10 Tips To Improve Your Finish Line Experience

June 1, 2017

Having an event with a lackluster finish line would be like flying a jumbo jet safely across the country but missing the landing. It makes it all for nothing. When putting on an event you want it to leave a positive and lasting impression. Ultimately you want your event to be a fun, safe and leave your participants feeling celebrated because they just accomplished something great!Here are some ways to make your finish line suck less:

1. Have a Cheering Section

Make sure there is space for your spectators to gather and cheer on their family and friends completing your event. Make sure this is well marked and encouraged. This is going to drive the energy and feeling of accomplishment for your participants. If you can set up outdoor bleachers, do it!

2. Assign Designated Cheering People

Have some volunteers designated to cheer your finishers on. Make it an outrageously joyous experience. Also instruct any volunteer you have to cheer, encourage and compliment your participants. Whether they are at check-in, aid stations or medic. Praise and a smiles go a long way.

3. Place Medals on Your Finishers

Don’t just have your finishers grab their medals off a table or a rack. Have people actually placing the medal on their necks and if possible, have photographers capturing that moment. For many people, that particular moment could be one of their greatest accomplishments, so capture it for them.

4. Set the Vibe with Music

Upbeat, celebratory, triumphant music can help to make any environment more fun and memorable. The music is what sets the mood. Spotify is a fantastic tool for finding and creating custom playlists. Create an account and check out these two popular running playlists. Sample running playlist. Running playlist sample. NOTE: Depending on your demographic, be sure to pay attention to explicit language and maybe find edited versions.

5. Hire an Experienced Announcer

Be sure to have someone on the mic who has charisma, who knows how to encourage and capture the attention of a crowd. The personality and energy coming through the speakers at your event will completely set the mood on whether it is fun or a flop.

6. Ask Your Vendors to Provide Value to Participants

Make it a requirement that your vendors offer a promotion or freebie to your participants. Participants love free snacks, discounts and incentives. If they are elated from just completing your event, and then get to also walk away with a sweet deal, they are going to be stoked!

7. Set Up a Finisher’s Expo

Have the finish shoot drop your participants into a “finisher’s expo”. This is where your vendors will be setup for your participants to visit their booth and grab some sweet free swag or coupons as mentioned in the previous tip.

8. Giveaway Prizes

A great way to keep people sticking around your finisher’s area is to be announcing giveaways in time intervals. This is a great way to feature your vendors and have them provide giveaways. Make sure the giveaways are things people will actually want, and they will stick around to help keep the energy of your finisher’s area high.

9. Announce the Names of Your Finisher’s

As Dale Carnegie says in, How to Win Friends and Influence People, “A person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Give the people what they want to hear.

10. Have Snacks and Refreshments

By the time someone completes your event, they will want to refuel. Delicious snacks and refreshments are some of the fastest and easiest ways to delight your finishers. Not to mention, it will help you avoid any hangry finishers so they can go enjoy the rest of the finish line experience.If you implement these tips, your event finish is going to leave a lasting impact on your participants and leave them wanting to come back for more of the endorphins and good vibes from your event.Are there any other tips or tricks you’ve implemented at your event that has had a positive impact on your participant’s experience? Have you tried any of these in the past? We’d love to hear from you! Let us know in the comments below.

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