• I recently posted this in the community section, but not specifically in the Event Director Community.  I am re-posting the question here, as the audience seems more targeted to my query.  I apologize for my rookie mistake, especially if double-posting is some sort of code violation. -Nicole

Hi, I am pitching to my large (very large - over 35 million people) nationally based membership organization that we host a 5K run/walk at our annual membership event (where: Las Vegas - when: October 2009). I've never organized a race before, so I don't really know where to begin. I love road races/ triathlons and I see them as powerful community building events that bring people together and inspire healthy living. This is at the core of our organization's mission, so I really want to make a successful 5k pitch for this years meeting with a goal of making it an annual event.

The questions that I know I need to address thoroughly to even get this thing off the ground are:

1) Insurance issues - I know there are outfits that insure race events, but I don't know how it works. Is the insurance done as a single event policy and underwritten by the organizers? Is it something where part of each registrant's race fees go towards the event insurance? Until I can address this issue, I don't think I can get anyone to consider my request.

2) Race Course Logistics - How does one even begin to go about setting up a race course and what local officials do I reach out to about this?

3) Sponsorship - How does sponsorship work?

4) Feasibility - Can I realistically present a race event model where the event at least pays for itself?

5) Race Participant community building/support. Active.com seems to have an ideal infrastructure for race preparation and race participant support. I would like to learn more about this to incorporate it into my pitch.

6) The Questions I don't even know about - I believe this is an important event for my organization and the people we serve. I do not want my lack of understanding for what goes into race event organization to be the reason this idea doesn't become a reality.

I am extremely grateful for any information anyone can share with me. If there are articles or websites out there that I should check out, please share them with me. If there's anyone who has experience with such an endeavor, I would love, love, love to communicate with you offline. I really want to make this happen.

Many thanks,

Nicole