Due to the current crisis of the Covid-19 many sports events have been cancelled or postponed in 2020. The New York Marathon, the Boston Marathon and the Valencia Marathon have had to cancel their editions planned for this autumn due to the uncertainty that such a massive event still involves.
Although there are already many organisers who have put in place preventive measures to be able to continue with their events: shipping bibs to avoid the runner’s shows, checking the temperature of the participants at the start line… many others have decided to cancel.
When this happens it is not convenient to ignore the runners registered at the competition, it is important to maintain a presence in the participant’s mind and not to forget them until the next edition in 2021. Many race directors have decided to organise the race in a virtual format, in which, in return for the runner’s paid registration for the 2020 edition, they are invited to postpone their registration until 2021 and are also encouraged to participate in the virtual event.
At timingsense we have many race directors and timers who have been affected by this new scenario, so we decided to develop Virtual Races by timingsense, to be able to offer our customers a solution for today: to continue with their events despite the situation and to proceed safely for their participants but also a solution for tomorrow: the hybrid races.
Once we overcome the current situation, the new normal will leave us with a scenario in which classic races will coexist with virtual races because for many runners it is more easy not to have to go to a start line point on a given day, but to participate in the race at the time that suits them best. In this other post we explain how we see hybrid races.
What is a virtual race?
Virtual running is the safest way nowadays to promote competitive sport without it being crowded, it is the best way to maintain the commitment with your participants so that they do not forget your brand or your course, it is the best way to maintain the sports spirit in an organisation, company or club.
At timingsense we are sure that this type of event has come to stay. Even after overcoming this current health crisis we believe that virtual races will not disappear, as the organisers will have the opportunity to have more runners at their events, adding those who run in the classic modality and those who decide to do so virtually for reasons of agenda, travel, etc.
The arrival of virtual running on the scene has opened up new options for those who are not race organisers as such.
With the simplicity of organising a virtual race anyone can do it easily:
- Race directors, partners and brands in order not to lose contact with their target audience
- Foundations and NGOs: to raise funds
- Companies to promote sport among employees to avoid sedentarism, join them and keep them motivated.
- Sport
- Clubs to achieve a common goal or create competition between members.
What do you need to know to organise a virtual race?
Organising a race is a very complex project, but to organize a virtual race you don’t need dates and times, authorisations, blocking streets, medical and police support, civil responsibility insurance, sponsorship, volunteers, printing and delivering bibs, tags, organising provisioning points, hiring the timing service… Now you can create a race challenge in less than 10 minutes and spend the rest of your budget on marketing and communication to have as many participants as possible, dedicate them to your brand’s efforts, increase awards, etc.
Date, distances and paths: it is no longer necessary to set a date and a path if you do not wish to do so. You can organise your race so that participants can complete a free route or a closed route of a specific distance on a range of dates set by you. You can create a training period prior to the race participation. More people will be encouraged to sign up.
You can publish rankings in real time and of all kinds of them: by age, sex, teams, sum of kilometres, pace…
Virtual Races by timingsense
In timingsense we have decided to bet on this new way of competing. We believe that virtual running is here to stay. That is why we have put all our efforts into developing Virtual Races by timingsense, the best platform for this type of race. It is the most versatile and powerful application that exists right now for virtual races as it allows you to customise the app to adapt to the image of your brand, company, association, club, sponsor, etc. and you can create all the challenges or races that you want.
Other apps for virtual racing are already on the market. When we developed our Virtual Races app we first asked ourselves what should be required from an app of this type, we tell you in this other article.
Virtual Races by timingsense app offers you a complete solution with registration, timing and classification management, as well as running packs: medals, branded equipment, printed diplomas, awards to the winners and registration to other races.
