Chapter Eight
EQUIPMENT

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Following is a list (undoubtedly incomplete) of the equipment and supplies that should be considered, purchased, rented, repaired, maintained and taken to races:

  • Awards . trophies, medals, ribbons, merchandise
  • Banners . start, finish, sponsors
  • Barricades . for traffic and crowd control
  • Bib numbers . for race day registration
  • Brooms . for sweeping course corners and finish area if necessary
  • Bullhorns (megaphones) . for start, finish and each split timer
  • Cash . bills and change for registration and merchandise sales
  • Chairs . for registration and scoring
  • Checkbook (or extra cash) . for paying suppliers, if required, such as ambulance and/or medical personnel
  • Chronomixes . for timing
  • Clipboards . plain paper (for volunteer check-in, etc.) and with stopwatches and time sheets (for select-timing)
  • Clocks . digital (for finish line) with legs/tripods, wiring and consoles
  • Cones . for course marking and control
  • Crowd control fencing . for use with barricades to delineate finish area and protect timers and scoring area
  • Cups . for aid stations (if not otherwise provided)
  • Duct tape . for whatever
  • Entry forms . blank (for race day registration)
  • Fencing (see crowd control fencing)
  • Finish line paraphernalia . stanchions, flagging, closed chute cards, spindles or stringers (with ID tags), bandit tags, carpenter aprons, pens, rope, bungie cords
  • First aid kit . for minor injuries
  • Flagging . for finish line chutes and crowd control
  • Headsets (radios) . for communication in and around the finish area
  • Ice . for cooling beverages and for first aid, if needed
  • Instruction flyers . for entrants and spectators
  • Knives . for cutting rope, etc.
  • List of entrants by bib number (numeric list) . for media and medical questions
  • List of entrants by name (alpha list) . for registration and scoring questions
  • Maps . of course *with start and finish lines and miles/kilometers marked
  • Megaphones (see bullhorns)
  • Merchandise . if any will be offered for sale
  • Mile markers
  • Pens . ballpoint or permanent ink felt tip
  • Pins . lots! for registration
  • Plastic ties (fasteners) . for hanging crowd control fencing on barricades
  • Portable toilets . a minimum of one for every 1 00 runners and volunteers (more in a large women. s race)
  • Radios . two-way, if needed for long-range communication
  • Refreshments . soda, beer or whatever is provided for the runners and volunteers (may include pre-race coffee and donuts)
  • Rope . for hanging banners, crowd control or what-have-you
  • Scaffolding . for finish line banners
  • Scoring items . scoreboards, double-sided tape, score sheets (with age groupings and depth of awards indicated), pens, scissors, hole punches, letter openers, staplers, paper clips, rubber bands, etc. For computerized scoring it may be necessary to add personal computer(s), registration data base and scoring program disks, barcode readers (laser wands), and a laser printer
  • Signs . for information or promotion purposes (registration, direction to toilets, race in progress, etc. or to mention or thank sponsors
  • Sound system . for music and announcements
  • Stanchions . for holding flagging and delineating chutes and other secured areas such as
  • scoring
  • Starting gun . if required
  • Stopwatches . for select timing and split calling (see clipboards)
  • Tables . for finish area (for timing gear in the front and spindles in the back) and for volunteer check-in, registration, aid stations, scoring, food distribution and awards ceremony
  • T-shirts . for volunteers and race day entrants
  • Time sheets . for select timing (see clipboards and stopwatches)
  • Trash bags . for lining trash barrels and collecting trash
  • Trash barrels . for aid station water and trash
  • Vans (or trucks) . for transporting equipment, supplies, barricades, cones, marshals, and split timers
  • Vests . (orange) at least for rope holders, front herders/spacers and course marshals
  • Water (see water jugs)
  • Water jugs (plastic Jerry cans) . filled, for use at aid stations, unless hoses to a direct source can be used
  • Wire cutters . for cutting plastic ties