Feedback from our 2019 Events
We had a lot of fun in 2019. Across three races, we had the joy of watching nearly 200 people – which is a lot to us – run around the woods for an unnecessarily long period of time. Chatting with you, our runners, at the finish line was the best part for us.
We also learned a few things – something we hope to do year after year. The trail-running community continues to grow and evolve, and we want to keep pace (if not stay a step or two ahead). That’s why we ask for feedback after every run.
We’ve already experienced the benefits in spades. One small example: in 2018, a runner suggested that we ditch the free cotton t-shirts and offer pay-for-it-if-you-want-it technical t-shirts. So, this year, we offered custom-printed Patagonia Capilene shirts at $30 (which was $5 below MSRP), and the response was overwhelmingly positive. We’ll do the same in 2020 and potentially add other Patagonia gear.
Here’s what we heard in 2019. We listened to all kinds of folks – runners, volunteers, spectators, fellow RDs, community members – and spent a lot of time thinking about what changes to make.
Positive:
Camping — Runners love to camp! For 2020, we’ll try to include near-the-start camping options for all our events and share them on our website. If there isn’t a burn-ban in effect, we’ll throw in a hearty bonfire.
Scenery — Beautiful courses. As we add new routes in 2020, we’ll keep an eye on the views and stick to single-track as much as possible.
Finish Line — Great food, atmosphere and beer!
Aid Stations — Friendly volunteers with TONS of great food. Tailwind is great. PBJs!
Markings — Consistent and frequent (every 0.10 miles) course markings were great.
Emails — Runners, particularly runners new to trail-running, appreciated the information we included in our pre- and post-race emails.
Website — Somewhat to our surprise, a number of runners commented on the thoroughness and “accessibility” of our (homegrown) website. In general, our philosophy is, if someone asks a question and the answer isn’t on our website, we should add it. Going forward, we’ll continue to add more content to our website, in hopes of making it a single-stop reference for all race-related information.
Results — Thank you for the splits!
Phone Number — We have a talk-to-a-real-person phone number on our website, and a lot of you used it.
Refunds — Although our website says we don’t issue refunds, in 2019 we honored every refund request, in full, except for one (and that came after the race had started). In total, we issued over 20 refunds. For 2020, we’ll update our “official” refund policy to more closely align with the actual practices we have in place.
Awards — Love the finisher coasters. A nice, unique touch.
Shirts — The quality of the shirts and the designs on them were first-rate.
UTMB Points — Keep ‘em coming.
Constructive:
Aid Stations — For colder races, we should have hot food at more aid stations.
Markings — A number turns and sections in our courses were not well-marked. (Anything above zero turns is not okay, by the way.) We heard that our pink ribbons were not the only pink ribbons out there, and some of our markings were simply not visible enough. More on this below…
Pre-Race Speech — Although no runner explicitly said it, we get the sense our pre-race conversations could be more concise and, by extension, more memorable. We need to ensure runners leave the start some information burned into their memory.
Results & Photos — Load them faster, please!
Hat — Denis’ pseudo-cowboy hat is silly. (No change expected in 2020.)
Shirts — Include the race date on the shirt. I want to remember which year I ran the race.
We’ll close by providing some of the most valuable feedback we received all year: “I got turned around twice (with 3 other runners once and 4 other runners the second time) somewhere between the 30K mark and the 35K mark. I spoke with a dozen of runners who got turned around and not at the river. The flags were often very difficult to spot. We also found pink flags on a trail that was definitely not part of the course. It was very confusing. I believe the markers that remained could have been better arranged and placed.”
Why was this so valuable? If this runner hadn’t shared their feedback, we wouldn’t have known that upwards of a dozen runners got lost because of our inadequate markings. We wouldn’t have known to take a closer look at kilometers 30-35 to understand what we did wrong and what we could do better. We would have potentially done the same thing (wrong) again next year.
Because of this runner’s candid feedback, we will mark better next year.
We owe a “thanks” to everyone who took the time to tell us how to get better, especially folks who, like the above runner, probably had to step outside of their comfort zone to give us tough feedback. We’re glad you did.
If we missed anything, drop us a line. Here’s to getting better.