Call Paul

Michelle from Blistering Pace Race Management

Paul: Hey there friend, I’m Paul Jarvis, and you’re listening to Call Paul, business as unusual, where we explore how business owners are working their way through their first pandemic.

Michelle: I’ve raised hard marathons. I’ve put in mileage, I’ve run through a lot of pain getting up at midnight, not the hardest thing I’m going to do. I always tell people that when a race director or a company has to cancel a race, that is the worst day of the year. Nobody goes into this business and nobody plans a race for it to be canceled

Paul: That’s Michelle La Sala, the president of Blistering Pace Race Management. Not only does she run marathons -- 32 (so far) -- but she's also the race director for some of the largest US marathons... you know, the ones you see on TV that look like a vast sea of runners taking over an entire city. Michelle’s job is basically to spend months and months preparing to run a small country for a day, race day. While some businesses can pivot to a more online approach, when it comes to an event-based business like Michelle’s it's largely a wait and see approach. A kind of business purgatory. Based in Napa Valley, California, Michelle is biding her time, working on logistics for cancelling races, and thinking a lot about reconnecting with her running community.

Michelle: I started running with my dad when I was in third grade and I've always just run because I like running and I don't really need an extra carrot to get me out the door. When you get into the day to day of being a race director, it is easy for me to get up at... I mean, it gets harder every year that I get older. But it's easy for me to get up at midnight to go out to the Chicago Marathon start line, which is one of my tasks because I know that I am going to enable 40,000 people to walk away with a memory that hopefully they're going to have forever.

Paul: So, how did you go from being a runner of races to being an organizer of races?

Michelle: You don't generally go on careerbuilder.com and see a job posted for Director of Operations for The Chicago Marathon or something. I found myself working as a promoter in the LA Marathon Booth at the New York City Marathon. That ended up with a job offer and me moving to LA to be the volunteer coordinator for the LA marathon. Then I was able to get a job with The New York Road Runners Foundation. Those are the folks behind the New York City Marathon. I worked as the charity team coordinator for the New York City Marathon. Then I was there for five years in New York, four and a half years. I moved back to my hometown, which is Sacramento. I started working for the California International Marathon. I worked there for five years and then there was an email about a race in San Francisco who was looking for a new race management company because the one that they had used for 25 years was retiring. I thought, "Race management company, I think I could do that. I think I could put on that race." I bid on the race, I put a proposal together to manage the race for them. I said, "If you choose me, I will build a company." Here we are four and a half years later. The rest is history.

Paul: What was it like at the beginning, when you started Blistering Pace?

Michelle: As I started this business, I started it as a one-man band. I was the president of the company, I was the accountant, I was paying bills. I was the marketing manager. I was the operations director. My first year in this business, I had to do everything.I guess, unfortunately, or fortunately is not different from many other races and race management companies. I mean, we all kind of operate like that.

Paul: So, for those of us not in the running world, how do you sum up what a race director or a race company does for a race?

Michelle: If we're doing full race management for a race, we do everything from setting up the registration platform to take the race registrations throughout the year. We're the customer service behind the race registration. We are getting the permits, we are managing the operations, ordering the supplies, working on road closure details, working with all the vendors, shirts, ordering metals, cones, barricades, traffic equipment, changeable message boards, kind of orchestrating all of these things to come together on the day of the race, working with city agencies, meetings surrounding that and then also managing a lot of the key captains or key volunteers who are out there on race day, the aid station captains who manage the groups of volunteers that hand out cups of water. There's a lot that goes into... I mean, every single detail that you can think of that's happening at the race is what we deal with a lot of times for a full year leading up to the race. We also manage all the marketing that's involved for the race. Then we manage the sponsorship elements as well. So, two of the races that we work on have title sponsorships. Those are very important relationships that take a lot of time and a lot of creativity. But pretty much anything you can think of we're managing, we're dealing with.

Paul: So, that seems like a million jobs in a way in one job. It seems like there's so much to do.

Michelle: Somebody recently just said to me, "I didn't realize that you don't get to sleep a lot the night before." So, multitasking is a huge key to what we do. We have to have people who can multitask, but also who can anticipate what needs to get done. We plan everything as best we can. We have a plan for the plan as we like to say, As time goes on and you do it more and more, you get used to. You've seen all kinds of crazy things happen and you can pull from memory like, "Oh, remember the one race where this happened and instead we did this." Or the aid station truck breaks down and now, how are you going to get all the supplies that you need on the course out there? The more experience you have, the easier pivoting becomes just because you have some knowledge to pull from. But we also have these really detailed timelines by the minute so that we know what everyone is supposed to be doing and everybody knows what they are supposed to be doing

Paul: What was the worst or weirdest or most unexpected thing that happened when you were either planning your race or the race is actually happening and something happens?

Michelle: In 2012, there was hurricane Sandy, which ended up canceling the New York City Marathon. That was a really big deal in our industry. We never had something so large and so planned and so close. I mean, it was two days away been canceled at that level, on that scale. Ever since then, the industry has been hard hit. 2013 was the Boston bombings at the Boston Marathon. In 2016, 2017, and 2018 there were numerous races in Northern California canceled due to wildfires. Now, in 2020, we have the COVID-19 global pandemic. So, every time the running industry gets hit by something like this because we are a fairly tight knit group, we try to come up with, "Well, how can we protect us from this happening in the future?" Every time we figure out how to protect ourselves from what happened the last time, something different comes and hits us. So, after the Boston Marathon bombings, many races all over the country have really, really serious security plans in place much more robust than ever in the past. We've got bomb sniffing dogs, we've got secure entrances where people have to go through the metal detectors. There's lots of things put into place now especially for the very large races. But nobody had plans set up for a global pandemic.

Paul: Yeah. So, from a business perspective then if a race gets canceled, how does that affect the company who's putting on the race?

Michelle: So, let's say we own a race. We had 5,000 entries, we were sold out and we determined, "Okay, due to this pandemic, we're going to have to cancel the race." So, we have everyone's money. So, now we can determine a couple of different paths. We can refund everybody. We can defer everyone into next year's race. That deferment sometimes is, we're going to let you run next year for free. We already have your money, we're just going to roll your registration right over. Or we could say, "We're going to let you run next year at 50% off." Another example could just be like, "We're going to change the race to being a virtual race and we're going to mail you your shirt and medal." So, the way that an organization would determine which of those many paths they need to take would probably be backed up to, "Okay, well, how far out did I cancel? Did I already order my 5,000 shirts? Did I already order my 5,000 medals? Have I already spent all this money that the runners gave me to register for the race?" They're dating their shirts, they're dating their medals. This is the 2020 blah, blah, blah race. What are we going to do if we keep these until next year? So, we have to give them away. I always tell people that when a race director or a company has to cancel a race, that is the worst day of the year. Nobody goes into this business and nobody plans a race for it to be canceled. That is a lose lose across the board. If they are saying they can't give you their money back, it's not because they want to pocket it and sail off to Mexico, it's because they had hard expenditures that are gone. That money is gone. I don't mean that to sound irresponsible, but that's the way that our business works. I mean, many of the shirt companies and the medal companies are outsourced from China and that stuff takes months to order and to get ready.

Paul: How do you explain to those people that this thing that you've been looking forward to and working towards is now changed or off entirely?

Michelle: What we have kind of learned is that we have to be transparent, that we have to be sympathetic to what is going on because not only is an unfortunate for us as a race producer, but I mean, me personally as a runner, I know how unfortunate it is on the other side for the people, for our clients, our participants. It's so hard to be able to make any of this okay because a lot of people run and exercise and train as part of their mental health and part of being physically fit. When you're not only taking this race away from them, but you're taking away the reason that they're getting out the door every day that is kind of what we're seeing now is, how do we fix this on a longterm scale? Because right now, the running industry we're kind of just saying, "We don't have any idea when we're going to be able to have another race."

Paul: So, you were I think supposed to be putting on an event in March around the time that COVID-19 started to hit the West or at least be much more well known in the West. Can you walk us through what happened there in terms of decisions and how, I guess, getting more information as it was being presented and it was coming fast. I remember that all of the information was coming fast at that point

Michelle: Yeah, it is so interesting to look back then and to take like that week leading up to... it was the Napa Valley Marathon. So, as we got to about Wednesday of race week, things really started to ratchet up the pace, got quite a bit quicker on dealing with the COVID-19 situation. For us in particular, our title sponsor is Kaiser Permanente, which of course a large entity in the healthcare industry. We're trying to navigate working through what is quickly visually turning into a global pandemic with the healthcare industry as our title sponsor, but as a separate entity as a healthcare professional. But wanting to keep the lines clear of what ultimately this is our race and we get to decide what to do. Races are... they're outdoors, which is good, but they are high touch. So, you're standing at the start line with 2,500 people if it's a Napa Valley Marathon start line and everyone's in close proximity, everyone's using a large bank of porta potties. The race starts, there's numerous aid stations. People are grabbing cups of water and drinking them and throwing them on the ground.Then at the finish line, you're handing people bottles of water, you're putting a medal around their neck, Everyone's very sweaty, breathing hard. Lots of opportunities for all of the things that are scary about what we were hearing at the time and what we know now that the easy transmitted COVID-19 disease or virus. So, we had to kind of take all of those things into consideration and say, "Well, do we have medals on the table for people to just pick up so that we're not touching them and can we still have aid stations? Is that safe to do?" Fast forward a week, totally different ball game. The LA Marathon happened one week later and that was very questionable. I know that they operated it as safely as possible and I don't know that we could ever know the outcome. Did anyone get the virus from that event? It would be so difficult to know. But the optics of what was going on one week later was wildly different than on March 1st.

Paul: Yeah. I know there's no facts because we're not there yet, but just kind of thinking through it with me because everybody's so anxious and jumpy about social interaction right now. So, how do you make people feel safe about races in the future? Is there something that can be done for that to happen, do you think?

Michelle: For us in California, mass participation events are in phase four is what we're calling it. That is when there is a treatment or a vaccine. There's a part of me that feels that people aren't going to feel totally safe until they have the vaccine. Then it's just going to be okay, business as usual. I think that for me personally as a business owner that is the part that I struggle with the most is I'm ready to think outside the box. I want to come up with ideas that can get us back out there quicker. I don't want to waste my time if we're really just waiting for a vaccine. I have to fight that urge in my mind it's being lazy. But I need to stay positive. I need to stay critical thinking and creative thinking on what can be done. But also, I kind of think we're waiting for a vaccine.

Paul: Yeah. No, it's understandable, especially when so much of your work is so much planning in order for things to go right. If you don't have the data to make the plans, it would all be for naught if you move into it too soon. So, what are you working on right now with the business?

Michelle: I would say we're 99% sure that the rest of our 2020, unfortunately, is a giant cancellation. That is difficult and it's hard to navigate in the sense that we're a small business. It's my husband, myself, and we have one other employee. As for me, as a business owner, I am fairly busy. I mean, there's lots of things to navigate. There's lots of financial modeling to do for better or worse on what the rest of the year looks like. Our two biggest events for us personally as a company are on February 1st and March 1st. We are still operating as though 2021 is a go.

Paul: What do you think marathons will look like when all of this is over?

Michelle: I think personally it's going to be an emotional experience. I'm very much looking forward to it, but I know that it's going to be very different. In the process of waiting until that time, we are going to have companies that we have worked with that no longer exist, whether that's a shirt com pany or a medal company, or maybe a security company that we've hired that didn't make it through this and had to close our doors. Certainly, our operational procedures and production for the event is going to look different. Even if we do have the vaccine, I know it's going to change some of the operational elements and it's not going to be business as usual anymore just the way the Boston bombing changed how all races kind of prepare for their security. Even if it's something as small as needing to have all of our runners upload their vaccine certificate into the race registration system so that we know they can come to the event it's definitely going to change

Paul: So, you said that you're working to stay positive. What kind of things are you doing or what are you looking forward to right now?

Michelle: Right now, I feel like I've wallowed, I've walked away a few times from the positivity that I need to have and taking a moment to just be sad and feel like I built this company that I own from the ground up. In four years, I saw a great deal of success, which was fantastic. I'm very proud of what I've built in and I feel very privileged to work in a space that I love as a runner. I feel very fortunate to do what I love. My husband and I, in particular, Blistering Pace Race Management is going to weather the storm and we have to be positive that when we come out of this, all the runners that we know, all of the people in our communities that we know to be runners are going to be ready to rejoin us and kind of meet us back on the starting line.

Paul: I guess I didn’t realize or think about how much goes into planning a race, or large events in general. I’ve always just showed up at them like everyone else, seen them happen, and thought that they just seem to run smoothly. Michelle’s job, one she excels at, requires her to think several steps ahead, organize and anticipate those steps on the fly, and create contingencies if any step goes awry. So I’m confident that once races can happen again, her meticulous nature will ensure safe and enjoyable races. In the meantime runners are continuing to take over the streets, albeit alone. But once they’re able to run again together, no doubt the solidarity runners feel during a marathon will be magnified. It is, after all, a metaphor for what people can do when they come together, in cooperation and determination. If you’d like to see what races Michelle has organized in the past, and will have on deck for the future, check out Blistering Pace dot com. And you can find Michelle on Instagram.

Call Paul is produced by Ruth Eddy and is a Mailchimp Original Podcast. Subscribe now on your favourite podcast platform, so you can hear more stories like this one from other small business owners. To learn more about my thoughts on business and living online, you can hop on my newsletter by visiting www.sundaydispatches.com. If you’re a small business who’s adapting and becoming more resilient, we want to hear from you, so send us an email to callpaul@mailchimp.com