While you are in the middle of an event your senses are heightened, you feel the rush of the last minute details, and hope that all your planning has paid off.  The event goes off and your deem it either as a success or failure.  Then, you take a breath.  Often, you move on to the next big event without thinking anymore about the one you just finished.  However, I urge everyone to really think about taking the time after an event to review it.

Jerry and I ran the Spartan Sprint this past weekend outside of Charlotte.  This is a race we attended last year as well (he ran, I was a spectator since I was pregnant with our son).  There were a lot of things that were just not good at last year's race.  Here is my review and comparison between last year and this year.

Spartan Blunders 2014

Traffic

As we pulled up to the race last year we sat in traffic for nearly 45 minutes.  Because the traffic was

so bad, Jerry had to get out of the car and run to the start line while I waited in line for about 20 minutes more to be directed to the parking.

Parking

The parking was located about a mile and a half away.  After I parked I nearly sprinted from my car to the race area to see if I could find Jerry as he ran by. 

Registration

When I checked in they didn't have my spectator registration and I had to dig through my email to find my confirmation to prove I had in fact purchased the pass already.  This was not an easy feat since searching for Spartan in my email doesn't pull up my registration.  Because Jerry and I run so many races we have many confirmations like this in my inbox, and figuring out which one was the correct one took some time.  

Signage

Unbeknownst to me, when Jerry got there he missed his wave time and went in the next wave.  So as I oriented myself in the festival area, I frantically searched for him on the visible obstacles.  There was just one map near the main entryway of the festival area and there were people looking for their loved ones everywhere.

Location

It was INCREDIBLY muddy.  As a participant you expect to get muddy, but as a spectator I was not prepared for all of this.  The rain from the day before had made things worse.  Also, the festival area for spectators was PACKED with people which made it difficult to navigate.

Lacking Resources

At the end of the race, Jerry went to hose off and this area was also swamped with both people and sort of resembled an actual swamp.  The race took him much longer than I anticipated and we nearly missed our check-out time at the hotel.  I managed to get a late check-out so Jerry could shower after the race.  We had housekeeping at our door ready to tackle the room as he attempted to get the caked mud out of every crevice on his body.

All-in-all it was a less than perfect experience.

Spartan Successes 2015

We opted to go back this year and I am so glad we did.  We made sure to plan accordingly, especially since this year we would have baby Gardner (and his babysitter, Morgan) in tow.  There were a few things that we did differently this year in addition to the Spartan organizers.

Traffic

We left much earlier this year to account for the potential traffic.  As we approached the race location there were plenty of sheriff deputies on site managing traffic and people directing us where to park.  We were parking within 15 minutes of getting close to the race location. 

We also opted for a later start time this year to take the to account for any blunders that might occur on our way in, which I think helped.

Parking

The Spartan parking location was different this year.  We were able to park just a 5 minute walk away from the festival area, which was so convenient for us especially with a little one.   

Registration

This year I printed Morgan's spectator pass because I was afraid her name wouldn't be on the list.  I also printed her waiver and signed it, so that it was one less thing for us to do when we arrived.  However, Morgan's name was on the list and she was given a wristband and colored map of both the race course and the festival area.  Two thumbs up Spartan organizers!

Jerry and I were also able to check-in quickly, the registration tents had signs on them with our preassigned bib numbers.  This made the process VERY easy.

Signage

As we stepped inside the festival area there was plenty of visible signage to look at.  First, we found an open space (which was plentiful) to go through our race packet and put on our headbands.  Because we were given a map we were able to orient ourselves easily and walked around to scope out the course.  There were signs for restrooms, merchandise, bag check, food and beverages, start line and finish line.

Location

As I mentioned above, the festival area this year was spread out that we almost never felt congested or packed in amongst a crowd of people.  There was also no mud!  At least not in the festival area even though it rained a few days during the week leading up to the event!  These things made it so easy to navigate the area even with a stroller.

An extra bonus we found a tent for people to sit near the finish line to watch the participants finish the race.  This tent was a life saver for us.  Because Morgan was in charge of watching Gardner we left her instructions to try and keep him out of the sun, but when I set her up under this tent it eased my concerns about my little one getting sunburned. #newmomproblems

Resources

This year we planned ahead and brought our own bags and towels to clean ourselves up enough to drive to the hotel to rinse off.  I'm glad we did this, as there was a line to use the hoses to rinse off.  This is something that I hope the organizers try and add for future races.  You can almost never have enough hoses.  We ultimately decided to go to our car dirty and clean up at the hotel.  

The Race

The race itself was a blast.  The course was challenging (or at least my muscles are feeling it even 2 days later).  There were plenty of people along the trails in case someone needed medical help.  There was also great signage showing you where to run if there was not a person directing you.  One gentleman had a megaphone to call to people with directions on an obstacle.

Other races often have places where the trail becomes bottle-necked because of an obstacle, but this was rarely the case with this race.  We had to wait in line a few places, one of them being at the end of the race, but all-in-all it wasn't a long wait to get through an obstacle.  This is amazing because they release 250 racers every 15 minutes on the course.

At the start line, there was a gentleman leading a warm-up, which I had not previously seen done at any race that I've competed in.  We took part on the outskirts to get stretched and ready, which was helpful.

Communication

One of the nicest touches from this year's race was the text option to tell people about the status of your race.  I was able to add Morgan's number so that she knew where we were on the course and could wager some guesses on when to expect us at the finish line.  Maybe this was more peace of mind for me at a new mom, but in any case it was beneficial. 

Post-Event Meetings

The Spartan organizers clearly did a great job debriefing after last year's event and making improvements.  At a post-event meeting you can talk about what went especially well because of your planning and what didn't, but also the things that went well that you didn't expect.

My review of this year's Spartan compared to last year is just the tip of the iceberg from the attendees point of view.  There are a litany of topics that the Spartan event planners will likely be reviewing this year.  From 2014 to 2015 I think the blunders have been improved drastically to make the race experience more enjoyable for everyone (racers and spectators alike).  Here are some topics that might be included in your post-event review:

• Goals
• Did you meet the goals you set out to accomplish for this event?
• Registration
• Was your registration up from last year?  
• Did you reach your registration goal?
• Was the check-in process smooth?
• How can you increase registration in the future?
• Was the registration tool you used effective?
• Attendance
• What was your no show rate?
• Should you account for no-shows in your budget?
• Marketing
• Which marketing channels generated the most interest/registrations?
• What kind of marketing mix would you use in the future?
• Budget/Revenue
• Were there any budget surprises?
• Were your registration fees appropriate?
• Did you break-even?
• Did you get a return on investment for any free tickets you gave out?
• Attendee Satisfaction
• What did attendees say about your event?
• Were there complaints about the venue or food?
• Was the perceived value worth more than the ticket price?
• Message Amplification 
• Was there a hashtag used during your event?
• Did the hashtag amplify your message?
• Was your audience engaged after the event?  For how long? (weeks? months?)
• Sponsors
• Did the sponsors feel like they got a return on their investment?
• Were the attendees appropriate for their target audience?
• Venue and vendors
• Was the venue flexible with your needs?
• Would you work with them again?
• Were the vendors accommodating?
• Were items delivered on-time?  And were they in working order?
• Tents
• Port-a-pots
• Signage
• Food/beverages
• DJ
• Audio/visual equipment
• Volunteers/Staff
• Did you have enough staff on-site?
• Did you have quality volunteers that were helpful during their scheduled work time?
• Do you need to recruit different types of staff or more staff for the future?
• Did your staff/volunteers represent your brand professionally?
• Schedule
• Was the timing of events appropriate?  
• Should the event kick-off earlier? later? allow more time for certain things?
• Miscellaneous
• What else went well for the event?
• What can be improved next year?
• What ideas suggestions can be made for future events?
• Should the event be repeated in the future? 

Until the next event!