From the Desk of Kirsten Fleming: Learning and Improving

October is a BIG month for marathons! Berlin, Minneapolis, Chicago, Victoria, Toronto!

The Run Calgary team is fortunate to have wonderful relationships with race directors throughout the industry and we can often be found volunteering at other races. From driving the lead car at the Twin Cities Marathon, starting the race in Chicago from forward command (shown in the blog cover photo above), or prepping 25,000 bananas in Toronto, we’ve done it all!

These mostly informal exchange programs are important because they provide an opportunity to share ideas, often giving birth to best practices and standardizing operations that impact your race experience.

Some of the initiatives we’ve adopted from other events are:

• Charity Block Party – Chicago Marathon
• Hype Team – L.A. Marathon
• Diaper Dash – Buffalo Marathon
• Forward Command / Event Operating Centre (EOC) – Chicago Marathon and Toronto Waterfront Marathon
• Event Alert System (EAS) – Chicago Marathon

Run Calgary is trying new things in 2025. Insights from industry leaders who have already adopted initiatives like the Green Bib program, tracking apps or exclusive merchandise are integral to our planning.

Learning from our peers, along with evaluating what went well in 2024 and what could be improved going forward, are all things that have been taken into consideration during our recent strategy sessions.

Let’s dive into some of the conversations our team has been having behind-the-scenes!

What worked well in 2024 and will be expanded?

• The partnership with Calgary Transit for subsidized and complimentary transit for all participants (expanding to include volunteers in 2025).
  
  
• Kids zone and family resources, including expanded hours for SOGO Adventure Running, our on-site kids camp for kids to enjoy while their parents/guardians race!
  
  
• Community events throughout race week that build anticipation, excitement and allow local and visiting participants to connect, learn, stretch, celebrate (and more!) as we approach race weekend.
  
  
• Celebrating first timers! Wow – there are so many people discovering run (and walk!) and we want to support the journey and celebrate their accomplishment. More coming soon.
  
  
• Community Builder Scholarship. We honoured the remarkable Anita Cardinal, our first ever Community Builder Scholarship recipient and we are excited to open up nominations soon for 2025.

Areas Run Calgary has actioned for improvement following learnings from 2024:

• Bag Check. Going forward, we won’t be moving bags from the bag drop area to a separate pick-up area closer to the post-race festival. Instead, participants will drop-off AND pick-up from the same big tent in the parking lot by the start line as they have done in previous years.

• Accessibility for spectators and participants. There is approximately 900m between the start and finish, and we have courtesy carts meant for elderly spectators, families with young kids and suffering finishers. We will be adding more carts as well as the Stampede trolley to reduce wait times.

• Medals. A couple hundred half-marathoners and 10 km participants did not receive a medal due to a trifecta of issues: sell outs, downgrades due to injury, bandits paired with rain (making bibs not easily visible in the finish chute). We ordered more and made it right, but more importantly we learned a very important lesson on margins.

• Communication around race start cutoffs. We previously had minimal communication around cutoffs for starting the race. Rolling road closures inform these cutoffs and safety is at the core of these decisions, so going forward these will be well communicated and strictly enforced.

Each race (both our own and volunteering at other races!) is a learning opportunity and one thing you will come to know about the Run Calgary team is we are constantly trying to improve. Thank you for feedback – on social, by email and through surveys. There is often a method behind the madness and sometimes it might not be obvious to our participants and partners – however we are always open to new and better ways of doing things.

That’s it for October, thank you for reading and feel free to leave me a comment, I read them all!

As you may have seen in my September blog or read on LinkedIn – we are growing our team to tackle some of these strategies and scale-up operations. Check back next month when I introduce some new faces at Run Calgary and the programs they will be overseeing – and if nothing else I am told these updates can boost our SEO!

Happy Running,
Kirsten