It’s difficult to believe we just wrapped up our 7th year in business. Funny, it simultaneously seems like I just started yesterday and like I’ve been doing this for 100 years. When we started it was just going to be one race, the Fall Equinox Half Marathon, and somewhere along the way it morphed into 21 events and a full time job. As I look at our year-end numbers I’m somewhat surprised at what we accomplished. We started the business based on the triple bottom line (social, environmental, and financial sustainability) and I am proud that we have maintained those values through the years, allowing us to contribute over $135,000 to our local community and divert 95% of our event related waste away from the landfill.
Event organizers regularly place on the lists of most stressful jobs and it certainly can be. I know I have a few more gray hairs than I did a few years ago! We have just a few hours on one day to make everything run perfectly for our participants. To accomplish this we are depending on many people (volunteers, vendors, contractors) to show up and fulfill their commitment, we have uncontrollable variables (weather, traffic) and then we have the challenges that we all face daily (technology, communication, logistics, and people). In the past 7 years we have also had natural disasters (flood & fire) threaten or cancel events, including a fire this year the week leading up to Fall Equinox. “Basic Race Directing Math” shows on average we have just 230 billion opportunities for “something to go wrong” at one of our events!! I learned this from Dave McGilivray, Boston Marathon Race Director, which he followed by saying something like, “if 80% of the details go right, that’s a “perfect” race”.
While challenging, the rewards of producing events and sharing the positive experience of accomplishments, first finishes, new personal records, smiles, and beers with all of you is well worth it!
As I reflect back there are so many faces that flash through my mind of our staff and volunteers and if I were to name everyone that has contributed to our events it would take several pages. There is a good chance most of them would rather be running or staying tucked in bed on race day, but they set their alarms, get up early and work hard to make the day enjoyable for everyone else. I’ve heard some say working an event is more exhausting than running the race, and that certainly seems true and makes us appreciate the help that much more. We couldn’t produce these events without all the support from hundreds of people each year.
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There is another group of people that make our events great, they are the local business owners that sponsor our events and there are a few in particular that I would like to highlight. Rebound Sports & Physical Therapy and Raintree Athletic Club, are both locally owned and operated & specifically support running and fitness in our community. The owners of these businesses listened to our plans before we had ever even put on an event and said we believe in you and want to support what you are doing. These two sponsors have continued to support our events each and every year since and have grown with us each year. They also run great businesses that we personally frequent. Additional long time sponsors include Runners Roost Fort Collins, VanMeveren Law Firm, Dellenbach Motors, Signarama and Horsetooth Hot Sauce. We cannot thank them enough!
In the past couple of years we have been happy to partner with a brewery that shares our values and knows how to have fun! Horse & Dragon brewing is also locally owned and operated and they have been such a great addition to several of our events these past couple of years. Major bonus – their beer is amazing!
Lastly, I would be remiss to not mention my business partner, Ron Baker, who after 30 years as a dentist came out of retirement to make this business possible. We have grown a lot from the first year when we stuffed each race packet ourselves, loaded the truck at 10pm the night before the race, and sorted event trash the day after the race. While Ron might be moving on to a second retirement he is still very involved and you will continue to see him on race day.
2018 has been a great year and I am very grateful to the Green Events team, all the participants, volunteers, sponsors, friends, and family that have been a part of my life. I’m looking forward to everything we have planned for 2019 and hopefully seeing you out at our events!
Happy New Year
