Discussion: Quit your job and become a full-time AR RD??

What an insane idea, right? Read on...

Perhaps the strongest way to grow adventure racing is for there to be more full-time RDs. Full-time RDs can devote a lot more hours to promoting and delivering quality races along with AR/nav clinics, youth initiatives and more. Instead, it seems like we are losing many of our race organizations and RDs. For those who would see it as a dream job, here is one way to becoming a full-time (or at least half-time) adventure race director. At least this worked for me and I hope it works for others.

1. Don’t quit your day job. Yet. Gather one or more friends who adventure race and/or have relevant skills for putting on a race (e.g., project manager, tax guy, graphic designer, promoter) so you can reduce outside expenses and share the workload, heaviest for race #1.

2. Be at peace with putting on a race that you would NOT like to participate in. You are NOT normal and there are not enough “you’s” out there to generate enough race revenue to support your new job.
a. Keep the race navigation-based, multi-sport and in teams. There’s no need to eliminate the core elements.
b. Locate near a large population center. We are in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Not exactly the adventure capital of the world. Two million residents within one hour. Pretty normal people and terrain. But an average of 1,600 participants have shown up to four 3-10 hour adventure races every year since 2011. There is NO way that we are the only community capable of this.
c. Include an urban section. At least the first race. Give the newbies a comfortable place to try AR out. Integrate nearby green spaces if possible. Google maps okay. Splice in topo areas or hand out topo maps where applicable.
d. Include four to eight Amazing Race-like challenges or some similar twist that the masses would like, NOT what you would like. We estimate that we get 200 additional racers (including 100+ newbies) at each sprint race when we add challenges to them. So we add about $9,000 extra in profits per race by adding something we would NOT like to do in a race. If you decide to put on a race like this and are not in our area, email me at mark@miadventureracing for a list of 60 challenge ideas that we have used. Nothing dorky, 4-10 minutes to complete (e.g., run a 600 meter trail loop, memorize the eight images on trees you go by, write them down in order at the end).
e. Keep it short. 3-5 hours. All checkpoints should be optional. With optional CPs, challenges won’t have long lines.
f. Buy a Facebook ad before the race. Spend $100-300 if possible. We get hundreds of people to our website this way.
g. Email a media release to every media person in your region. The media goes crazy when it sees an Amazing Race-like event. You'll expose thousands of people to your race and to adventure racing. For free. See our tips here: http://miadventurerace.com/learn-more/strategies-t...
h. Offer a free adventure race/navigation clinic before the race. Ask your outdoor gear store to host.
i. Involve local business for prizes and a charity partner for volunteers.

3. Repeat a similar race later in year in same or nearby city. Tweak after the first race, but give yourself two races to evaluate success. Consider a winter race if you know you’ll have snow (add snowshoeing and fatbiking as challenges) or hold a race in conjunction with a large event in the area (we weave some of our fall race through a major art festival downtown).

4. In year two or three consider adding additional races with an increased duration and more challenging navigation and terrain. Remove the challenges from these traditional longer races. We gradually adjusted two races up to 8 and 10 hours, traditional, and kept two (winter and ArtPrize which weaves through a huge art festival) at 3-5 hours, with challenges. Total participants in 2015 will be 1,500-1,600. We will bump the 10 hour race up to 15 hours next year. We'll likely wait 2-3 years to put on a 24 hour race or perhaps a 2-3 day coast-to-coast race across Michigan.

5. Supplement with trail races, mountain bike/gravel road races, and/or orienteering meets (it’s okay to call these adventure runs or use other language to draw in the trail running masses). We put on two trail races in addition to the four adventure races.

Quit your job or reduce your hours somewhere in the process… hopefully! Let’s get AR growing again!

Mark - I appreciate your interest and passion in keeping AR around in the near future. Most RDs would not share secrets to becoming successful but you continue to prove that you love the sport of AR. See you at your next race.

Thanks Tone! My only discomfort with sharing is coming across as a know-it-all - I still have a lot to learn but 15 years in my previous marketing job helps me promote and put on races and I'm eager to share if it helps grow the sport. Thanks for racing with us. Looking forward to northern Michigan races next year!

I have long admired your enthusiasm and willingness to share what has worked for you - and what has not. You don't come across as a know-it-all. You usually share your experiences and ask others what they think or what they have tried. Unfortunately, the discussion doesn't usually get too far since you are one of the few people on AP trying this approach. Congratulations on moving out of the cubicle into a self-designed job!

Love it Mark! And I am proud to say I love my job, and feel privileged to help those RDs who are putting in the hours to keep AR going.

Thanks Bash! I appreciate your encouragement and advice! You all in Ontario are doing AR races better than pretty much anywhere else (and for a lot longer than me) so keep sharing what works for you too. I'll miss seeing you, Bob and others at Wilderness Traverse this year. September/October is my busiest time. Hopefully 2016. Have a great race, assuming you are co-running it again.

Thanks - yup, we are busy getting ready for WT now. All the best in your fall season too.

Mark is the mark-eting genius of AR. Seriously don't know how you get so many people to your races here in Michigan!!!! Its amazing.

Consider that depending on how you draw the radius (eg, if I grab wikipedia's GR metro and Detroit metro numbers), he's got 25% of the population to work with and gets something like 5x+ the participants.

You all get the word out so that helps immensely. I'm eager to see some other RDs try this to see if it truly can be replicated in other similar areas. Hard to believe that West Michigan is a unique "mystery spot" where are the forces of AR align for growth (at least at the sprint level). Others have been using some of these strategies (e.g., Tim at Rib Mountain, WI) but really curious and eager to see it (or similar strategies) work elsewhere.

i think the key to this list is:

2. Be at peace with putting on a race that you would NOT like to participate in. You are NOT normal and there are not enough “you’s” out there to generate enough race revenue to support your new job.

i am a 1st year race director at Alpine Shop, we have put on trail runs and paddle races so far with 1 remaining trail run and 1 remaining adventure race (8hr) this year. and i have to say that our most popular events are the ones i would be least excited about participating in.

we are weird.

thanks for your advice Mark and in 2016 we may be putting some of these strategies out there!

Thanks Mark. I put on 2 races/year in Iowa and while numbers have been slowly growing, it's not nearly where I'd like it to be and think it can be. Your experience and successful strategy is helpful. When I started, it was partially because there weren't many races around, but I also thought I could put together a pretty sweet course (and I still think that). Problem is, as you point out, we are a little strange.

I'm going to add one or two challenges to our November 8 hour race, and hopefully next year add some more and/or another shorter race. On the flip side, I'm working on a multiday race for next year also for the rest of us.

Good input Mark,

Problem number 1: I don't want to relocate to a large metropolis. Abby and I are planning races that are longer (24-36hr) and more challenging in hopes to make it a destination race...... because who doesn't want to visit the Tetons? 2016 Teton Ogre 24hr!
Problem number 2: Abby and I NEED to put on races we would like to race in. It keeps us inspired and ensures racers they will experience a great, well thought out event.
Problem number 3: We won't ever make a lot of money because of our previous two problems! Ha! oh well Thanks!

Re Problem #2, perhaps some of that can be accommodated. MarkV, eg, has done a 5 hour race with challenges concurrently with an 8 hour race in the traditional vein.

I have wondered about a "sport" category for 24 hours races. The expert class, eg, would have several checkpoints in the wilds of some forest before the next TA, while the sport class has to get down a main trail to their bikes. No additional effort on behalf of the organizer, and a larger audience (admittedly...maybe not much larger) can join the fun, versus say, spending seven hours finding the first checkpoint (happened at a local 24 a couple years ago).

Thats a great idea.... Yogaslackers had "Pro" points in their BendAR race this year. it's a great concept..... The only downfall was the "Pro" points were too early in the race and most the teams went for them. It made it so it was too hard to finish the race for many teams.

The Eco-Endurance Challenge 24-hour rogaine in Nova Scotia offers two categories: GPS and non-GPS. It brings out more people and in the year that I did it, the GPS winner would only have been mid-pack in the non-GPS category.

We've talked about this for WT as well, although we don't like GPS in AR ourselves. One concern is that non-GPS teams could ask GPS teams to tell them their location. It's not uncommon for AR teams to work together but that would be an especially unfair advantage.