Racing to the top

Racing to the top

On Sunday, the Chiefs play the Eagles in Super Bowl LIX. The Chiefs are playing for a 3-peat while the Eagles (who I’m rooting for!) are working to take down another football dynasty. Both of the teams and their fans want to win!

While both the Chiefs and the Eagles want to celebrate with the Lombardi Trophy, only 1 team will hold it after Sunday’s game. Regardless, the NFL is guaranteed to win. Why? It has leveraged competition among its teams to build a mega valuable sports league for everyone. The numbers prove it:

• Over 100 million viewers are expected to watch Sunday’s Super Bowl making it one of the world’s most watched events.

• 29 of the 50 most valuable sport franchises in the world are NFL teams.

• The losing quarterback won’t feel good, but whether it is Pat Mahomes or Jalen Hurts, he will wake up Monday and continue receiving annual earnings of $45 million or $51 million. Not bad.

“Ian, I’m excited for the Super Bowl too…. but what does this have to do with races?“

Well, I get asked a lot about Run The Day’s competition. Questions like:

• Who does Run The Day compete with?

• What makes Run The Day better?

• Why should I trust Run The Day when other race companies have proven themselves capable?

While I eventually share that Run The Day’s unique combination of modern technology and passionate people simplifies prep work and grows participation (and many Run The Day customers say that we are the best), I start by sharing that our #1 competitor is the people who don’t run or walk and the races that don’t happen because the organizational work is too big of a burden.

From rough estimates, in the US:

• 50 million people run

• 120 million people walk for fitness

• The total population is 335 million

This means that 165 million people do not run or walk for fitness (335 - 120 - 50 = 165) by the most conservative estimates (assuming no overlap between runners and walkers). Those 165 million people are our competition.

If you’re concerned that age reduces the 165 million, I’ve witnessed 93 year old Vance Genzlinger cross the finish line of a 5 mile race (bib #273 - check the results here) and regularly see 82 year old Jack Delong, who runs 30+ races every year at the finish line (check Jack’s recent 28 minute 5K wearing bib #4907 here).

Another rough estimate:

• 200 thousand races occur in the US every year

It’s tough to know how many races do not happen because of the work required (either they never got started or were canceled). I believe that automating the repetitive admin tasks required to execute a race can remove the burden felt by race directors. This will increase the number of races.

More races means:

• More opportunities to move

• More motivation to get active

• More events that unite communities

• More money that gets raised for great causes

While Run The Day plays to win (and wins a lot!), we work hard to ensure that we race our competitors to the top (not the bottom). If we do this correctly, we may lose at times (even the Eagles and Chiefs lost a combined 5 games this year), but even our losing efforts will result in making everyone better off.

— Ian

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