100 Mile Cycling Ride

As the director of a 100-mile & 50-mile cycling ride for three years, I meticulously planned every detail to ensure the event's success and rider satisfaction. This position was while I was working as a Marketing Coordinator for a bicycle shop in Utah, called The Biker's Edge. This event took place the Saturday nearest Cinco de Mayo.

These types of events are notoriously complicated and I didn't have a dedicated team to delegate tasks. This required me to be extremely organized, meticulous, and foresee anything that may go wrong. I had to coordinate with ten different cities and their local police precincts, manage permits, insurance, and road closures.

This was all before I had to worry about ensuring that the participants had fun, could follow the route, be safe, would have energy to finish, and remember our brand.

Each year, the event's popularity surged, selling out as soon as registration opened. The event aimed to raise funds for a local High School Cycling League. I secured high-value product donations for raffle tickets and organized jersey design contests, generating massive buzz and additional revenue through jersey sales.

The event's success was marked by substantial funds raised, strong community ties, and high participant satisfaction, showcasing my ability to lead large-scale events that achieve financial goals and positively impact the community.

The biggest challenges:

BUDGET & VOLUNTEERS:
This was arguably the biggest challenge of the entire event. The owner of the shop didn't want to charge an entrance fee and gave me a budget of $1,000 - excluding product that I could use for a fundraiser. This required me to haggle, borrow, and use the shops most loyal customers who were willing to trade their services for small discounts in the shop.

The largest expense? Toilets. I shopped around and landed on a portable restroom service that would allow me portable restrooms at the start line, and a few more at the 50-mile mark (which was also the 25 mile mark for the 50-mile ride).

Because of the events budget, I also couldn't time the ride. Meaning it couldn't be a race. This actually worked out better, as it required very little street closures with police since the riders would naturally spread out.

Because we weren't making money, I created a raffle for the local high school cycling team. Which allowed our business to flex our commitment to the community and our philanthropic efforts, all while also making my permits easier to get. Since it was now a ride where all proceeds went to charity, I could wave the charge most cities charged for permits.

With our goal of now raising money for the local high school cycling team, I now had my volunteers - the local high school cycling team and their parents.

I could also use the fact that it was a charity ride when trying to get sponsors for the event. Sponsorships happened in many ways, none of which were monetary donations. I asked a local wheel manufacturer that happened to be one of the best nationally, if they would donate a wheel set (worth $3,000). They obliged and this was our big ticket raffle item. To create even more buzz, I had our shop create custom decals for the wheels to match our Cinco de Mayo branding (photo below). Additional sponsorships came in discounts for fruit/food for riders, product from energy gel companies, products for the raffle, etc.

LOGISTICS:
As mentioned, I had to coordinate with multiple cities. Before I could do this, I had to design the route. This required knowledge of cycling, and ensuring the route wasn't too challenging, had well maintained roads and sufficient shoulder (or was a slow enough street), and had areas where I could place aid stations.

Details most people miss.

There are some details that you don't want to forget about. For example, where are the participants going to use the bathroom over the course of this ride? Which city will allow me to occupy a park for free to place portable restrooms? Where can cyclists toss their trash? What happens if a cyclist breaks down and doesn't have equipment to fix their bike? How much nutrition is required along the course to ensure they don't need to stop anywhere and buy food? How many direction signs are needed to ensure cyclists don't miss a turn or lose confidence throughout the 100 miles?

This list is just the beginning and an intro into how complicated the logistics for this event was. Every year, I handled the complicated logistics with impeccable organization and detailed pre-planning.

VOLUNTEERS:
As mentioned, the volunteers were the local high school cycling team and their parents. The volunteers handled all aid stations. I created a timed arrival and leave time for each aid station, spaced 25 miles apart. I had a spreadsheet they all had access to and laid out the materials the night before for easy pick up.

Other area's I would welcome to discuss in further detail: swag, branding, sponsorship booths, sponsorships, equipment rental, set-up/tear-down, email correspondence to riders, sign-up logistics, or anything else.