Open course racing, the best new race format to emerge
The best, new, popularized race format to come out of the pandemic has been open course racing. This is where carefully crafted routes are shared with participants, who can run and track anytime during the race window.
Virtual races requiring participants simply to run the event distance anywhere and submit (or not) their time got old quickly.
But open course races allowed participants to explore, push themselves, and still compete solo and safely. These have been called solo course races or Strava segment races.
Now that events are back in swing, races are expected to:
engage with runners all year round, not just in the month or months leading up to a race
race operations teams are still not back at full strength
An open course race can be planned and executed all year round to engage your audience.
And, it rarely requires staff onsite or permits.
Here are some examples:
Lululemon SeaWheeze 2021 could not be held in person, but the event still challenged their runners local to Vancouver to run their modified courses. Find them at rungoapp.com/seawheeze. In Lululemon fashion, they were incredible, fun, and engaging, including messages from run coach Rob Watson, the race director, a brand ambassador acting as inspiring Vancouver tour guide, a drag queen, and more.
REI created Dirt, Sweat & Beers across California, a run and cleanup series featuring eight events from June through November 2021. “From the Bay Area to the Sierra, each event features a 5K/10K open course and a DIY cleanup. Why? Because we want to feel good and do good!” Each event highlighted a land agency partner of theirs and encouraged participants to explore these amazing locations and trails. Participants earned badges for completing the courses and for picking up trash along the way, and times were all ranked on individual and series leaderboards, all powered by RunGo.
Explore a neighbourhood of your city with a multi-route race: Atlanta Grand Prix challenges their participants to two different courses (long and short) every 2 weeks for 3 months. Each course explores fun but complex routes in different neighbourhoods around Atlanta. This event uses the Series leaderboard to rank by lowest multi-run time.
Multi-route events show off your city: run five 5Ks around Denver in 24 hours! In Denver, 5x5K FOR GOOD challenged their runners to complete five 5K courses around the city within 24 hours. They used contactless check-in at each course site, QR codes to access their private routes, and all routes on RunGo to allow participants to follow the courses solo (with custom, turn-by-turn voice directions) and track their times.
Contact us for more info at rungoapp.com/races