Turning 40: an event to remember

For runners, turning forty means you've become a Master. Whoever came up with that designation clearly had a marketing background. 'Master' sounds much better than 'middle-aged' the same way 'dried plums' sounds much better than 'prunes.' You've achieved something ('we're dried plums!') rather simply becoming pruney.

Forty is just the start of being a masters runner. You have your fifties, sixties, seventies and beyond to look forward to. For a race, things are a little different. Ten years is remarkable, twenty is rare, thirty is amazing and forty is almost non-existent. Other than the Boston Marathon (116 years and counting), can you name an event that has hit forty?

Minnesota has had a long history of impressive events, but no major race (1000+ participants) has yet hit forty, not Grandma's Marathon, not Get In Gear, not Twin Cities Marathon. That's about to change. Want to attend a special 40th birthday party? Come to Summit Avenue in St Paul on March 18, 2012 for the St Patrick's Day Human Race!

The event that started as the St Patrick's Day Mini-Marathon has been held on Summit Avenue each March since 1973, making the 2012 edition its fortieth. Originally a five-mile run, it now includes an 8K run (4.97 miles), 5K run/walk (3.1 miles) and youth run (0.25 and 0.5 miles).

I have worked the event each year since 1981 and been race director since the late 1980s. It's a humbling experience to guide an event with such an amazing history. I'll write more about that history, but now I'm busy starting to plan a party, and I need your help. What should we add or change about the event that would make it extra special? Something  that you've seen at other events, or something that you've never seen before. Maybe something we are already doing but could do better, or something we used to do and you think we should bring back. Turning 40 is a big deal, and we're ready to shake things up!

We'll collect the ideas and let you help decide which ones we should do. Feel free to spread the word (this isn't a surprise party after all). We want to hear from you, the participants that have made this a great event.

Help us become masters. Leave your ideas in a comment below, or on our Facebook page. The St Patrick's Day Human Race is turning 40 and we're ready to celebrate. Help us make it an event to remember!

Stress Test Provides Feedback

Stress tests have leaped from the doctor's office to the bank examiner's office. Soon you may (or may not) know more about how healthy your mega-bank is. What about your favorite run/walk event? How does it do on a stress test?

As an event director, our stress test comes in the form of our post-event surveys. Your feedback provides valuable information about how we are doing. In the spirit of transparency, we want you to know the results.

Our survey after the recent St Patrick's Day Human Race is now complete. We had more than 400 responses, which is 25% of the people receiving the survey link via E-mail. That is considered a high rate (at little as 10% could be statistically valid).

The Results
The six most important things to respondents are listed below. In parentheses next to each item is their importance to respondents and an approval rating, each achieved based on a five-point scale with 1.0 the lowest, 3.0 neutral, and 5.0 the highest.

1. Official results posted online (importance=3.01/approval=4.16)
2. Course (3.0/4.25)
3. Restrooms (2.87/3.63)
4. Event date (2.79/3.97)
5. Headquarters (2.69/4.02)
6. Refreshments (2.44/3.59)

The good news is that, in those six key categories, we performed pretty well. We consider any approval rating below 4.0 something we need to work on. That leaves three areas to address.

Event date and headquarters are linked: our date is fixed by the availability of facilities at the University of St Thomas. Our event is held on the first Sunday of their Spring Break so we have access to indoor facilities. Next year, things are a little uncertain, since the University of St Thomas will be building a new field house. We won't know until later in the year what that means for our event date and HQ.

We know restrooms are important to runners and walkers. At 3.63, the score wasn't terrible, but needs some work. The biggest piece of advice we got was that people wanted porta-potties near the 8K start at Prior. We are looking into options for doing that.

Refreshments did okay at 3.59, and even earned rave reviews for the trail mix from Great Harvest. We'll work to enhance our offerings for 2010.

Our Web Site
We also asked you about our web site. It got higher marks than last year (we overhauled the site last April), and you really like the results features. However, many people had problems with the maps and some didn't like the site navigation. We are moving to a new mapping tool (MapMyFitness) that should greatly improve the maps we use, and are looking at the best ways to address the navigation issues. We have also made some updates to our online registration process. Most people flew through it with no problems, but the ones who had problems got really frustrated. We've eliminated a couple potential issues that should smooth things out for most people.

Action Questions
The most powerful questions on the survey where the three 'action' questions. Here is how we did on them:

1. How likely are you to return next year? 90.8% likely or very likely
2. Would you recommend this event to a friend? 90.7% likely or very likely
3. Would you participate in another TSL event? 83.0% likely or very likely

Finally, when we asked you to describe the event, the most common words and phrases used were:

• "fun"
• "well-organized"
• "great course"
• "friendly"

Of course we did receive a few responses like "waste of money," "too expensive, especially on race day" and "not sure what the event has to do with St Patrick's Day or humans." We know we can't please everyone, and want to make sure people know what the event is about when they choose to participate.

Conclusion
Our stress test provides us some directives to make our events better. The funny thing is that I feel less stress just knowing what you are thinking. Thank you for sharing!

Time for Stories

Every day the stories seem more bleak. More layoffs, more Ponzi schemes, more bad financial news. I admire ostriches for having enough sense to put their heads in the ground and ignore it all!

We did a survey last summer and found most runners were not cutting back significantly in their running expenses because they consider them to be essential. That may have changed slightly since then, but we're seeing race registration purring along, people buying running shoes and getting excited about a chance to run outside with a little warm-up.

Most of us can't ignore the bad news entirely. But we can use some of our best human skills, the ones that have kept our species alive for so long. We can connect with other people, share our stories, and work together to make things better.

A new president has asked us to do just that. There are glimmers of hope. For many of us, running is a great metaphor for times like these. Yes, sometimes it is hard, but moving forward will lead to something better, sharing will lead to something richer, and persevering will lead to something lasting.

For those who have lost jobs recently, I encourage you to maintain your connections. Running can be a great way to keep social, keep active, and keep sane. Reach out to your running partners or group, and let them reach out to you. Don't disappear, come to races too. We're offering a special $10 entry fee for the St Patrick's Day Human Race for people recently laid off. Join us and join your friends.

Continue to tell your stories. Stories keep us connected, keep us inspired. Online social networking is so popular for a reason. It allows people to tell the stories of their lives, and see the stories of their friends. Tell us your stories. Find us on Facebook and drop us a note. How is your running going? What about your job search? Reach out to others who want to hear, and want to help.

We all have our own stories, but sometimes we want to be lost in someone else's story. Movies have the power to tell stories in ways that pull us in. There are many inspirational running movies (and some dreadful ones too). I've incorporated a list of fabulous running movies into six-week training programs posted on our Facebook page. These movies combine entertainment with inspiration.

Of course, there is no substitute for face-to-face interactions. Training partners , training groups and running clubs all fill that role. Jeff Galloway, Olympian and marathon training guru, recommends that each person in a training group bring a story to tell on a long run. By the time you get to your marathon, you are not only ready to run, you've become a better storyteller and listener.

The snow will melt, the economy will heat up and jobs will return. Your running will be part of what makes things better. Your stories will be part of what makes things richer.