GiveSignup | RunSignup, a leading US technology provider for fundraising and endurance events, has released a ‘progress report on the status of large endurance events.’ The report follows up on the 2019 list of ‘100 Largest Races’ and tracks their plans for 2021.
RunSignup notes that the most significant takeaway is that events in Q3 or later, even those over 10,000 participants, largely anticipate offering a hybrid or in-person event. Additionally, with postponements from earlier in the year, autumn/fall 2021 will be jam-packed with marquee events.
The report looks at races based on the quarter that their race usually takes place, regardless of when they are scheduled for 2021. A few trends stood out when reviewing the full data from each quarter:
- Q1 races (January, February, March): Go virtual or postpone. All but two of the Q1 races opted to cancel, postpone to a hybrid or in-person event later in the year, or go virtual.
- Q2 races (April, May, June): Offer a creative hybrid option or postpone. Most Q2 races also opted for either a virtual edition or postponement. However, a few more Q2 events used an extended race period that stretched a race over several days to ensure a viable hybrid event with in-person participants.
- Q3 races (July, August, September): The return of in-person; while summer is always a lighter racing season [for run events], it is notable that the majority of summer events expect to proceed with their event and offer some sort of in-person option.
- Q4 races (October, November, December): In-person and hybrid events every week. By the autumn/fall, most races expect to move forward and offer a hybrid or in-person race, with or without a lowered participant cap. Additionally, this period will get even busier in 2021 with many spring and summer races postponing to Q4 2021.
GiveSignup | RunSignup Founder and CEO Bob Bickel said, “The upshot of this report is that endurance events are roaring back. Compared to just a few months ago when most events were a few hundred to a few thousand participants, the expected return of races over 30,000 in fall signifies that the endurance industry believes the worst impacts of the pandemic are behind us.
“There is also a word of warning here, though: the fall race season will be brimming with high-quality large events, and it’s important that fall races start communicating with and marketing to supporters ASAP to ensure they don’t get overlooked.”
