Race Director Responsibilities
The Committee will appoint one League Director for each league or championship. The League Director may also, if they wish, take on the role of Race Director for some or all of the races in their league.The primary function of the Race Director is to MANAGE. They should manage both the organisation and the safety of the race, avoiding becoming engrossed in any particular task such that other tasks are not executed correctly. The Race Director is ultimately responsible for ALL aspects of their race.
The tasks & responsibilities of the Race Director can be broken into 3 groups: in advance of race-day, on race-day and after race-day.
In advance of race-day
- Guidelines: Familiarise yourself with the guidelines for running a race, including:
- Race Director Guidelines
- Race Director Training Notes
- Registration Guidelines
- Finish Line Guidelines
- IMRA Safety Guidelines
- IMRA Financial Instructions
- IMRA Race Marking Guidelines
- Registration fees, races fees and reduced fees for certain categories
A great way to get up to speed is to act as Deputy Race Director for one or more races, prior to your own first race as Race Director.
- Permission: If necessary, get permission from the land-owner (e.g. Coillte) to run the race, with assistance from the Records Secretary who maintains contact details.
- Parking: Visit the race start-point and decide how to handle parking. Organise off-road parking where possible.
- Keys: If necessary, get keys to any barrier that may block access to car parking.
- Route: Finalise the route, including shorter junior routes, with assistance from the
- Race Co-Ordinator and
- Race Marker
- Pub: Book the prize-giving location, normally a pub. Decide how to handle parking at that location.
- Team: Decide what team is required to organise the race & how many Helpers. As a general rule, you might need one member on the organisation team for every 25 runners.
- Roles: Allocate personnel to the key roles
- First Aid Officer, with assistance from the Safety Adviser or First Aid Panel owner
- Race Marker , with assistance from the Race Co-ordinator
- Laptop Operator, with assistance from the Records Secretary or Laptop Operator Panel owner
- Helpers: Enlist the required number of them.
- Safety: Establish if there are any safety concerns associated with this race in particular
- Website: Finalise the race information and either update it yourself through MyIMRA, or pass it to the Webmaster to update the website. In order to update the website yourself through MyIMRA, you need to be "accepted" as Race Director by the Webmaster. The information you should update includes:
- Date
- Time
- Climb
- Distance
- Instructions on "Getting There". The Race Director can exercise their discretion as to whether sign-posting to the race start location is required
- "Organisers Instructions" (e.g. carpooling, parking etc.)
- Prize-giving location
- Maps, if possible. Inform the webmaster of the start location so that they can update it on the Google Map function on the website.
- Volunteers: Through MyIMRA, you can either add the names of volunteers yourself, or you can "accept" or "decline" others who have volunteered to help at your event. The other volunteer roles are:
- First Aid Officer
- Race Marker(s)
- Laptop Operator
- Helper(s)
- Deputy Race Director(s)
- Float: Get change to use as a float at the money collection point. (Liase with the Treasurer on this.)
- Laptop: If the IMRA laptop is to be used, establish in whose possession it is and ensure that the battery (and spare) will be fully charged for the race. (For large races we may have a generator, but for backup purposes the batteries should be charged anyway.)
- Mobile Phone: Test that the IMRA Emergency Phone Number has been re-directed to your own mobile phone number and ensure that your own mobile battery is fully charged before the race and that it has phone credit if applicable
- The IMRA Emergency Phone number is 087 261 7599.
- This number is diverted to the Race Director's mobile number before each race. There is no physical emergency mobile phone.
- The function of this mobile number is to allow runners who have gotten lost or into other difficulty to contact the Race Director and let know their status and whereabouts.
- The service-provider that diverts the phone before each race may be contacted by email at emergencyphone (at) imra.ie
- The IMRA Emergency Phone number is not intended for use outside IMRA races and text messages sent to it will not be read.
- It is useful to remind runners in the pre-race briefing that the IMRA Emergency Phone Number is printed on the back of their race number bibs.
- Prizes: Get the race prizes for the top finishers from the Committee or League Director or arrange to do it on race-day
- Spot-prizes: Buy them, having checked the budget with the League Director or Treasurer
- Equipment: organise the collection of all equipment from the IMRA Equipment Officer (or previous Race Director)
- Consumables: Ensure there is a plentiful supply of:
- Paper & forms
- Annual Registration Forms
- Sign-in sheets
- Manual finish timing sheets
- Printer paper
- Pens
- Water & cups for runners after the race (if provided)
- Petrol for the portable electricity generator, if it is to be used.
On race-day
On the day of the race, the Race Director must ensure that everything runs smoothly. Only in small races should they take on tasks such as manning the registration desk. In medium-sized or large races, they should oversee and manage rather than do. As a general rule, except for very small races, the Race Director must not run in the race.
-
Before the race:
- Meet and brief the team, usually 2 or more hours before race start. (The Race Marker may already have started marking.)
- Decide if there are any safety concerns e.g. extreme weather, which would provoke a decision to change the race route or cancel the race
- Manage all other helpers at the race so that parking, registration, race finish etc. run smoothly.
- Once again, test that the IMRA Emergency Mobile Phone Number is diverted to your mobile number
- Brief all runners immediately before the race start on issues such as:
- Race issues: safety, route, marking, passing etc.
- Prize-giving location
- Recurring messages e.g. carpooling
- Start the race on time. Ensure the stopwatch or laptop timer is started.
- Ensure the finish-line is set up well in advance of the first finisher
- Co-ordinate any search & rescue operation to find and treat runners who are lost or injured.
- Ensure all registered runners are safely off the mountain
- Ensure numbers are collected and re-sorted in the correct order
- Ensure all equipment and rubbish is packed
- Ensure the race route is un-marked by a Helper or the Race Marker
- Ensure any barriers that were un-locked are re-locked
- If a laptop is used at the race, ensure race results are printed for display at the prize-giving
- Give out the race prizes and spot prizes, or delegate this task to a nominee
- Ensure that the results file is sent to the Records Secretary for upload to the website
The Race Director has the right to refuse to register a runner if they believe the runner would be at risk if they competed.
During the race:
After the race:
After race-day
- Return the completed and signed IMRA Incident Form (contained in the safety guidelines)to the Records Secretary
- Organise to return all equipment to the Equipment Officer (or next Race Director), and update them on consumables used - for example registration forms, first aid dressings
- Return race takings and receipts for spot-prizes to the Treasurer or lodge race takings to the IMRA bank account, as directed by the Treasurer.
- Request a reimbursement for spot-prize expenditure from the Treasurer
- Return all Registration Forms and Sign-in sheets to the Records Secretary
- Return keys for barriers where necessary
- Dispose of rubbish
