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Much like last year, RunSignUp has had another great year. The goal of our company is to provide web services to the running and endurance community. We feel our value is our ability to focus on technology that can be easily adopted by customers to benefit their communities. The reason we can say it was […]
In 2014 we had outages totaling 16-21 minutes (depending on how you count an outage) for an availability of 99.996%. This is down from 99.998% in 2013. As usual, we do a year end (well, almost – there are still 7 days to go as this is written) report on our availability for the year. […]
Here is the latest from Alan Jones on RunScore Results Pre-Release advancements: The latest Version 8.0.0.0u Level 2014.12.21 can be downloaded from (assuming you already have a RunScore install): http://www.runscore.com/Downloads/Beta/RunScoreResultsUpdate.exe. What is working – I hope Have new RunScore Results icon/shortcut thanks to Andrew Sigwart. The main screen now is dark blue so the person […]
Steve Stone of Best Times Event Timing is kind enough to share his experience in setting up for video results. Camera Positioning I think we have final found a good GoPro camera position for filming finish line videos. From the attached picture, you can see that we set up our GoPro in the middle of the […]
We have a series of Customer Case Studies, in which we take your stories and share your challenges and successes as a learning tool for other RunSignUp users. This Healthy Kids Running Series Case Study focuses on setting up a Running Series within RunSignUp, and preparing Community Coordinators to succeed.
We are pleased to announce that RunScore has licensed the RunSignUp Results technology platform to create a new offering for RunScore timers – RunScore Results. RunScore Results allows any RunScore timer to simply upload results to the web and provide finish notifications to runners and their friends without the usual complications. If you know how […]
We have worked with USA Triathlon to create a new and improved integrated registration process with USAT Membership management. This makes it simple for triathletes to sign up for a race and use or get a USAT membership. It also makes it simple for race directors to meet the reporting requirements of USAT. Here is […]
One of the popular features for race and running clubs is the ability to offer a discount to running club members for a race. This is great for races looking to attract local running clubs. Also great for clubs who put on races and want to give their own members a break (or entice others […]
We have a series Customer Case Studies, in which we take your stories and share your challenges and successes as a learning tool for other RunSignUp users. This Syracuse Half Marathon Case Study focuses on creating demand through a premium event, and customizing a race to encourage group participation and donations. View the PDF Version of the Syracuse […]
Bob was on a panel discussing how technology can be used in Running stores this morning in Austin, TX at the IRRA Annual Meeting. Come visit us this week if you are in Austin! Here is the presentation talking about various success stories:
Our site was down from 6:31 PM Eastern for about 8 minutes. This was due to a deployment we did, which ironically enough was to help prevent issues if the Amazon Content Delivery Network was unavailable, we would be able to quickly recover from that. We have since deployed the change successfully with no interruption.
The big advantage of RunsignUp Clubs is having a single database that holds all changes and all information. All Club Officers can see the current information, and more importantly, club members all can see it as well. If a club member updates their personal information because they moved or changed emails, that is known to […]
Thanksgiving has become a big day for races. Just as we are seeing an increase in Thanksgiving Day Races, we believe runner demand for notifications is increasing. Turkey day was also a big day for us to gauge how our new Results 3.0 system is working for customers. A few quick facts: Total RunSignUp Registration for Thanksgiving Day: 184 […]
This Thanksgiving Ron Synup took his GoPro to the Lansing Turkey Trot and filmed the finish line. This is using RunSignUp’s Video Results capability. The top lessons learned: Do not film at super high resolutions and cut down the time that you film. The longer the video and the higher the resolution, the more time […]
We have added the capability to set a default answer to your custom questions. This will appear in registration with all of our different formats of questions. For example, the setup for the Select menu looks like this: And the runner will see it in the registration path as: Here is an example of the […]
Twitter now has ads that any Twitter user can use now, much like Facebook. (They are also in the process of rolling out coupons as well). We have not seen many races use this, but would be interested to hear feedback. In your Twitter account, simply go to https://ads.twitter.com. The forms are pretty self explanatory. The above […]
This year we have had several very large sell out races open registration to prior year participants in various ways. One used a password that was sent to last year’s participants that was the only way to register for the first week. Another used our Clubs system to upload all of last year’s participants into […]
We are seeing more and more Running Clubs making the move to RunSignUp Clubs. We noticed an article in The New York Times this morning about how The Cloud is impacting organizations. It can be easily applied to Running Clubs: Ed Lazowska, who holds a chair in computer science and engineering at the University of […]
We are expanding the Custom Results API to include a mechanism for providing notifications. The concept is that a list of participants can be uploaded to RunSignUp a week or two before a race and participants and their friends and families can then sign up for notifications. When race day comes, the timer will be […]
The Race Director is software many timers use for scoring and timing races. One of the challenges is syncing information from RunSignUp to The Race Director where there are incompatible fields and data. Timers will usually keep very short codes for Giveaways rather than the long descriptions that RunSignUp allows. The Race Director sync utility […]
We are very happy to welcome Frank Brown and Brian Graham to the RunSignUp team. They will be located in our San Diego office, and serve our customers on the west coast, as well as select large races and race series. “With the rapid growth of RunSignUp, we want to make sure we are […]
Facebook is in the process of making more changes to their algorithms on what will be displayed in people’s New Feeds. This is good for most races, as the types of posts that a race can put up are very relevant to runners. But it is good to keep in mind that you do not […]
We have released a bunch of new How To Videos. These are an important resource for race directors and timers to learn the system, and also get new ideas to implement in your race. Go to https://runsignup.com/How-To and peruse the list. Here are the new videos: https://runsignup.com/How-To/Edit-Multiple-Events https://runsignup.com/How-To/Re-Enter-Race-Wizard https://runsignup.com/How-To/Customize-Race-Page https://runsignup.com/How-To/Edit-Participant-Info https://runsignup.com/How-To/Manage-Participants https://runsignup.com/How-To/EventGrouping https://runsignup.com/How-To/CustomParticipantCaps This is a […]
Facebook has released a new advertising mechanism to help your race target specific audiences rather than just people who Like your page or a demographic target. There are three types of audiences you can custom target: The customer list is interesting since you can upload a list of emails or names and phone numbers. This […]
Facebook is one of the most important promotion channels that your race can use. The basics are: Step 1 – Your race needs to have a Facebook Page that is dedicated to your race. Step 2 – You need to put great content up there. Think Pictures, fun and motivational posts, surveys, etc. See other successful […]
We have a series Customer Case Studies, in which we take your stories and share your challenges and successes as a learning tool for other RunSignUp users. This Playmakers Case Study focuses on Running Store Race Calendars, registration for Races & Training Teams, and advising local races. View the PDF Version of the Playmakers Case Study […]
We have updated our email renewal notices. If your race has completed and you have not renewed the race, we send you an email every 3 months to remind you to renew your race. It is a nice email and even has some ideas of things your race might be able to use! We have […]
We have added Bib Validation. You can set up ranges of bibs that are valid for each event. This prevents handing out the wrong bib to the wrong person, and also helps with issues around runners moving from one event (5K) to another (10K). This is used in conjunction with the RunSignUp Go Race Day […]
You can now import participant data from previous years. This allows race directors to have easier access to all of their data in one place, and also enables some of the nice year over year reporting that RunSignUp offers. Importing old data takes several simple steps. First, on the Import page, you can now add […]
You can now download increments of registrants in the Participant Reports. We have not allowed this in the past since we were concerned that with our ability to have multiple race directors, people would overlap their incremental downloads and miss some participants in the overlap. You can now set a “Registration ID” range in the […]
With the release of RunSignUp Results 3.0, we will be introducing new pricing mechanisms. Races who use RunSignUp for registration will still get free results and notifications. The pricing is really meant to address our customers (especially timers who can not dictate registration providers) who use a mix of registration platforms and want to use […]
RunSignUp Results 3.0 is now released. There are a number of significant improvements over RunSignUp Results 2.0: Improved User Interface and Kiosk for faster Results viewing and searching. Quick Widget for embedding Results in Timer and Race websites. New Pricing to allow non-RunSignUp races to use RunSignUp Results. Improved API and integration with RunScore and […]
We have a series Customer Case Studies, in which we take your stories and share your challenges and successes as a learning tool for other RunSignUp users. This Great Pumpkin Run Case Study explores the challenges of a Multi-City Race Series, Team Promoting a Race through Groups & Teams, and using Referral Codes. View the PDF Version […]
We have a series Customer Case Studies, in which we take your stories and share your challenges and successes as a learning tool for other RunSignUp users. This Kaiser Permanente Corporate Run/Walk Case Study focuses on the recruitment and self-service management of Corporate Teams View the PDF Version of the Kaiser Permanente Corporate Run/Walk Case Study An Introduction to […]
We have been doing extensive additions to our Results Posting API in advance of some partners who will be private labeling our results platform. This is especially useful for timers or software developers who are creating their own scoring or timing software. By reusing RunSignUp Results, you can take advantage of our scalable platform with […]
We have recently upped the limit to 50,000 coupons that can be copied when creating a new race with the copy feature. We also now automatically remove expired coupons, which will not count against the 50,000 limit. If your race has over 50,000 coupons, we suggest that you keep track of them in separate spreadsheets. Then […]
Please come see us if you are near any of these conferences this winter! If you do, we will award your travel with a wonderfully squishy building block with your favorite RunSignUp feature on it. Attend all the conferences and start to build your own RunSignUp wall like the one on the right! Road Race […]
We have added a row to the summary Dashboard that will show you how you are tracking relative to last year. It shows the number of days until race day and how many people are registered this year vs. last year.
We have added an option to turn off Results Notifications. This is useful for testing results upload out before a race. The setting is in the Race Day -> Results -> SetUp menu page.
We have added a new search parameter to our “Find a Race” as well as all of the race calendar widgets Running Stores and Running Clubs use on their websites to search by distance. Now you can look for distances by any range of distances:
Some races want to require all participants to become fundraisers. We have added this as an option in the Donation/Fundraising setup as seen below (the third option).
We are taking submissions for Presenters for our 2015 Race Director/Timer Symposium, to be held July 6-8 in Philadelphia. Presenters should be prepared to share their experiences and best practices. Topics that include RunSignUp technology are great, but the Symposium is a community event for everyone to learn and share; your entire presentation does not need […]
It looks like some transactions this afternoon about 4:19 PM Eastern were having trouble being processed by First Data. These are fixed as of 5:12 PM Eastern. Registrants would have seen an error message stating that the Payment Processor Network is Unavailable and to try again. Most transactions were going thru, but races may want […]
Here are stats from the last 30 days of access to RunSignUp direct or via widgets: Desktop – 51% Phone – 38% Tablet – 11% So basically 51-49 desktop lead, but my money is on Mobile! Speaking of money, people still find it more comfortable to do their registrations online. Desktop – 73% Phone – […]
Our cloud provider, Amazon AWS, provided an automated update to our MySQL database service last night. This was to provide a fix to the security report issued by Oracle on Oct. 16. We are happy to report that our highly available configuration allowed our failover database server to be upgraded, and then take the load […]
Here is a quick (7 minutes) video on how to upload results as well as link YouTube Results video as well. Video results are incredibly easy and inexpensive. You can buy a GoPro camera for as little as $129. Uploading to YouTube is simple and free – and GoPro has software that makes this incredibly […]
The new Volunteer System has an extensive email communication capabilities built in to facilitate managing coordinators and volunteers. It automatically sends emails to coordinators and volunteers that are added manually. It also provides a mechanism for the volunteer manager and coordinators to send emails. Here is a quick video that shows the major portions of […]
RunSignUp’s Affiliate Program was designed for partners like RunningintheUSA.com who have race calendars. It allows them to easily grab all of the races on RunSignUp and list them automatically on their website. We have a tracking code so we know the source of the runner coming to register on RunSignUp. We’ve taken this idea to a […]
The Fifth Third River Bank Run went live earlier this week with a couple of unique discount offers. Since Fifth Third is one of the top 20 banks in the US with millions of customers, they wanted to offer their customers something special. Namely a $5.30 discount if they registered for the race with their bank […]
We have added a new widget – “Edit Registration” as one of the widget options that can be created. This widget allows a race to have a webpage to direct people to who want to make changes to their registration. With this widget on your site, runners can now go directly to their registration for […]
