What should I do to organise a new Ironman race?

Hi

Would someone know how to organise a new ironman race? Where should I start? What organisation
approval do I need? How do you make it a successful event?

Thanks

happyy

 

On 05/17/03 12:10 PM, "Happyy" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi
>
> Would someone know how to organise a new ironman race? Where should I start? What organisation
> approval do I need? How do you make it a successful event?
>
> Thanks
>
> happyy

I'm not saying this to be a smart ass - it's meant as sincere advice:

If you have to resort to asking the above questions of an internet newsgroup, then you're probably
not qualified to organize such an event.

Seriously, if you're asking those types of questions I'm guessing you've never organized ANY
multisport event. Any experienced race director (at least the good ones) will tell you that an IM
isn't the place to get started.

Try organizing a sprint race first...

John

 

>From: John Hardt

>Try organizing a sprint race first...

I would venture to guess that advising this person to *do* a race first might be even better....

Mike C

 

"Happyy" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:

> Hi
>
> Would someone know how to organise a new ironman race? Where should I start? What organisation
> approval do I need? How do you make it a successful event?
>
> Thanks
>
> happyy
>
>

Put together sprint races for a couple of years until you've got that nailed. Then Olympic distance,
and so on. After 6-10 years directing races, try a half IM. At this point you'll transition into
managing races which have more staff than participants. 4-6 years of getting the half right, and you
can start the 2-4 year planning process for a well organized ironman. Start today, and you should be
ready in 12-20 years. Good luck!

 

"Happyy" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> Hi
>
> Would someone know how to organise a new ironman race? Where should I start? What organisation
> approval do I need? How do you make it a
successful
> event?
>
> Thanks
>
> happyy
>
>
Hi Happy,

2 points.

1. Ironman organise Ironman races all others organise long distance triathlon races. Ironman is a
trade name and they give their name to very few who have a proven track record in organising
triathlons. If you want to organise an actual ironman then contact them and they'll tell you
where to go (one way or the other).

2. Having just (yesterday) seen the 4th running of a race I help organise with 170 adults and around
180 children I can tell you the organisation can be very complex. There are a huge number of
considerations in terms of safety and logistics. Therefore your best bet is to start with risk
assessment, for which there are various courses. In the UK there are 2 courses being run in the
near future:
a) At the Eaton Sprints Triathlon
b) At the Windsor Triathon. One is free and the other is £5. This will give you an insight into the
problems and contacts with others who may be able to give you advice.

Hope this helps.

Wayne
--
DrClean www.DrClean.co.uk The Best Fabric Cleaning Resource on the Web

 

On Sun, 18 May 2003 13:15:16 GMT, Tom Henderson <[email protected]> wrote:

>"Happyy" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> Would someone know how to organise a new ironman race? Where should I start? What organisation
>> approval do I need? How do you make it a successful event?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> happyy
>>
>>
>
>Put together sprint races for a couple of years until you've got that nailed. Then Olympic
>distance, and so on. After 6-10 years directing races, try a half IM. At this point you'll
>transition into managing races which have more staff than participants. 4-6 years of getting the
>half right, and you can start the 2-4 year planning process for a well organized ironman. Start
>today, and you should be ready in 12-20 years. Good luck!
>

Before I spout off here I have to say that I have little or no race organization
experiance other than help organize/run a few small races. However I think your 12-20 year
time frame is a bit expanded. Being that the first IMH was concieved, discussed, set up
and ran in about a year. And on top of that was run the first time just four years over
your 20 year estimation ago. Although I agree with your approach to starting an IM, I
really don't think the time frame is quite as long as 12-20 years. Frankly I would think
someone starting from scratch and was really serious about learning the ropes could
probably do it in less than 5 years, assuming that they had the luck of getting sponsors
involved etc. For the love'o god Dairy Queen developed soft serve ice cream, opened up its
first store and ended up with nearly 2500 franchises in around 15 years, 5 of which were
in the middle of a war. IMO slightly more complex and involved process than "copying"
someone elses idea on setting up a race.

~Matt

 

On 05/19/03 2:50 PM, in article, "MJuric" <MJuric> wrote:

>> Put together sprint races for a couple of years until you've got that nailed. Then Olympic
>> distance, and so on. After 6-10 years directing races, try a half IM. At this point you'll
>> transition into managing races which have more staff than participants. 4-6 years of getting the
>> half right, and you can start the 2-4 year planning process for a well organized ironman. Start
>> today, and you should be ready in 12-20 years. Good luck!
>>
>
> Before I spout off here I have to say that I have little or no race organization experiance other
> than help organize/run a few small races. However I think your 12-20 year time frame is a bit
> expanded. Being that the first IMH was concieved, discussed, set up and ran in about a year.

-snip-

It was also done before the days of liability insurance, involved no road closures, required no
permits, had no support stations, no emergency personnel, and only had about a dozen participants.
It was nothing more than a bunch of buddies getting together to see if they could do the distance.
Hell, I could put that type of event together next weekend.

The original poster was interested in putting together a race that was "well run" - which means all
of those issues (and more) have to be covered thoroughly. I'm guessing 12 years - from a standing
start with no previous experience - isn't out of the question.

JH

 

On Mon, 19 May 2003 20:20:38 GMT, John Hardt <[email protected]> wrote:

>On 05/19/03 2:50 PM, in article, "MJuric" <MJuric> wrote:
>
>>> Put together sprint races for a couple of years until you've got that nailed. Then Olympic
>>> distance, and so on. After 6-10 years directing races, try a half IM. At this point you'll
>>> transition into managing races which have more staff than participants. 4-6 years of getting the
>>> half right, and you can start the 2-4 year planning process for a well organized ironman. Start
>>> today, and you should be ready in 12-20 years. Good luck!
>>>
>>
>> Before I spout off here I have to say that I have little or no race organization experiance other
>> than help organize/run a few small races. However I think your 12-20 year time frame is a bit
>> expanded. Being that the first IMH was concieved, discussed, set up and ran in about a year.
>
>-snip-
>
>It was also done before the days of liability insurance, involved no road closures, required no
>permits, had no support stations, no emergency personnel, and only had about a dozen participants.
>It was nothing more than a bunch of buddies getting together to see if they could do the distance.
>Hell, I could put that type of event together next weekend.
>
>The original poster was interested in putting together a race that was "well run" - which means all
>of those issues (and more) have to be covered thoroughly. I'm guessing 12 years - from a standing
>start with no previous experience - isn't out of the question.
>
>JH
>
Not disagreeing about the liability issue. However IMH turned into something that was
started by a couple of buddies with 15 participants in 1979 to something shown on ABC in
1980 to " Participants from 34 countries and 46 states compete" (Stolen form IM live history
of IM" in 1985. This is dramatic progress starting from scratch. Anyone startiong a race now
would have the previous experiance of a plethora of races and race directories from which to
draw from. Twelve years would be the equivalant of the 1991 IMH race. By this time the IMH
had qualifiers, charitable foundations, Prize money, multiple year contracts with sponsors
and nearly 1500 participants. I really don't think the original poster had this in mind as a
"well run". Again drawing upon current experiances and knowledge one would or should be able
to attain similar levels in similar times probably even surpass them. Using the same history
of the IMH it looks like the 1984 race was a "well run" race. Seems to me that someone
should be able to put something together in the same amount of time or faster.

~Matt

 

MJuric wrote in news:[email protected]:
>
> Before I spout off here I have to say that I have little or no race organization experiance
> other than help organize/run a few small races. However I think your 12-20 year time frame is
> a bit expanded. Being that the first IMH was concieved, discussed, set up and ran in about a
> year.

That, by today's standards, was not a race, as another poster already said. A new Ironman race today
would need to be prepared for over a thousand pariticpants and at least twice as many volunteers.
Admittedly, 20 years is strectching it, which is why is was on the high side of my estimate. 12
years is about the minimum axperince I'd want in the core group of any IM I'd consider entering.

> And on top of that was run the first time just four years over your 20 year estimation ago.
> Although I agree with your approach to starting an IM, I really don't think the time frame is
> quite as long as 12-20 years. Frankly I would think someone starting from scratch and was really
> serious about learning the ropes could probably do it in less than 5 years, assuming that they had
> the luck of getting sponsors involved etc. For the love'o god Dairy Queen developed soft serve ice
> cream, opened up its first store and ended up with nearly 2500 franchises in around 15 years, 5 of
> which were in the middle of a war. IMO slightly more complex and involved process than "copying"
> someone elses idea on setting up a race.

If you do a bad job opening a new business, it fails. If you do a bad job putting on an ironman, you
kill people. I'm also not sure I buy the argument that one is necessarily less complex than the
other, although it's a meaningless comparison in the first place. Maybe if you had to erect the
dairy queen at sunrise, serve 2000 customers in an hour with no customer complaints, and remove the
store with no trace it was ever there by sunset?

>
> ~Matt

 

MJuric wrote in news:[email protected]:

> Not disagreeing about the liability issue. However IMH turned into something that was started
> by a couple of buddies with 15 participants in 1979 to something shown on ABC in 1980 to "
> Participants from 34 countries and 46 states compete" (Stolen form IM live history of IM" in
> 1985. This is dramatic progress starting from scratch. Anyone startiong a race now would have
> the previous experiance of a plethora of races and race directories from which to draw from.
> Twelve years would be the equivalant of the 1991 IMH race. By this time the IMH had
> qualifiers, charitable foundations, Prize money, multiple year contracts with sponsors and
> nearly 1500 participants.

The problem is that any new IM race has to be ready to handle all of this on it's first running. If
you could build up over years the way IMH has, maybe you'd be OK.

> I really don't think the original poster had this in mind as a "well run". Again drawing upon
> current experiances and knowledge one would or should be able to attain similar levels in
> similar times probably even surpass them. Using the same history of the IMH it looks like the
> 1984 race was a "well run" race. Seems to me that someone should be able to put something
> together in the same amount of time or faster.

He said "successful." A race of that magnitude is either well run or a complete disaster, there is
no middle ground. Therefore, "successful" requires "well run."

>
> ~Matt