30 Days Out

The event you’ve been planning all year is now just 30 days out.

What should you be working on?

The simple answer is the same stuff you’ve already been doing — chipping away at it is always the best path forward.

Maybe you’re a seasoned veteran and a month seems like a lifetime to iron out final details and preparations. Or perhaps it’s the first event you’ve ever produced and you’re feeling as if it’s time to start sweating bullets.

“Did I order the shirts?”

“Who’s going to hand out the finisher meals?”

“Where am I going to find more volunteers?”

“Will the porta potties actually show?”

These are just a handful of the questions that might be spinning around in your head.

Volunteers at Headlands 27k, 📸 @tiarebowmanphoto

One month out from race day is the time to take a deep breath, lean on your team, give yourself some grace, and pat yourself on the back. Know that nothing, despite your greatest efforts, will ever be perfect. Even with the best-laid plans, unforeseen things will happen. You will pivot and survive. The event will thrive.

Now is the time to go over the big-ticket items. Confirm rentals, follow up on final permits, check in with sponsors, and formalize the race weekend schedule. Keep answering emails from athletes (trust me, they will keep coming all the way up to the night before the race), recruiting volunteers, and queuing up your very exciting “one month until race day” email. It could be wise to have someone from your team do the entire course using your course file as navigation. You could also ask your timer to practice uploading results — nobody wants to get their results two days late. Communication is key and is much better than crickets.

Most importantly know that you’ve put together a product that people are excited to travel for and attend. Just like how you’ve put in the hard work to help make the event possible, the attendees have likely trained just as hard (if not harder) and are excited to test themselves on your course. Everyone is excited to make new friends and memories out there.

Course Preview of Headlands 27k from Muir Beach

You should be proud; putting on an event, whether for a few hundred or thousands of people, is no small task. While there are an abundance of events around the globe, there are none that are yours. Learn from others before you, but ultimately do things for your event in your very own way that produces the best live product as possible. When you make mistakes, write them down. You will thank yourself next year.

Take the remaining days and weeks to enjoy the build-up of excitement as you approach the next big milestone: race week. Now is the moment to tee everything up so you can focus on producing the best event possible when the time comes, which will be here before you know it.