Selecting a race site

Okay, it's time to get this blog off the ground. Sorry for the delay -- it's been a very, very busy spring!

In recent months, we have been approached by individuals and organizations who want to host a road race, but don't necessarily have a location lined up. This begs two questions: what do race directors look for in selecting a race site, and what do participants look for in selecting a race to run.

As race directors, here are just a few things we take into consideration:

• Is there opportunity to create a safe and certifiable course? Safe goes without saying. If you can't get ten people through the course without fearing for their life, it's probably not the best location. And although there's no rule that every road race has to be certified, we've all been at one where you hear runners say "gosh, mile two was way short" or "there's no way this was just a 5K!"
  
• Number of agencies/organizations involved in the approval process. The more there are, the longer it could take, and the less likely that every last one of them will agree. Follow the K.I.S.S. rule here! Better yet, have an "in" with the location -- this often, but not always, makes wheels spin more smoothly.
  
• What amenities does the location bring to the table? Is there a building to which you'll have access, or are you pitching tents? Are there sufficient bathrooms, or are you bringing in porta-potties? Is there sufficient parking, or will there be more swearing? Access to a kitchen, or BYOB?
  
• Look for the not-so-obvious road blocks on the course. Stick a church in the middle of a course on a Sunday morning and see what happens. Better yet, turn on your speaker system that same Sunday at 9am for registration across the street from a church and see who comes running. By no means are we making fun of the churches -- they unfortunately sometimes pay a high price when a committee forgets to include them in their planning!

We asked a few of our friends in Somerville Road Runners to talk about what they look for as participants, whether running on their own or in a formal road race. Here's what they had to say:

• Beautiful scenery: woods, rivers, beaches
  
• Destination races: Berkshires, Vineyard
  
• Challenging courses with hills when training hard, and not-so-challenging courses when you're hardly training
  
• Plenty of parking or T-accessibility
  
• Good people, wide variety of participants (age, ability)
• Fun after-party, good food
• Uniqueness of a race (its theme, parts of the course) or simply a good cause to support

What do you have to add? Post your comments!