Small Business 

When small mom-and-pop races, as he calls them, come to Jim Gilmer for help with course creation, operational set-up, and logistics, they almost always have a general idea of what they want to do.

If you are a new race director or direct a smaller race, perhaps you have been asked if your course is “certified.” It must be important if potential entrants are asking about it, right? YES: in almost every case, having your course certified IS important

Well-known Boston Marathon race director, Dave McGillivray, who also founded DMSE Sports, once got locked in a port-a-potty 20 minutes before the start of the Boston Marathon. Everyone was waiting for him and he was stuck. “And then I dropped my two-way radio into the unit,” he said, while he was trying to get out.

Race director-ing is hard. Creating a race, managing the operations and logistics and staff, marketing it and communicating with athletes, and building all of that into a sustainable and profitable event (or events) is no small task.