RUNNING WITH TERI DWYER
West-central Minnesota runners unite
around Glacial Lakes Championship Running Series Dan Hubbard of Spicer, Minnesota, told me he wants to help create more and better opportunities for runners and the running community in west-central Minnesota. I have to admit I've become a bit cynical about some of the happenings in the running community the last couple of years. And, I'm especially alert to people claiming to want to "help the running community" or "help runners."
Too often the help is more beneficial to the organizers than the runners, and the rich events tend to get richer at the expense of their participants and every other event.
So it was with a bit of wariness that I listened to Hubbard tell me about the Glacial Lakes Championship Running Series. But I quickly learned when Hubbard tells you he wants to help runners, you should believe him.
The Glacial Lakes Championship Running Series takes road racing back to its grass roots
but with a modern twist. The grass-roots part comes about in the way the race directors organize the races. All of the races in the series have participation numbers that allow them to be timed with traditional finish lines chutes and spindles, rather than computerized chip timing.
The directors of the nine races all have similar goals: to increase their participation numbers, make their races viable over the long term and garner the interest of potential local sponsors. The series
organizers, for their part, set specific criteria for each race to meet before it can become a part of the series (see below).
The overall male and female runners at each series race earn 1,000 points. Other finishers receive points based on how far behind the overall winner they finish. There are bonus points available for doing more than five races, and extra points available at two events designated as "bonus races." The top three runners in each age group receive awards
at the end of the series.
The twist is that these races all previously unrelated and independently owned and operated were willing to work together for the good of their own races, each others' races and the entire running community in that part of the state.
Hubbard, a sales representative for Rambow Inc., was part of the race committee for the Foot Lake 4 race in Willmar in 2003. He "inherited" the race committee position from another sales rep at his company.
Rambow is an embroidery and screen-printing company that had been supplying T-shirts for the Foot Lake 4 race.
Hubbard had the idea to start a race series in the area, because he had seen it done successfully with triathlons. Hubbard met Brad Pickle of St. Cloud when Foot Lake 4 brought in Pickle Events to help resolve timing issues for the race.
Pickle's company now does the timing for most of the series' races. He also maintains and updates the series' website and keeps
track of the results for all the series races.
Rambow, along with a company called Print Masters of Willmar, quickly signed on to be the two main sponsors for the series. Hubbard says these sponsors have paid all of the expenses for the series over the last three years.
"No one takes any payroll out of it," Hubbard said. "Any proceeds that come from the series itself any money that the series earns through fund-raising or sponsors goes to equipment for the races that
are in the series."
Hubbard's contribution as series coordinator is what he calls "community service." As a volunteer, he says he is motivated "to promote health within our community."
One of the goals of the series is to develop a resource of information for putting on races, share supplies and equipment and market and promote the races themselves.
The series directors plan to buy a clock and finish-line equipment for displaying sponsor
banners. The individual race directors would share this equipment to create a consistent look for the series.
I was still curious as to why already established road races, such as the Foot Lake 4, with good participation numbers and a solid history, would be interested in starting a series to help smaller races in the area?
"Especially when it started there really wasn't a huge advantage for Foot Lake 4 to be part of the series," Pickle said. "It was the biggest
race and the race to do in the Willmar area. Because they had a great marketing program already they were getting the word and their event out there."
But as the series came together, Pickle said the Foot Lake 4 organizers started seeing it as a way "to expand their reach into communities that were 10 to 15 miles away. It would start creating more of a draw for them down the road."
It seems the Foot Lake 4 race committee also was interested in creating more and
better opportunities for runners.
"They wanted to help struggling race directors who were dealing with less than 100 people at their races," Pickle said. "I was very impressed with them and their willingness to include some of those smaller races, because they didn't need to do that. But they realized that if somebody would have been there for them when they were first starting, it would have made things a lot easier."
This year, the series is really taking
off. The schedule is jam-packed from late May through mid-August (so the series organizers were happy to add a late January race). Pickle and Hubbard are hoping to fill out the schedule even more to help promote year-round running.
The individual race directors share a mailing list of all the participants from the past year's series and Hubbard includes the details for each race in a series brochure. Race directors have the opportunity to speak at each other's races about their own
race and each individual race includes mention of their participation in the series on their entry forms.
To make the series even more accessible and attractive to participants, bonus races were added this year. Bonus races are series races where participants earn an extra 50 points just for running that particular race.
"It gives some of those smaller races or races that we may want to feature for that year another little boost and a little bit more exposure," Pickle
said. "It also gives some of those people who are trying to win their age group a push."
Pickle said the "bonus race" designation also rewards races for being particularly well organized. It signals to participants that "people will have a good time there," he said.
The original concept of the series seems to be gaining momentum. Hubbard and Pickle hope to eventually have runners from all over west-central Minnesota travel to the nine series events.
Hubbard says he is contacted regularly by races wanting to join the series so much so, the series is able to pick and choose from new and established races. Hubbard is even hoping some older races that disappeared due to a lack of funds or other reasons might be restarted with the help of the partnerships the series offers.
Pickle said the series had a total of 1,000 participants in 2005. That number is only expected to rise with increased marketing.
This series is nothing but
good news for runners in west-central Minnesota. Quality races put on by people enthusiastic about running and runners what more could you ask for?
Teri Dwyer is a writer and runner based in St. Paul, Minnesota.
THE 2006 GLACIAL LAKES CHAMPIONSHIP RUNNING SERIES
May 27: Memorial Day/Law Day 5K Run /2 Mile Walk, Willmar, MN
Kara Waldorf, 320/222-9622
June 15: Festival Days 5K
Atwater, MN, Janis Shea, 320/974-3063
June 26: Foot Lake 4M Walk/Run
Willmar, MN, Mary Downs, 320/231-8923
July 2: Green Lake Road Race, 12M
Spicer, MN, Jane Benson, 320/796-1034
July 8: Litchfield Watercade Lake Ripley 8M, Litchfield, MN
Shane Deal, 320/693-6939
July 28: Town and Country Days 5K
Bonus Race, Kerkhoven, MN
Micah Driscoll, 320/264-2144
August 19: Ravioli Run 5K
Grove City, MN, Renee Capistrant, 320/857-2000
Sept. 9: Run Around Raymond 5K
Bonus Race, Raymond, MN
Tom Regan, 320/967-4445
January 2007: Frozen 5K Run/Walk
Spicer, MN Dave Baker, 320/796-2195
For more information about the series, go to www.pickleevents.com/series/glaciallakes/.
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