Guide to Organizing Half-Marathon 101

Half-Marathon 101 Chairperson Duties

A few weeks before Memorial Day, start making a schedule of long runs, use the previous year as a guide.
Put an announcement in the newsletter recruiting people to join and informing them about what will be expected of them.
Send the schedule on to Joan for approval. Plan to start the group runs soon after Memorial Day.
Once the schedule is approved, get together with the Marathon 101 person, and see where both of the groups are doing the same distance. Usually there are at least a few days a group run can be coordinated.
After you have coordinated the schedules and have final approval from Joan, send it out to the people who want to join the group. Email works the best for distributing information. Make sure that the Marathon 101 person also has the distribution list, too. Often the Half-Marathon folks like to know what the Marathon group is doing, too, so send them the Marathon 101 schedule.
In your introductory letter, let everyone know that they will need to volunteer to plan a run at some point during the season. Planning a run means planning the route, setting the time, and putting out water/Gatorade every 2-3 miles. If the run doesn’t end at Betzwood, it is nice to have some snacks afterwards. Encourage people to plan some runs away from VF park, since plenty of runs will end up there—they are the easiest to plan. It is often challenging to get enough volunteers, but just keep reminding people that you need to have the days filled with organizers or they will be running long on their own.
Several easy runs to take advantage of:

Inner park loop = 6 miles

Outer park loop = 8 miles

Train run (Board train at Norristown, ride to Manayunk, run back) = 10 miles

Rick’s Run(Around Betzwood area, along regular Sat path) = 12 miles

Bike path = any number you want – goes all the way to Philly.

Each week, make sure weekly planner sends memo to email chairperson(Natalie) by noon Tuesday stating distance, location, time and RSVP so they know how much water/gateraide to supply.
Make announcements at the Saturday Fast Tracks runs and at Wednesday night track about the Half-Marathon group. Many people don’t join until later in the season.
Wish everyone good luck in the August Newsletter. The Philly Distance run is typically run in September.

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