I’ve stood in awe of race directors for a long time
now. I can’t imagine doing what they do
in order to pull off a successful running race. Large race or small, there are
still a zillion details that must be attended to from making sure there are
enough porta-potties to rounding-up and counting on volunteers, arranging for
T-shirts, medals and awards, making sure the course is measured, traffic is
controlled and aid stations are manned and supplied. Much of what they do is not
obvious to those of us who participate in racing events—unless of
course—something goes wrong.
Lisa Sinclair and Ron Baker of Green Events and I sat
soaking up the autumn sun outside a café in downtown Fort Collins one afternoon
and talked about what it’s really like to be a full-time race director.
In 2011, Baker, a recently retired dentist, who’d been
running for nearly 30 years, met Sinclair when they shared the same running
coach and discovered they had compatible ideas about environmental and social
sustainability.
Baker was looking for a second career and Sinclair, who had
been working for a local health club, was ready to put her extensive education
and experience in sports science, physiology and business into practice in a
business of her own.
Green Events was born. Today they own and sponsor four
events every year beginning with the Sweaty Sweater 5k ad Polar Plunge in January
and ending with the Equinox Half Marathon in September. (They camped out
overnight near the finish line before that one.) They also manage several fundraiser
running events for non-profits.
Their passion for preserving the environment and
contributing a portion of race proceeds to non-profits is as important to them
as their commitment to running. In 2010,
when they worked together in a zero-waste effort for for the Colorado Marathon
and the Horsetooth Half in Fort Collins, they achieved a whopping 90% of
race-related materials recycled.
The hardest thing about their job is the pressure that
builds close to race time to make sure they’ve tended to every detail. Despite
the sleep deprivation, they derive great satisfaction when they have created an
event that runs smoothly and provides a memorable experience for the runners.
“The flurry of emails I have to deal with are one of the
hardest parts of my job,” Sinclair said. Sometimes she forwards them to Baker
for a laugh. The week before a recent event, a race entrant asked Sinclair if
she could either find her a babysitter or change the starting time of the race
for her convenience.
“Runners love t-shirts and they’re passionate about medals,”
Baker has learned. After an inaugural medal-less year, for the Equinox Half he
caved in. Baker felt that medals made in China weren’t a good fit for a green
event. When Sinclair found a Colorado source using recycled materials, the
problem was solved.
Behind-the-scenes race planning begins a good year before an
event and continues until the last bin of recycled trash is emptied. And
in-between there are those endless details.
Sinclair and Baker agree. They couldn’t do it without
dedicated volunteers. And they wouldn’t trade their jobs for anything.
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