Trying to get a wheelchair racing event started to benefit a charity. Would like to obtain some feedback from racers out there and what would attract them to a race year after year? Prizes, Money, Travel Package, the Course itself, etc...? Would love to hear from those of you who still race or used to race.

Califanna

Travel package would sure entice me!
But I am unranked racer who has just trained and not competed yet, so I doubt you'd want me.

Putitng on an event open to racers from overseas would be of interest to the "tourist"racer. A decent location with good scenery is always a bonus, preferential rates with hotels and or travel companies.

If you want to attract the elite racers then prize money.

As I understand from your post and PM, you want to start a new race and aim for it to become an annual event, growing each year and attractive to the top racers around the world.

Here are my suggestions…

CHARITY EVENT OR TOP RACE?
These don’t mix - it’s either a charity event or a serious race for serious athletes. In serious events, you get fun-runners raising money for charity but in charity events you don’t get serious athletes.

PRIZE MONEY
The larger the amounts and the more it’s spread out, the more it’ll be attractive to racers. Instead of having prizes only for 1st, 2nd & 3rd, Male and Female, you should aim to spread the money out and give prizes from 1st to 10th places, with the last 5 places being the same amount, Male and Female. If the number of female racers is low, adjust it so prizes run from 1st to 5th.

TRAVEL PACKAGES
Definitely a strong attraction to athletes and will increase the number of racers. See if you can get a large international travel company on board as a sponsor and they provide/organise all travel arrangements for athletes. You can also contact your regional tourist authority to ask them for assistance – don’t just ask for money… ask for their logistical support whereby they use their contacts, influence etc to get cheaper accommodation, flights, airport transfers, etc – ask to have the race HQ based at their offices as this will add much credibility to your event.

DATE
This is key to the success of the event, as you don’t want to clash with other events. However, you can “piggy back” other large marathons in your area and set up your event the week before. For example… (you’re from California?)… the LA Marathon is a big worldwide race on most racers calendar… if your race was the week before, this could be attractive to many racers so they can acclimatize etc before the big race.

You can also look at your climate and dates of the race season to see if you can make your race pre-season or post-season. If you race is interesting enough and prize money and packages are attractive, then you could make an impact out of the normal season, but that’s would be hard.

WHEELCHAIR RACERS, HANDBIKERS & ABLE-BODIED
I’d suggest making this a “normal” race with able-bodied racers (serious/pros as well as leisure runners) and include wheelchair racers as well as handbikers – male, female, juniors and seniors. This will involve much more work as each category needs to start at different times, but it’s done all the time.

LENGTH
Marathons are for the top racers, so this could limit the number of entrants for a new event. There are lots of shorter runs that are fast growing in popularity, such as 10km runs. This gives the serious athletes a serious race, but will also be attractive to the fun-runners and those that run for charity.

MEDIA
You need to get someone on your team that has experience with working with the Media – a Marketing Consultant or similar. You need to get your racer mentioned in newspapers, magazines, internet, radio and most importantly, get it aired on TV. Without this, you won’t get the interest from potential sponsors, and you need that income to cover prize monies and travel packages and all the other organisational costs.

NEW CONCEPT?
If you have an idea for a new concept, such as a mixed event with a variety of events, then that might work too. Like a 2 or 3 day event with a different competition each day - like a "SuperStars" or "Strongest Man" event to see who's the all-round fittest. The problem is finding different physical challenges that doesn't require each entrant to buy/own new expensive equipment - like a wheelchair racing chair, a handbike, a downhill chair..

I hope this helps – let me know if I can do anything else.

Can you explain to me what you mean by ranked? How do you get ranked?
Thanks, Califanna

http://athletics.iwasf.com/

Thanks for the replies. Does anyone have an opinion as to why past racing events have failed reaching longevity status? What makes an event fail? Money? Organization? People? Some have said that the disability population is fickle and not dependable. How many believe this?

Califanna

Hi, sure. Well, I haven't competed in any sanctioned races where I have obtained an official time for a given distance. The big marathons and whatnot require that you have finished sanctioned races under a certain time in order to qualify. The director of the wheelchair race division of the Boston Marathon is Bob Hall, pioneer of the sport and innovator of wheelchair racing chair technology. He used to run a company in Somerville, Massachusetts, called New Hall's Wheels, and I actually met with him personally to get fitted for my chair. He is an incredibly nice person, but after his company went under he disappeared off the planet. I have wanted to get in touch with him, but no luck finding him. He lives in Belmont, Mass. That's all I know.

He might be the ideal contact person for your research. If you can get a hold of him, I'm sure he would be very kind in assisting you or referring you to other resources.



I can tell you that the reason I have opted not to compete in most local races is because of the course. I can't do hills or hairpin turns. Racing chairs are not nearly as maneuverable as court chairs or daily use chairs. And, among racers, I am not the most dexterous to begin with. I would compete despite the lack of prize money, but I am a just a novice. Elite racers would not waste their time or travel budget.

What do you mean about "Elite Racers would not waste their time or travel budget"?

Elite racers will want to use their budget to travel to only prestigious races where they can win notoriety and prize money.

I raced quite a few times this year, my choices came down to races that cost the least amount to fly to and stay at. I did not care about prize money.

Check out this marathon they get huge amounts of people from all over the world Oita International Wheelchair Marathon.

I would personally attend the same race every year if travel and accommodation was covered.

The other thing.. might want to offer different classes. I am a racer but do it for fun. I used to be a serious cyclist but havent had the drive to get into wheelchair racing competitevely. But if different classes were offered like even a leisure class for the lower levels then you might get people like me to go.