Race Day Singups / Timing Costs

[SlowDog]

I'm trying to work out a budget for a local 5K of about 300 people.

1. In your experince, what percentage of runners signup on race day and pay the higher fee?

2. The race would be in suburban NJ. Anyone here willing to share what they paid to have a timing company come in and was it worth it?

TIA.

[TBigg27]

Race day sign up depends on many factors. Weather, time of year, purpose of event (fund raiser, etc). On a good weather day you can have as many as 30 to 40% more entries. It also has a lot to do with your customer base. It you got the message out thoroughly, and gave ample time for pre-registration, you will have less day of registrations. If it is a fund raiser that participants have a personal interest in supporting the cause your turnout will be less dependant on the weather and more on how you got the message to potentional runners.

A timing company for a run of 300 runners is highly recommended. I've paid usually about $3 per runner in the NYC long Island area. Your cost of timing could be as little as $2 per runner to as much as $4. Get all details in writing prior to the event. For each of my past three events I've used a great event registration company called EventsOnLine.ca. They are an online registration company silimar to the huge online registration company everone seems to be using these days but they are much more user friendly and less expensive.

[SlowDog]

thanks for the insights.