As a sport, Recreational Running is booming in popularity, with more running races than we can count, taking place almost every weekend. 

Races are organised to suit everyone, ranging from serious races such as half and full marathons, to costumed and themed runs for those who prefer to take part in races as a way of socialising with their friends and families rather than gunning for a timing.

And to fit them into the calendar, there are even races organised on weekdays too, such as the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge and the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay, two of the more popular weekday races happening around the world.

But with so many running races out there, surely runners cannot run everything. So how do races stand out from others – and entice runners to join them?

Here are some generic ways that race organisers may entice runners to pick their race over say, a competitor’s race.

1) Becoming Environmentally Friendly

To cater to runners who want to go green and protect the environment, some races give them that opportunity, as a way of targeting this more niche group of runners.

Some races around the world, that do this are the Port Perry Half Marathon and 5K in Canada, and the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon in South Africa, both of which had managed to stay completely carbon-neutral despite hosting thousands of runners. 

And closer to home, the Income Eco Run in Singapore has been introducing a few green measures, too, for the past few years, targeting eco-friendly runners. These include encouraging runners to cycle to the event site rather than driving, bringing their own water bottles and doing away with the plastic wrapping for their finisher medals and event t-shirts.

2) Offering VIP Treatment

Besides the standard support and services that are being offered to runners, some race organisers have also tried bucking the trend by offering VIP packages to runners.

For example, the Sundown Marathon in Singapore, during the 2013 edition, offered the “Sundown Like A Rock Star” service for some runners, giving them perks such as good food and beverages post-race to refuel, access to the VIP lounge, a two-way limousine service to ferry them to and from the race site, a premium starting area for flag-off and an express pass for all activities so that they could avoid the queues.

And the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon in 2015, had offered recreational runners the opportunity to start with the VIPs, meaning that they could rub shoulders with the Kenyan runners and the other elites at the starting line even though they were not fast runners. As well, this group of runners were also given access to the post-race VIP tent in order to recharge after their race.

Such packages can be offered in the form of contests or prizes, or else are chargeable at anywhere between $59 to $299 – on top of the event’s standard runner entry fees.

3) Premium Sponsor Engagement 

Most races offer runners clunky finisher medals made of metal, but for those who may not be fans of collecting such bling, there are runs out there that are going out of the way to give runners unique entitlements, for example, unusual finisher medals, as their way of standing out.

For example, there is the Nagoya Women’s Marathon in Nagoya, Japan, which gives out “medals” in the form of Tiffany & Co. necklaces to all those who are able to complete the marathon within the cut-off time.

4) Mobile Platforms 

Runners who wish to have their friends and family track them during their race, can now have them download the official Race App at most big-name races these days, such as the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, Gold Coast Marathon, New York Marathon and the London Marathon. 

Such apps can give real-time information about where the runner is and the checkpoints that he or she has crossed and from this information, their friends and family will know where to wait for the runner and when he or she is likely to cross the finish line of the race, too.

5) Runner Support

Having a user-friendly website, lots of volunteers and a well-well-organised functional event are not enough these days; runners expect these to be basics of every race that they are paying for.

So in order to stand out, race organisers come up with creative ways to deliver exceptional customer service and get runners to come back for their event.

One race, the Pittsburgh Marathon in the United States, is doing this with their novel MilestonePod training concept. 

This is in the form of a device that is given out free of charge to their first 2,000 registered runners and runners can use these to get feedback on their training, running form and their stride, and make corrections as they train and gear up for the race.