BB 2011 less than a week away. RD Steve Bosley interview Part Two.

Tho-Run: So Steve part of the big news this year is the course change. I can’t imagine that you just decided to change the course over night.

Steve Bosley:  (Laughing).Well that was us. Yeah that was us. We’ll jump to that.

How it came about is a much longer story but let’s hold off on that. It was in one of our brainstorming sessions, you know maybe such and such might work because if we really look at this we can bring more buses into this new area. You know where the buses came in before with the drop offs the traffic was just terrible. So we said let's move the start closer to the finish line, then buses will have a dedicated route in to town and cars for drop off will have two dedicated drop off zones.

Well; taken together rather than separately, that’s all huge....all those things. Some people talked about tradition and you're giving up the history of the start, the race will lose something. And you know we’ve been planning this for three years! (laughing) We’ve probably got 1200-1500 hours into this.

Judging and planning and all the ramifications and we know we will have missed some things. You just can't, like know for example what is the optimal placement of the port o potties?

But we’ll know after we that first race in. But the issues of how and when you shut the streets down and what time. All that we are really good at. Then we think about just the confusion of two thirds of the runners coming this year will have been to the other starting line. So what does that look like? So there is going to be something that pops up but we don’t think there will be anything of major importance we just look for every single detail.

Tho-Run: There is also the dynamic of the father son pass off of the race that Cliff is running the event.

Steve Bosley:  So many times in a business the son or daughter takes over and all of these changes happen, but Cliff said  I don’t want to change anything, I don’t even know what going on! Well he’s worked on the race since the first one.

He and his sister sat in Frank Shorter's office door when they were…let’s see 12 and 13 registering people on the weekends. And they talk about how cheap I was back then because for doing that they got to eat at the New York Deli which was right next door (laughing). Which they loved!!

So Cliff has literally, before he took over as race director he has been in charge of every aspect of the race.  And all he did, no the only thing he did, I want to emphasize the important, he looked at streamlining everything he possibly could. Like a watch….and you can't you say for years we maintained a reputation as the most innovative race. Cliff helped insure that.

We’re always coming up with something. For several years the media would say what are you doing differently this year? Well how do you measure the thousand little things that smooth this piece out and that so when suddenly you put them all together the race just has a different feel to it. That everything just works.

Tho-Run: I blog and race each year and look at all aspects of a race. How easy is it to register? Where do you park? What does the shirt look like? Is the course accurate? Is the timing accurate? Marshalling, everything—even post race food. I talk to folks too- I have to tell you as  impressed as I am with the race, it’s really one of the few events I run each year where my only concern is how fast I’m going to run!

Steve Bosley:  laughing…We send our guys to other races all the time. And one of the instructions Cliff gave them was go in and register for the race. Be an ordinary person. Do all the things someone would do on race day. And then write down when you are done…where were you nervous?

Where were you wondering what was next? And, the fun part of that was that hey we found you know we are doing all of that!! The great part of going to other races, and Cliff and I still go to other races, is that we come back with pages of notes and ideas that this almost happened what do we do here? Or can we prevent that? Not in any way, shape, or form to say we never have that problem-baloney-we know there’s a fine line between being inches away from problems all the time.

Tho-Run: Another aspect of the race is the chip timing. There are some races I do where I don’t see results for days or even a week. In BB you have results immediately-- for thousands and thousands of runners.

Steve Bosley:  Isn’t that neat? You notice we didn’t go to the chip system for ten years?

That’s when it first came out. But every time we looked at it and looked at the races and the prices and looked at what it was, well the prices were a killer. But we weren’t driven to move to chips because the accuracy of our timing system was so great.  Before the chip, our timing was so good that it really created a question—how do you do this?

It really was a system that evolved in the first few years that we perfected. We would ask people in the surveys How accurate was your time? And one answer would be what is your perception of how accurate was your time? If you think three seconds is ok, then it’s accurate. If you buddy says three seconds off is not accurate then it’s not. It’s all about customer or runner satisfaction. When we would ask more specifically –were we right on, were we plus or minus one second, three seconds, whatever, the accuracy rate was, or the customer satisfaction rate was phenomenal. Well again the media started writing about us and we were accurate with our timing so we weren’t driven to it, to the chip. We waited a couple of years, well then we just developed our own system and went with it.

Tho-Run: It seems like there are really three races on the big day. You’ve got the professional race, runners and then you have the joggers and walkers.

Steve Bosley: It’s all within. It’s all one big race organization and you really hit on a key point. Most races back  then were really emphasizing the race, the non-professional aspect of it. We never called our race the non-elite race as that would then get into the amateur status of our race—and that is another subject entirely what is considered professional or amateur.

It’s only been in the last 8-10 years that we called the one of the races “The Professional Race”.  We don’t have a VIP party, we have a special guest party-I don’t like those terms, VIP, Elite.

Other races would specialize in having a so, so race (citizens) and focus on the professionals-I never believed the two to be mutually exclusive. In the end for us, how much is all that attention to just a pro race worth to your sponsors or to the thousands of runners who run in your race? We like to hear our runners and sponsors say hey that is really a cool event we are a part of! And we will keep working to keep that going.

Lucky Mile Series in Louisville

Interview with David Janowiec

Partner/Chief Marketing Officer  Human Movement

Louisville is getting its share of run events, but a 1 mile run is new. When did you decide to put the event on and also turn it into a series of weekly runs?

A: We wanted to put together a run/race that was very community centered. Something where locals and surrounding area runners could both get to know each other more, but also allow for runners who already know each other to compete against each other on a regular basis. Another goal was for training purposes – in the Spring many runners are pushing short distances at a fast pace on a weekly basis as part of their training programs. So this series really compliments everybody. Kids/families: 1 mile is perfect for kids. Serious runners: can compare their weekly times and compete against others in the exact same course from week to week.

You must have been able to get a lot of buy in from the business owners in downtown--that takes a lot of work. How long have you been planning to run the series?

A: actually, the only business owners we’ve really dealt with on this series are Lucky Pie and Sweet Cow, as it doesn’t affect the others all that much. And the branding is really in line with our main partner – Lucky Pie, so to discuss sponsorship/partnership with other local businesses, especially restaurants, wasn’t really possible. Our other event, the Taste of Louisville Half marathon & 5K touches more on your question – incorporating all of the local businesses much more.

What do you think will surprise people about this series?

A: Hmmm… The biggest surprise to us has been the amount of kids involved. There are a ton of kids running. I think the biggest surprise to the runners, will be how much we put into a ‘1 mile’ run. We set this race up like it’s a marathon, including awards, finish line area, and effort. Another thing that may surprise the runners is how much fun this race and series is. I can’t even count how many people have thanked us for organizing a series based on community and ‘fun’! Our goal is for the race atmosphere to be light-hearted and laid back, but still very high quality and very professional. I think this series will have 400 runners per night in a year or so.

How do you think the race will fit into the overall season calendar for local runners?

A: I think it has a lot to do with part of my answer in #1 above. Putting in ‘speed work’ just before the weekend. Many runners will do speed work 2-3 days before a race, and the Lucky Mile Series offers exactly that. I know people doing the race who have broken their 1 mile PR’s each week! Runners who have been running for 20+ years! It really pushes you to go fast when you’re up against a bunch of other runners in a 1 mile run.

Folks can make an evening of the run as well with lots of goodies after the race. How do you see the event changing as word gets out and more people show up?

A: Our sponsors such as Avery Brewing, Lucky Pie, and Sweet Cow will adapt to the increase in runners and will be happy to do so. The only things I could see changing are the addition of a cash purse possibly, and the addition of more sponsors who want to be a part of such a unique event series. We’ve had several regional ‘industry’ companies already ask about sponsoring the Fall series. Which I’ll have to tell you about. Haha… http://www.tasteoflouisvillehalf.com/lucky-mile#!__lucky-mile

Bolder Boulder 10k 2011 Countdown...interview with Steve Bosley Part One

The 33^rd annual Bolder Boulder 10k is less than a month away.

The race is one the most successful races in the country and highlights the racing calendar for me along with thousands of other runners and walkers.

I’ve always said that the event is the most seamless race I have entered—it’s the only race on my calendar where my only concern is how fast I can run. 

All of the other details such as registration, course safety, accuracy of timing and distance, results, post race food and expo, plus much more, are simply first class. 

Bar none.

The Bolder Boulder is on the short list of must do races for runners along with such classics as The Peachtree Road Race (Atlanta on the 4^th of July) and of course The Boston Marathon.  Runners travel from all of the world to race here in Boulder on Memorial day.

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I sat down over breakfast recently with race founder Steve Bosley to learn more about the race. Bosely is a runner, and a successful businessman. He has combined his business acumen with a lifelong passion for running to create the signature event of the running season for many of us. Bosely talked at length about the history of the race, the course changes for this year, and what he sees in the future for the event.

Tho-run: Talk about the history of the race, how did it come about, when did you decide to organize a road race?

Steve Bosley: I’ll give you the history. It’s quite interesting. It was President Lincoln who said something like victory has a thousand fathers and defeat is an orphan, or something like that. Here’s the story. I’ve always loved athletics. My father was a coach. I participated in a lot of sports but was not outstanding in any. I ran mostly for fitness. My father had a heart attack at age 50 and he died at 60, so I was running from heart disease. At the time, my five children were in track programs. I would go to the track meets and I was so disgusted with the coaches and parents, I decided I was going to put on a track meet—but I was going to keep the coaches and parents in the stands!

I knew Frank Shorter who won the gold medal at the 1972 Olympics in the marathon. I told him I wanted to organize a track meet for runners. Shorter told me that a track meet has lots and lots of events-you want to run a road race. So I asked him (laughing) —what’s a road race? This was in February of 1979.

So I’d go to races along the Front Range each weekend, as many as I could find. I studied the races and what I found was six or seven things that you really needed to do to take care of your customer. I called the racers customers because I felt that if my event did not do a good job of keeping those runners/customers happy, they would never come back and pay an entry fee to run in my event.

I was President of the Bank of Boulder and called a staff meeting and said we are going to put on a road race. We are going to take all of things, and this is no meant as disrespect to clubs or groups that put on running events, but we are going to take all of those things and do them better than anyone else and run this race correctly just like it was our business. There were so many things that were not being done—take age groups for example. Most races have 12 and under, 13-17, and so 17-20 and so on. Well how can a nine year old race a twelve year old? Or what about a 45 year old racing someone who is 23? It just doesn’t work. So I said lets do it by age. And that first year we gave away ten places! And we have a number of people who tell us each year that they love the race because of the age groupings by year. It’s just one of the many things we identified as being essential to making the race a first class experience for everyone—runners, sponsors, the city, everyone. And there are others too.

Tho-Run: It would seem that being a sponsor of the Bolder Boulder would be a really great opportunity for a company. But it wasn’t as easy as just going out and singing up some names. The sponsorship developed over time didn't it?

Steve Bosley:  If you do things right and take care of people, this is the thing. This is true for runners and sponsors. They just come back. You know it’s interesting that our race became such a big race in Colorado, it could have been born much earlier. There were some other races at the time like the run for the roses that was put on by Leo Palmer who owned a flower shop. As a sidebar I went to him and said I want to put on a race but I don’t want to think we are competing, you are in the fall and I’ll be in the spring—do you want to join forces? In fact, I went to five businesses that first year and said would you join me in putting on a road race? And not one of them said yes.   I say to our sponsors that out of those five business I went to, only one of them survived, the rest of them died. My bank was the one that made it-and so now I say to sponsors now that it’s obvious to me that you are going to be successful if you sponsor the Bolder Boulder!! 

We came back the second year by the way, and some of those companies said hey we want to join you now. And there were a number of lucky things that happened along the way for our race, and one of them was I said no we are going to do this on our own. We were a small business bank and the agonies of partnerships falling apart was enough to give us pause. We decided not to sell any sponsorships because we really didn’t know what we should sell them for or what the sponsors would get out of it. We just decided to pay for it all again and wanted to do things right first –we wanted to lay the foundations first—we wanted to more than just collecting money. we wanted our sponsors to be our partners—

Tho-Run: We all see the banners along the course or at the post race expo for BB of the participating companies, but partnership is an overused term in business. How does it work for the race?

 

Steve Bosely: Oh it goes so deep. Much of it is not even obvious on the surface. First would be finding the right companies tat we can give them their monies worth for what they spend. We’ve gone to sponsors before and said we don’t think you are getting your monies worth for what you are spending. We will let you out of your contract. In most circles that is unheard of. But I think why have someone on board who is unhappy and talks to others about how unhappy they are? You know what? I’d rather have a company say hey you know what this company came to us and said hey we want to let you out of your contract with us and we are ok with that, that is the way you should do business. Laying that piece and then really taking care of the runners—from how do you learn about the race, how do you register, is the course accurate, how close is your chip time vs. the time you had, the course entertainment, even the mile markers, and finally what is your post race experience?  We just think we’ve got to keep plussing it up.Your paying for an experience. We think of all those things and more and we think of them from a sponsors perspective-that all makes for a good start to a sponsorship package.

Tho-Run: I just cant help but thinking there must have been a little bit of luck in getting the race on the right course. What sticks out in your mind as something that was fortunate that you maybe didn’t see at the time?

Steve Bosley: The biggest race in the Rocky Mountain Area should not be in Boulder, Colorado. It should be in Denver. Well, we were blessed at the time that the Denver Parks and Recreation charged a lot for a race. You know there was a big race under Governor Lamm who was also a runner, but we were really fortunate. The Denver races were big but they never really took off over time.

We had a group lay out a course for us one year that seemed to be a pretty good one.  We changed the course a little bit but that wasn’t a big deal. Anyway, lets see two weeks before the race, I said how’s the parade permit? I’d like to see the parade permit. 

Well guess what? We  did not have permission from the city to put on a race. So I went down to city hall. I really did not know anyone there at the time. And they said nope, no way there is not enough time. Sorry. 

And I met one fellow, I believe his name was Andy, I think he was public works and I said boy are we really in trouble, and he said yes you really are in trouble. And he said let me see what you’ve got and I’ll think about it. He was gone for about 15-20 minutes, and when he came back he had a parade permit. 

This guy he wasn’t, I mean he didn’t work for the city very long. His way of doing things didn’t work in a bureaucracy. We would not have had the race that year without that permit. Maybe we would have had it the next year, you know though when you’ve got the momentum going and you lose that-and we had enough participation and everything that we decided to go to the city for the next year right then. And we told them we think there are things we can change. Since then, we’ve included the city in our planning every year.