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Race Spotlight: Trapp Cabin Trail Races

Race Spotlight: Trapp Cabin Trail Races

October 10, 2024

Race Spotlight: Trapp Cabin Trail Races

Run The Day recently supported the Trapp Cabin Trail Races. Cynthia took a few minutes to share what it was like to work with Run The Day. Thank you Cynthia!

What is your name and position?

My name is Cynthia Needham, and I am the Race Director for the Trapp Cabin Trail Race. I am also the Founder and President of the Board of Green Mountain Adaptive Sports (GMAS).

Cynthia with a winner at the Trapp Cabin Trail Races (photo courtesy of Kathleene Marcil)

Tell us about your race

The Trapp Cabin Trail Race is one of our annual fundraisers for GMAS. This year was our 14th presentation of the race. GMAS is a non-profit organization based in Vermont. The organization was founded in 2010 on the belief that access to sports and recreational programs are a powerful means for people with disabilities to develop independence as well as physical and mental well-being. We focus on getting people out and having fun. We value the effect our programs have on entire families.
Our Mission is to improve the quality of life for Vermont residents living with a disability through access to inclusive sports and recreational activities. We work collaboratively with partners across Vermont to enhance and deliver a quality experience to this community. As an Inclusion Champion, Green Mountain Adaptive Sports (GMAS) is committed to help build a world where nobody gets left on the sidelines.
The race generally attracts 150 to 200 runners. This year there were 169 registrants, including 21 young runners from the Stowe Middle School cross country team. We raised $8,900 from the race before expenses.
There are three distances from which runners can choose: a 5K, 10K, and a half marathon. The course goes through the iconic Trapp Family Lodge’s cross country/mountain biking trails, which include some magical single track terrain.

Why did you switch to Run The Day?

We switched to Run The Day because we were using a very old results platform with manual timers and separate data entry for finish order and finish times, along with Active.com registrations. The software was labor intensive and no longer supported. We began looking for a current platform and discovered Run The Day. We liked the way it was configured and the cost was reasonable.

What benefits did you get from using Run The Day’s platform?

The old system required manual data entry, including participant information. The RTD platform allowed us to have runners register online. The result capture was simple, and reports easily downloaded. We also liked the fact that results were available online for our runners.

Runners going through a field (photo courtesy of Kathleene Marcil)

How did Run The Day’s mobile app work for timing?

Once we solved a few challenges, including using a hot spot because cell coverage at the race site is spotty, we really liked the mobile app. The timers found it easy to work with, and I could quickly check to see how many runners had completed each distance and which categories they were in. We chose to stagger awards, with the 5K awards an hour after the mass start, the 10K awards an hour later, and the half-marathon results two hours later. I could use the mobile app to hand out the first, second and third place finishers their “woodals” across the 8 categories within each distance. This was the first year that I haven’t had runners contact me after the race to fix problems with the results.

What was it like working with Ian?

Ian was great to work with. He is quick to communicate with you, provides excellent guidance in using the RTD platform, and responded with solutions for us that made the race much more manageable. I knew he was watching the system the day of our race and would let me know if he spotted any issues. Plus, he’s just an overall nice person.

Is there anything else that you'd like to share?

I would recommend this platform for someone wanting to upgrade or simplify race management. The Trapp Cabin Race is relatively small, but I’m confident the software would work for a larger race.