MD HEAT Race

We had 215 runners this year, 90 of which were 50k runners. Fed approx 300 people.

Penske truck rental went smooth. We still made 4 trips with personal vehicles shuttling stuff from Gaithersburg to Columbia

We had tables arranged in the shelter & truck unloaded by about 5:50 am First bus arrived about 6:10, which was perfect.

Chutes for finish line as well as for the 50k runners beyond the timer worked out GREAT.

At noon, we blocked off & removed the chute after AS4 so late runners could not continue.

Spray off station & hose was popular & caused less of a muddy mess than in previous years.

Having 2 volunteers at AS4 was good as this was a VERY BUSY area for ALL runners. They could have used a third volunteer to occasionally spell them off.

Soda at all the AS was poured into small cups. Lot less wastage this year of drinks from liter bottles. Water, Coke, Gatorade, & Tailwinds were by far the most popular drinks. No interest in Ginger Ale. Ice packed into running packs was popular

All runners checked out with Race people. No chasing them down after race this year.

As usual, the freezer pops were a BIG hit for runners & family members. Ice cold cokes at Finish was also popular

Ice cold dish towels at the Finish Line were limited so we only gave those to the 50k runners. Didn't ask for them to be returned.

One of the Park Rangers took some distant pics of our shelter in action. They will be producing an article in 2017 about the Park's useage. (He even had me sign a release for the pics !)

All the food was really good quality, cooked right, & were ample portions. The cut of meat for the BBQ may have been a cheaper grade than previous years yet flavor was still good

Many compliments on having multiple beer choice selections. Also less waste. Only kegs were the ones Jeremy brought & maintained

We brought 6 bundles of wood & 2.7 bags of charcoal. Only used 3 bundles of wood & 1.7 bags of charcoal

Many, many compliments from people saying how smooth this event ran. They also said they could witness & appreciate all the logistics & planning that went into the event.

Loading & unloading of truck went quickly & efficiently. Repacking was more organized by UCF & Storage dropoffs so that made it much quicker to unload on Sunday

We still did a lot of extra transporting of materials from Gaithersburg to Tom's despite the planning we did. Four trips total, including the grocery shopping

We forgot to divvy up the bananas & bread to the AS boxes the night before.

Could have used more small cups at all AS

No interst in chocolate or trail mix at AS4

No free pizza & gazpacho cold soup like previous years.

In the future, recycle cans at Shelter ?

The Park was closed by 11:30am due to full utilization. It didn't casue any problems for us though. We may be nearing a point in the future to cap our runner numbers?

We were 1 driver short this year. Tony did a great job but when it got hectic, we could have used 2.

Used the first aid kit several times at AS4. No EMT in the afternoon this year so runners, family members & kids had to go there for help.

We were missing the large digital timer display this year

We got rid of the trash by having each volunteer take home a bag or two

We left park at 6:30pm. About an hour later than hoped, primarily due to waiting for 1 or 2 of the last runners to come in.

Penske trucking worked out very well. Despite mileage charge of $0.81/ mile, consider renting from local Gaithersburg area which will make for fewer shuttle trips getting stuff to Tom's. Would also make it easier on Sunday to return items & not packing our cars so full.

Divvy up bananas & bread to AS boxes the night before

Going with soda cans at AS worked better than liter bottles.

Should we put any fans or shaded tent onto the serving area ? This area was unshaded & hot for most of the race

Get more kielbasa sausages next year. We had xx servings & used all of it

For some odd reason, we ran out of hamburgers before 1 pm. Yet we had 50 excess burger buns

No more kegs ! Keep the multi-beer selection

Reserve only Shelter 104 & 105