You’ve noticed us fine-tuning our events over the past six months. Lots has changed since we came back in 2022 and we’re always trying to find ways to improve your event experience and the value of your entry fee. We thought we would collect all the changes in one convenient spot!
Categories and awards
We now:
- offer a walking category in any race for which we have categories. This category is awarded with category awards as any other category.
- offer non-binary as a top-level category besides female and male, and also as a category in every race for which we have categories. These are awarded as any other categories.
- offer a free strollers registration for any event for which strollers are allowed. The stroller occupant must be registered (for free) and the stroller driver (in a paid event) must attest to a few rules. If you don’t see the stroller option as a registration event, then strollers are not allowed for logistical reasons (most races have strollers).
- And if you haven’t raced with us since 2022, then you might not know: we offer live results and live award category awards in real time during the race. There is no waiting around until results are official after other runners finish. We have a smooth system that prints stickers for you and lets you get on with your day at your convenience!
This photo illustrates the results stickers that are printed in real time, the award plates that are given out in real time, and where they fit – into the recess on the back of the finisher medal.
Swag Policy
- We are very happy with our t-shirt guarantees that offer guaranteed sizing about 10 days in advance, but our t-shirt waiver now makes unclaimed t-shirts more available to participants. If you ordered a t-shirt and don’t attend the race, and don’t let us know that you want that specific t-shirt by race start, then we will look to sell that shirt to another participant who ran the race. Either way, we will make the original purchaser whole through keeping the shirt (for one year), ordering a new shirt, or offering a refund.
- We are enhancing our event branding with a unified design on t-shirts, free stickers, and finisher medals. You can read more about that here.
This photo illustrates the free stickers that are given out (at Cone5togo it was holographic) which have the same design as the t-shirts and the finisher medal/ribbon combo.
Race communication
We hear you loud and clear. You want and we are delivering:
- More pre-race emails, reminding you of deadlines such as deferral deadline, editable data deadline, t-shirt order deadlines (with designs), and also sharing FAQ answers.
- More post-race emails, every time photos are uploaded! You can subscribe to our Flickr channel for in-app notifications too!
- This one is potentially huge news: going forward, we are launching the next year’s event as the current one happens. You can see this on our calendar if you scroll to the bottom and see Re-Fridgee-Eighter 2025 and Cone5togo 2025 both open for registration. But that’s not all! For one, we are guaranteeing full refunds (including processing fee) if we are not able to get a permit. Second, we are also launching these races for a limited time lowest possible price (below the lowest tier), and the only way to get access to this price is to either have participated in the current year or be on our monthly newsletter. If you like planning and saving, with good protections (deferrals and the refund mentioned above), this is for you!
Registration Policy
- If you haven’t noticed lately, we now offer deferrals/transfers (for a fee). We started this for free during COVID Delta and about nine months later (with help from Race Roster) figured out how to sustainably offer this to participants. Now, by the Tuesday at midnight before most races, you can defer your entry to the following year for a $15 deferral fee, no questions asked.
- If you knew that already, you still might not know that we have added a late deferral option too. After the deferral deadline right up until one hour before your race, you can defer most entries to the same race the following year for a $25 late deferral fee, no questions asked. This information is all covered in the race policies in the waiver.
- We now have a dedicated inbox ([email protected]) where we quickly answer any questions about these policies. This is the only inbox that we monitor for registration policy questions.
RP+S and RW Boost are back
It’s worth noting that some of our main programs from pre-pandemic times are back and better than ever!
- RW Boost is back with more prizes including exclusive t-shirts and hoodies. Check it out and join our 2024 membership today!
- Run Pure+Simple, our series of low-cost events is back with four races this year. These events are no frills but high value, and free to members, so they quickly pay back your 2024 membership fee!
This illustration represents some of the 2018 Boost awards (hoodies and t-shirts) which are only available through Boost, which is a free program to RW Members.
And two other quick things
- Last year we launched a VolRUNteer program which rewards volunteers with big race fee credits. This has been a huge success for us and we’ve given out many entry credits, but there’s always room for more. Check it out if you haven’t already.
- Because My Next KW Race offers free entry contests monthly, there’s a lot to keep track of. We have collected all related posts into a convenient spot, and all deadlines into a convenient graphic, both of which are available here.
This illustration shows the current contest (wordsearch!) and the contest schedule for the rest of the year.
And that’s a quick rundown of what’s brand new, recently new, and new again to Run Waterloo!
