August 2020 Issue 433 The Latest in Road Running for Race Directors and Industry Professionals NEWS Resources and Plans for Re-opening Events Proliferate Check out Road Race Management's COVID-19 Resources section at http://www.rrm.com/act/resources/covid_resources.asp for the latest list of organizations offering guidance on reopening physical events. COVID-19 Economic Impacts Reach Deeper into Running Industry Businesses and events are both feeling the effects of the cancellation of nearly all running events since late March. Long-time running bib number company Rainbow Racing closed its doors on July 31 after 38 years in business. Owner Wally Egger told his customers, "Because our business relies solely on large participation events, we have been greatly impacted by restrictions put in place to combat the COVID pandemic. Unfortunately, we see no end in sight." The Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series slashed numerous events for 2021 and eliminated the marathons at a number of the surviving races. The RnR events in Atlantic City, Denver, Philadelphia, and San Francisco have been cancelled for 2021, with no mention of returning in 2022. The New Orleans and Clearwater, FL events are cancelled in 2021 with stated plans to return in 2022. The marathons will be dropped in Seattle and Washington, DC. The 31 events in the series are now split between 17 in the U.S. and 14 abroad. In addition to the 26 employees laid off by the New York Road Runners, the Atlanta Track Club will furlough its entire 26-person staff for the month of December. As reported in the May issue of Road Race Management, the club sustained a loss in conducting the Olympic Marathon Trials, which Executive Director Rich Kenah felt would be recouped by the event's promotion of Atlanta as a running city. However, the cancellations of the club's events since has produced a deficit of $1 million for the year. Meanwhile, the organizers of the 2021 World Athletics Cross Country Championships, scheduled for March 20, in Bathurst, Australia in New South Wales, recommended that these championships be postponed due to the pandemic. The organization also announced that the 2020 World Half Marathon championships in Gdynia, Poland on October 17 will take place as an elite-only event. The mass participation event planned to accompany the championship will be held virtually. Pandemic Hits Charity Fundraising Hard Peer to Peer Fundraising reports that the American Cancer Society forecasts a 55% revenue drop for its Relay for Life series, the March of Dimes saw revenue drop from $48.9 million to $25 million for its March for Babies StepUp, and the Walk MS series produced $25 million versus $40 million before the pandemic. A survey revealed that 75% of organizers replaced an in-person event with a virtual event; 28% created a new virtual event; and only 4% were able to hold a physical event. https://www.peertopeerforum.com/survey-p2p- campaigns-pivot-quickly-to-virtual-but-expect-revenues-to-decline-in-face-of-covid-19/ _______________________________ _______________________________ August 2020 Page 1 Spartan Race Cancels Remainder of 2020 Events After holding its Jacksonville, FL event, which attracted 1,000 participants in mid-June, the obstacle racing organization announced that no additional events on its 2020 schedule would be held. The organization said in a release, "As COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the United States and after ongoing discussion with state governments and health experts, we’ve made the necessary decision to cancel all remaining 2020 U.S. Spartan obstacle course races and trail events. It was a difficult decision to make, but we believe it’s better to prioritize safety now so we can rally towards the incredible season we have planned in 2021." Running USA Survey Shows Impact of COVID-19 The industry trade association seeking to garner support for the Endurance Sports Coalition's lobbying effort for federal support for the industry releases some sobering statistics from its survey, including the following: 92% of all live, in-person events have been canceled, and organizers do not have confidence they will occur this year; 82% of businesses that have received PPP funds have already depleted those monies; 39% of events have furloughed employees; 37% of event businesses have already conducted layoffs; 67% of event businesses may not survive 2020 without additional support. World Athletics Appoints Head of Grass Roots Programs Laurent Boquillet will head the organization's initiative "to create a healthier and fitter world," a top priority in the organization's recently-released strategic plan. _______________________________ _______________________________ August 2020 Page 2 Virtual Racing's Year in the Sun By Mark Heinicke Editor's Note: As race directors struggle to find a formula for putting on physical races with more than a few hundred socially distanced participants, Virtual Runs continue to dominate the U.S. road running scene. Building on Jim Gerweck's reporting about Virtual Runs in the May and June issues of RRM Newsletter, Managing Editor Mark Heinicke takes a deeper look into the Virtual Run culture that is now the mainstay of running events. As the COVID-19 pandemic’s grim reaper took down one traditional road race after another in 2020, yawning voids in the calendar of traditional races have been filled with virtual races of three basic types: Virtual events substituting for traditional races when the COVID-19 pandemic forced a cancellation. In most cases, a semblance of continuity has been maintained by adding “Virtual” to the traditional race name. Virtual events originating to fill gaps where minor club events, such as group training lead-ups to bigger traditional events, were knocked off the calendar. _______________________________ _______________________________ August 2020 Page 3 Virtual event offerings being expanded by organizations that were already specializing in virtual racing. Technology explains the growth in virtual racing The pandemic has given a big boost to the virtual racing trend, but that trend had already been accelerating over the past several years, as virtual races have increasingly become an adjunct to traditional races for organizations answering a growing demand. The increased demand for virtual racing is often seen as a culture shift, but like most culture shifts, this one is being abetted in large part by technology. Automated registration and handling of results reported by participants makes the data processing function seamless from end to end. It’s a convenience for the runner, but also to the race organization since it can subcontract much of the work of putting on a virtual race. Most of the physical challenges of putting on a traditional event, such as permitting, supplying tents and porta-potties and signing up volunteers, vanish. The physical part of a virtual race becomes confined to getting swag out the door. Social media gets the word about your race out to the entire world, and people in the entire world are going to be able to join your race—whether on a floodplain in Bangladesh, a desert in Namibia, or a mountainside in Alaska. Social media and marketing can expand your reach beyond what you may have ever thought possible when you had to get runners to come to you; instead, you can go to them wherever they are. That’s a win-win that can take some of the sting out of having to cancel your traditional race with its fixed location. GPS technology enables participants to run just about anywhere they want and still be able to get proof of their achievement. The technology confers multiple advantages, such as convenience, savings in time and money since there is not need for travel and lodging, and the ability to choose a course and weather conditions suitable to one’s own taste and purposes (such as running a fast time). Unfortunately, a major drawback is the notorious tendency of GPS to estimate distances in excess of the actual distance traveled on the ground, as reported in the IEEE Spectrum news and as noted by USATF [https://www.usatf.org/resources/course-certification/certification- procedures/position-on-gps-used-by-runners]. The overestimate may be as much as 400 meters in a marathon—a full one percent. On the other hand, trail races with many twists and turns may lead to an underestimate by as much as 50 percent! Converting A Traditional to A Virtual Race, the Upside: Brightening the Cancellation Blues Many race directors of cancelled events have viewed converting a traditional race to a virtual race as a necessary evil in order to cut financial losses and to maintain some semblance of continuity looking ahead to next year—hoping that there will be a race in 2021, and if not 2021 then 2022. But Virtual Runs appear to be joining the many areas of life and commerce that people are being forced to look at in a different light in the COVID-19 era. Many like what they see, including Michelle Juehring, director of Davenport, Iowa’s Quad-City Times Bix 7 Mile, who held a Virtual Bix 7 in place of the traditional late July event, and found herself turning virtual lemons into virtual lemonade. When asked whether she would put on another virtual race, Juehring responded cheerfully: "Absolutely! The virtual race allowed the spirit of our race to continue in a safe manner when running together was not possible, #findyourhappypace #runwiththebest. It also allowed many of our race volunteers to do the race for some for the first time. It also created an opportunity for those who don’t like crowds, are body conscious, cannot travel – to do our race. As this is our 46th year, we have volunteers well into their 60’s & 70’s.