Three race management and preparing for the AZ Trail Race

It's a three-fecta over the next three months.  Three races/events to manage and execute on February 7, March 13 and April 10.  I'm not sure how many of you know, but I'm the only employee of Everyone Runs.  It's my company and, up until a few days before each race, I am pretty much the only one doing event prep.  Luckily the Fleet Feet AZ Trail Race is a joint effort between ER and Fleet Feet, so I have a lot of partnership with Pete & Jeanne and their staff.

This week revolved around the mundane of entering last minute entries, securing our medics and being a part of Sunday's practice race at the AZ Trail.  We had a strong showing, with at least 50 runners making a wise choice to get used to this very tough trail run course prior to next Sunday.  These runners now have a good idea of what to do on race day and how to manage their run.  Big thanks to Jim Magnum for his advice to all of the runners.  I hung back to make sure no one got lost, but was able to run a good pace on the last few miles with "Pete Fleet Feet."

In this final week before the race I will have a lot of "to do's" to do.  Everything from printing the runner bibs, sending the final roster to our timer (Greg Wenneborg), getting packet pick-up organized, communicating details with all of our awesome volunteers, picking up the water and bananas, cleaning and packing all of my event gear in the rental van, filling water jugs, making sure all of those lovely porta potties are placed close by, setting up the start/finish line/post-race festival and waking up at 3:00 a.m. to make the 45 mile drive from my house to Colossal Cave.  There's a lot more stuff in-between these lines, but the effort is all worth it when I see how much fun all of you have had once you cross the finish line.

Arizona Trail Race

The Arizona Trail Race is just two weeks aways.  That means lots of pre-race work this week:
print bib labels, secure water, finalize race roster, clean start/finish line arch, pick-up final entries at Fleet Feet, deliver permits to the folks at Colossal Cave, send emails to participants about packet pick-up, post those details to the web site, send out event press release to the media, and also concentrate on the marketing for the Midtown sertoma 5k on March 13.  Tomorrow we have an event "pep-rally" to get the Sertoma board members pumped up.  More later.

The life of a race director

I'm Steve Landau, race director of Everyone Runs, in Tucson. In 2004 I left my advertising career and with my family started Everyone Runs. No, it wasn't a mid-life crisis - ok, maybe. I tired of perpetuating free enterprise and needed to give back. We have supported many in need, while helping people achieve better health & fitness. In my blog I will write of what we're doing to make a race happen. Please let me know if you would like any other content and I'll do my best to oblige.