31 years running in beautiful golden gate park

SUCCESS STORY
KAISER PERMANENTE SAN FRANCISCO HALF MARATHON & 5K FUN RUN
31 YEARS RUNNING
IN BEAUTIFUL
GOLDEN GATE PARK
BACKGROUND
The Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon and 5K Fun Run
is a certified 13.1 mile course and ranked as one of the most scenic in the country by Runner’s World. This race has been selected as Road Race of the Year by the Road Runners
Club of America. Founded in 1983, this event has successfully attracted runners to its
beautiful course for the past 31 years.
Q&A with John Spriggs, Co-Race Director
CAN YOU GIVE US A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE
HISTORY OF THE EVENT?
It all starts with the Pamakids Runners Club.
The Club was established in 1971 and our purpose
is to “promote a healthy lifestyle, support the running
community and charitable causes by organizing,
volunteering, and participating in running related
and social events in the San Francisco Bay Area.”
With that in mind, in 1977 the Pamakids organized
the first San Francisco Marathon. That continued
for about five years, but proved to be a big
organizational challenge for the Club. So in 1983,
the Pamakids decided to end the marathon in favor
or a half marathon distance, and the inaugural San
Francisco Half Marathon was launched. We added
the 5K in 2001, but the course has remained virtually
unchanged over the past three decades and has
become one of San Francisco’s largest road races.
ACTIVE.com is a great channel to help us attract
participants and the registration system is a great tool to
get people signed up easily.
John Spriggs, Co-Race Director, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half
Marathon & 5K Fun Run
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HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO INCREASE PARTICIPATION OVER THE YEARS?
Yes, but we have a cap of 10,000 participants due to city and police regulations for road
closures and capacity at Golden Gate Park. We usually sell out at least a month before the
event, so we don’t do any race-day registration. We like the size—it’s a big event but not
huge, which makes it manageable for us. And the Park is so scenic that we can guarantee a
scenic course.
SUCCESS STORY
KAISER PERMANENTE SAN FRANCISCO HALF MARATHON & 5K FUN RUN
HOW COMPLICATED IS OBTAINING PERMITS FOR AN EVENT LIKE THIS?
This is my first year as a race director, but I’ve been course captain for several years and
my experience working with the City of San Francisco has been really positive. Just like
with our sponsors, we begin planning with the City months in advance and that helps
tremendously. Everyone understands the logistics and plans and is prepared.
For example, it’s too dangerous for our volunteers to deal with traffic in this city, so the
SFPD handles that for us and everything flows really smoothly. And an example of our
teamwork and preparedness became really evident in 2008 when we had a massive
storm. There was a blockage in the street drains and we were standing in ankle-deep
water at the start line at 3am—the race was set to start in five hours. The Public Works
Department got a team out there by 4am to fix it and the start ended up going off without
a hitch. It was great.
HOW IMPORTANT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?
We put a big effort into social media, Facebook and Twitter in particular. We have two Club
members dedicated to managing our social presence. The social tools are a great way to
keep the event on people’s minds and an ideal way to provide last-minute updates about
the race. We encourage participants to follow us year round for the best, most up-todate info.
HOW HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO CREATE SUCH SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIPS WITH
YOUR SPONSORS?
Kaiser Permanente came on board as our title sponsor in 2005 and I can’t say enough
about the amazing support they’ve provided. I think our relationship is strong because
of good communication. Even though they’ve been with us for several years, we still
begin working with Kaiser’s PR department months in advance of the event. We ask
them what they want to see out of the event and align it with our goals. They encourage
employees and plan members to participate and we provide training programs for them.
Kaiser really believes in and supports exercise as illness prevention. It’s a great fit for
both our organization and theirs.
Plus, adding the 5k in addition to the half marathon has been key in getting support.
Sponsors like events that can accommodate a variety of athletes, not just the folks
who have the time and ability to train for longer races. This was important to Kaiser
Permanente, for example, because we provide an event that all their members and staff
can participate in.
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DOES YOUR EVENT HAVE A CHARITY AFFILIATION?
Yes! Since the Pamakids are a non-profit organization, we donate around $75,000 per
year from the race proceeds to a variety of charitable organizations. We like to support
local non-profit community organizations that match our club’s mission to “promote a
healthy lifestyle.” Doing this is really helpful in connecting with both the runners in our race
and sponsors who like to participate in an event that benefits their community.
We donate around $75,000 per year from the race proceeds
to various charitable organizations.
John Spriggs, Co-Race Director, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon &
5K Fun Run
SUCCESS STORY
KAISER PERMANENTE SAN FRANCISCO HALF MARATHON & 5K FUN RUN
HOW HAS ACTIVE’S RACE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE HELPED YOU OPERATE MORE
EFFICIENTLY?
RhodyCo works with the system most closely, but it’s always seemed to be very flexible.
It’s really easy for us to set up discounts for clubs, to manage comp entries, etc. Whenever
we make a registration request, it happens right away.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE THINGS YOU THINK SET YOUR EVENT APART AND HELP IT
BE SUCCESSFUL YEAR AFTER YEAR?
One of the reasons our event consistently attracts runners is that we have a really great
course. It’s scenic, fast, and the time of year is perfect. (We always hold the event on Super
Bowl Sunday, so people like to get a great run in before they relax and enjoy the game.)
The event is also meticulously organized—it’s always on time and every detail is
accounted for. RhodyCo, our event management company, is amazing. People put on a
lot of races like this, but our event is put on by runners. We give a lot of attention to the
details runners care about, because we’re runners ourselves. And we always incorporate
runner feedback into the next year’s event.
HAVE YOU SEEN AN INCREASE IN TEAM PARTICIPATION?
Yes, there are definitely more teams. We have competitive racing clubs participating,
as well as organizations like Kaiser Permanente who bring a corporate team and use the
event as a team building activity, and other groups that use the race as a fundraising tool.
I think participating as a group helps people get more fulfillment out of the race and we
generally encourage teams to sign up by offering group discounts.
HOW LONG HAS THE EVENT BEEN WORKING WITH ACTIVE?
We’ve been with ACTIVE since 2001, so it’s been over 12 years. The growth of the race
really took off in 2001 (previously it was steady at about 3,000 runners) and we can
attribute part of that to ACTIVE.
ACTIVE.com is a great channel to help us attract participants and the registration system
is a great tool to get people signed up easily. We’ve consistently resigned with ACTIVE
and our partnership works really well.
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Plus, we get lots of help with promotion. Kaiser Permanente really helps us reach out to
their clients and employees. For example, we organize training runs with certified coaches
to get people motivated and in shape for the event. And ACTIVE Network also helps
promote and attract registrants on ACTIVE.com.
We give a lot of attention to the details runners care about,
because we’re runners ourselves.
John Spriggs, Co-Race Director, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon &
5K Fun Run
Learn how ACTIVE Network’s race software can help manage your events at:
ACTIVEendurance.com