Mull of Kintyre Half Marathon and 10k race - May 06

[Ailsa]

Just a point about this - if you are not registered it does cost you money to register...

Sorry to contradict you "hoots the scoop" but its doesn't cost you anything to register on justgiving.com. I have recently registered for another fundraiser. Just go to http://www.justgiving.com/process/raise ... efault.asp and have a look at the ways you can raise money for charities- you can go through the process of registering there-and-then

[Ailsa]

Just a point about this - if you are not registered it does cost you money to register...

Sorry to contradict you "hoots the scoop" but its doesn't cost you anything to register on justgiving.com. I have already registered for another fundraiser - go to http://www.justgiving.com/process/raise ... efault.asp and have a look at the wayS you can raise money - you can go through the process of registering there-and-then

[hoots the scoop]

Thanks for the post Ailsa biut I actually contacted them earlier this year and was told it DOES cost mony. Can't remember the exact details but a percentage of money you raise goes to their site??

[Ailsa]

That is true hoots the scoot.

It doesn't cost you to register however when somebody sponsors you a percentage of the money they sponsor you goes to the company.

Which is fair enough because they haved gone to all of the effort of creating this great tool for charities.

[Tom B]

6 people attended our meeting on Saturday, and I also met up with one other forum member in the evening to discuss progress. We've taken away a number of actions to contact local organisations and individuals to progress the planning, and to find out from Oban / Mull / Mid-Argyll / former C/town organisers etc the costs and pitfalls of organising an event. The preference is that we would look to stage a 10k as well as half marathon on the day, as there is a much greater pool of potential runners for the former! This will require more planning, and effort, but we are hopeful it can be done, and are proceeding now on the basis that it will happen. I'll post a more detailed update in a couple of weeks when we have gathered a bit more information, and discussed / finalised the proposed route with the police and roads department - but the plan at the minute is that the half marathon will incorporate at least part of the Westport - Machrihanish route. After that (sometime in December) there will be a second meeting in the town.

The date proposed is Sunday 28th May, but I've just heard that there may be another running event on in Lochgilphead the same weekend. Anybody aware of that?

Thanks to all who attended the meeting, and for all the postive contributions both at the meeting and on this board.

Dust off those running shoes, only 7 months to go....!

[Rob Reid]

28 May is good because it's the holiday weekend, so more people might stay over from Saturday to Monday. Downside is that local people are liable to be too busy, especially in Tarbert (weekend of Scottish Series yacht races).

Whatever day it is, I think it is important to have a CEILIDH in the evening of the race day, like they do on Islay. For that reason, I would go for afternoon race, say 2:30pm start (which allows for people coming from Glasgow on the morning bus). Finish around 5pm, then time to shower, eat, etc, then ceilidh as from, say 7:30. Having something to do in the evening also increases the chances that people from a distance will stay the night, rather than feeling "Is that it? Oh, well, I may as well go home". And it encourages runners to bring friends and family along. Anyone have other ideas to make it a fun day for non-runners?

How vigorously should we promote the event? I think that depends on whether the new pool [aquilibrium??] is open. If it isn't, keep it low-key for first year and plan for BIG event in 2007 (by which time we might also have Irish ferry???). If it IS open by then, the race will be a great way of publicising the new facilities. Will it have a hall suitable for the ceilidh?

Fund-raising - the top priority should be, not money, but seeing how much can be sponsorship-in-kind, e.g. police and medical people donating their time, businesses donating food and drink and the loan of support vehicles. And do we HAVE to give out tee-shirts and medals, just because all the other 10k's and half-mara's do it? Let's be more creative! I have no objection to fund-raising, but in any voluntary organisation, it can sometimes be a distraction from whatever you're REALLY trying to do.

[elainemck]

Thanks Rob for your contribution!!

Yes it was agreed that the 28th is good as it is a bank holiday and as long as it doesn't clash with another similar event it should be fine as we're never going to get another bank holiday that doesn't clash with something!! A Ceilidh is a fantastic suggestion, however, that will need further planning but we could look into this at the next meeting. Nevertheless, if no Ceilidh organised I'm sure it would be good that local businesses ie restaurants/pubs/hotels get some trade over that weekend from the event. A finishing party of sorts??

As for the afternoon time, it does sound good but the reason why it was agreed to be in the morning as that the roads etc would be a lot quieter and would be easier to warden. In addition, the town tends to get it's hot weather in May so it was thought it would be more comfortable for runners to run in the morning. Also, we can always arrange some sort of 'celebration party' for all runners, volunteers and local people in the late afternoon/early evening. I'll look into this also. Nevetheless, I will bring up the option with the police and Roads Dept about an afternoon race but from what I gather it is preferred to have it in the morning.

As with promotion for this year, we are planning on keeping it reasonably low key as it's the first time it's been organised but hopes to make it bigger for 2007 are definitely in the pipeline. We also thought about limiting the entrants to make sure we're not overloaded - possibly 150 (just in case!). Let's see how this goes first!! We can learn by our mistakes

I am looking into funding at present from various sources and will report back as soon as I find out our options. There is also hope of local sponsors that will provide the usual goody bag of medal, t-shirt etc as well as food, drink and banners.

I will update soon!

[Rob Reid]

[quote="elainemck"] As for the afternoon time, it does sound good but the reason why it was agreed to be in the morning as that the roads etc would be a lot quieter and would be easier to warden. In addition, the town tends to get it's hot weather in May so it was thought it would be more comfortable for runners to run in the morning.
[RR] That's true - even in early May, the mid-Argyll half-mara used to sometimes be uncomfortably hot!

[quote="elainemck"] I am looking into funding at present from various sources ...
[RR] Another idea re sponsorship-in-kind: how about approaching Scottish Citylink to see if they could do a cut-price deal so that each runner+partner could travel to Campbeltown and back for, say, £5, provided they booked in advance. Citylink might like the idea because the advance booking would allow them to plan for the extra demand.

[elainemck]

Rob - great idea about citylink!!! I have already contacted WCM regarding sponsorship but did not think of this - I will get back to you on this.

[jackiefulton]

can the thread title be changed to Half Marathon & 10k? - think it might attract more readers, contributors and runners, though I do hope to train enough to try the half!

I looked up the 1988 Courier, 51 runners took part - so hopefully with physical exercise higher up the health agenda we can surpass that - not keen on putting an upper limit on - what do others think?

I noted some of the names and some of them still run!

re sponsorship- in 1988 all the main banks appear to have sponsored a winners cup

was there more than one half marathon in the eighties?

would be good to get details worked up to catch fok home for Christmas but also to be able to be ready to motivate those of us who will have a New Year resolution to get out and keep fit with a regular training slot.
Jackie f

[hoots the scoop]

Don't you think it may be an idea to look at diffent ways of funding an event like this rather than local businesses having to sponsor again and again?

What about the AIE? Common Good Fund? Argyll & Bute Council? WHELK? etc etc?

How much do you think is needed? Ball park that is...

[Tom B]

Hoots,

Agreed.

Following our meeting on Saturday we are trying to:
(a) estimate the total cost of staging the event (through contacting Oban / Mull / mid-Argyll organisers, and others involved in organising similar events), and
(b) identify the total funds available from public bodies and other funds. There will also be income from runners entry fees.

When we have that information we will able to work out what the total income and costs will be, and therefore what the funding gap/surplus will be. We can then plan the best way to close this gap, perhaps by identifying a single main sponsor (local or external).

I would agree that trying to obligate local businesses to contribute is not the way to go, unless they see a direct benefit for themselves or for the town.

Do you have contact names for WHELK or Common Good Fund?

[John S]

Hi Tom

I doubt if the event would fit with WHELKS criteria see

http://www.whelk.org.uk/criterta.htm

you can download the guidelines from there.

The common good fund application form can be got from the council offices at dell road, 01586 552366 however that fund is not particularly rich at the moment.

Do you have a constitution? for many funding bodies you'll need one. You could always use an existing body.

AIE would be good potential funding partners see

http://www.hie.co.uk/AIE/key-service-de ... -AIE.id-19

The race would pass through part of the West Kintyre Windfarm Trust area so you might be able to get something from them also.

I would suggest that sponsorship should be your main target, it's good publicity, but go for more than one there are a lot of things you can sell sponsorship for.

[elainemck]

Hi all!

I've been in contact with AIE a few months ago and needed to get back to them with proper budget/forecast etc. I have contacted this week and hopefully we might be entitled to some sort of funding, will find out soon.

I have been in contact with a few companies regarding sponsorship and just waiting to find out.....

I've been very busy chasing up lines of contact and will report back soon with all my findings.

[Rob Reid]

WARNING!
I've just spent ages composing a message, then clicked "Preview" and it @@**## vanished into thin air (because I was offline).

The moral is -
If you're writing anything more than a brief note, type it in Word or Wordpad, save it, and THEN copy and paste it into this message board.

Rob