 Nov 2015 12,290 posts	0 LazyDaisy Splitting into two races sounds like the plan I'd go for - you don't need to do it on time, you could just say first 100 to sign up, then the rest. In our club's experience, having online entry has meant even more people running our races, so much so we sell out now (maybe they don't all turn up, but the vast majority do.)