Giving out age group awards on race day

[pstewart]

We had so much number switching at this year's Credit Union Cherry Blossom that a number of my age group awards were incorrect as given out on race day. I ran some statisitics and found that only 33.8% of the age group men bothered to stay around and pick up their awards and only 29.3% of the women. Let me note that is was a beautiful morning with gradually rising temperatures into the mid 60s so lousy weather was not an issue.

I am thinking about not giving out age group awards on race day next year and wanted to see what others are doing. Posting the age group results but not giving out the awards would give us time to hear from folks who feel the results are incorrect and to review any anomolies ourselves.

I would also like to know if the results change after you give out the awards due to switching if folks actually try reclaim those that were given out in error on race day or if you simply get an award for the new person and leave the others as is. (I assume everyone will correct the actualy published results.)

[Trailrunnerdude]

Those figures (33.8% and 29.3%) seem a little low given the weather and prestige of the race (an age group award at the Cherry Blossom Ten would seem to me to be more highly-coveted than a similar award at a small 5K). From what I've seen, the single largest determinant of whether people stick around for awards is the amount of time needed to generate results. The longer it takes to produce the results, the fewer the number of people who are there to accept them. It also helps to announce that there is an awards ceremony and to give 'random' prizes to keep people around & interested.

[Doug R]

For what it's worth, Phil, our event mails the age category awards out several weeks after the event. This gives us and our timing company some time for the final results to "settle", as we deal with any of the small listing errors that invariably crop up.

[QcyRunner]

We have door prizes and raffles going on as the 5K walkers finish and the 10K runners are coming in. Once I have the 5K results we start passing out awards (Usually 1:10 after the start of the 5K.) I usually only have about 4-6 awards I need to mail out. Our key is keeping people engaged while waiting for the 10K to finish. By the time we've gotten all the 5K awards done I have the complete set of 10K results. We do have a few errors. If I can swap on-site, we do so. If too much of a hassle to get the awards back, I simply re-order and send out correct awards.

[joeconn4]

2 related issues here; 1) Number switching throws off your results, 2) Award winners do not stick around for the awards ceremony.

If you accept that number switching is going to happen at this event, and you're not interested in DQing runners who do that, then I think it makes sense to mail the age group awards after the race, when you've had time to analyze your results and any other evidence to ensure your award winners are the person who registered for that bib. At the main event we produce, we have had 2 documented issues of age group award winners who were someone else. Both those runners plus the people they got the bib from were DQ'd and all 4 have been banned from our event for life. I'm not suggesting this is right for Cherry Blossom, just offering an example of how to deter number switching.

As for award winners not sticking around, that's often a function of what it is they're sticking around for. Are your awards something that are valued to the point where "must be present to win" could be effective?

At our main race, we got away from a traditional awards ceremony a few years ago because of how long it takes and also because atendance was dwindling. Now, we have a prize table and it's the responsibility for winners to review the results board and visit the prize table if they have won to collect their award. Our announcer reads age group top 3's randomly so the winners do get an announcement-he does this as part of the normal finish line announcing. The prize table is staffed by event sponsors and members of our Board.

At our smaller races, we have mostly eliminated age group awards. We will give performance awards for male/female open/masters winners (winners only, not 2nd, 3rd, etc) but everything else is random draw. We are not hearing any negative feedback since we started this. Of course, this only works if you have a diverse prize pool. If you give out trophies or medals or something like that then a more traditional ceremony probably works best. For us, runner feedback was an adamant "no more trophies!".

For a recent 5k we produced, we even set up the random draw before the race. As the runners were out on the course we hung signs inside at the finish area noting who won and what they won. When runners finished they just looked on the wall to see if they had won and then went to a table staffed by a race sponsor to claim their prize. We did a "last chance" drawing for any unclaimed prizes after the race, in case pre-registered runners didn't actually show up for the race.

[Trailrunnerdude]

At our main race, we got away from a traditional awards ceremony a few years ago because of how long it takes

This is exactly my point - the wait times for results to get generated seem to take longer than they did 10 & 20 years ago. For most races, it should be possible to generate & validate the results for the M & F open winners even if you go 10 deep within 30 minutes. You can begin with the open winners and then segway into the age group winners in a short amount of time. One of the problems that I've seen is that some timing & scoring companies want to wait until everyone comes across the finish line before they'll produce the results.

[JamesM]

We use chip timing and don't normally get number switching becuase we don't make it difficult to fix things on the day before the race.
Number switching seems to happen on races where it sells out or registration is not avalible on race day. Better pre-race customer service, especially on race day, would solve most of the problems.

I think fast reliable results are a key. We are in the age of chip timing, so a switched bib should not throw you off, only a switched chip. If you have places where people can scan there chip after pickup and verify that the computer has there correct name, age and sex that would help.

We give prizes 3 to 5 deep in five year age groups. (2 for teens). We keep the food, fun and drawings going to keep the crowed. For a 5K we have preliminary results out early, and while any problems are being fixed we hare having the kids mile, so about 1 hour and 10 minutes after the start the awards should be final and being announced it gets underway.

We do have some tricks for dramatically speeding that up. We do random drawings before and after the awards which helps to keep people around and focused in the right direction.

We try very hard to keep it VERY fast paced. We announce in age groups, not as individuals. We call all the names in that age group in reverse place order, then they come up all at once, while the announcer is calling the next group.

We do parallel awards processing, so if the age groups are 3 deep there will be three people with big numbers hanging around their necks, 1st , 2nd & 3rd etc. Each is responsible for giving out that finish position. So even the actual handing out of the prizes is run in in parallel. You have no idea how much faster and smother that makes actually giving out the awards. Then they move as a group to the next stage, age group photo (if we are doing them for that race). In this digital age that's a nice touch, "There is me with my award, and the others in my age group". Is that worth sticking around for? I don't know but it seems to me that the locals are more interested in who there direct competition in the age group is than any other subject.

We don't mail awards. Never. One cost we save. You pick it up at the race, or for some races we allow you to drop by a local running store and pick it up later. You want it, you pick it up. You don't want it, we recycle it for our end of the year fun run where we have tables with all the uncollected awards, first across the line gets first pick, last one home still gets something but not much of a choice.

It is possible that having good food after the race, something other than banana's and bagels, will help. The last race our club was involved with, along with the Junior League, had everything from unlimited orange juice, four sorts of fruit including oranges, bananas, grapes and apples, healthy granola breakfast cereals with raisins and cranberries, thee tables giving out samples of various bars,a gas cooker doing hot pancakes and a whole lot more.

I think the next one, Run for the Roses, will have strawberries, and maybe even chocolate fountain to dip them in. I hope the Starbucks truck is there again, I love the free smoothie samples, and the endless free coffee is good too, especially for volenteers who have been on site since 5am.

Last, Is you race venue some place people want to hang out, a place where they feel comfortable?
Is it a nice park with some shade trees and grass to sit around on or is it some parking lot with nothing soft to sit on?

[Dave Camire]

Another problem that supports mailing awards happens at multi-race events when a runner decides to switch from the 10K to the 5K and does not inform timing officials. Unfortunately a slow 5K time can look like a legitimate 10K time and this really messes up the awards. At some events we have a separate finish line for each race; however this is more costly especially if its chip timed event and requires additional mats. Phil’s percentages of runners not staying around for the awards ceremony are consistent from what I see regularly in New England. At some events it becomes embarrassing when the race director announces name after name and no one appears. I guess today’s runners can’t be bothered with waiting around for an award’s ceremony. When I started racing in the early seventies it would take hours for the results to be tabulated, however everyone stuck around for the awards but this was pre-Internet

Dave Camire
Yankee Timing