Today on the emergence of dirt episode number 36, when you compare your local race to a championship race, you find some things that are surprising. Surprising in that you find out that the same plan, the same course design, or even the same process are all at play. Only bigger. Make sure it's a massive undertaking. There's hundreds of racers. You're gonna need more staff. You're gonna need more parking. Possibly a bigger boat. But is everything to do a scale?
Also has everything to do with where I've been for the past 2 months. Might have noticed merchants of dirt has been kind of on a hiatus for a few months. We're gonna answer that question. So let's just say that I've been down a lot of country roads in the past 60 days. Where has John Denver put it? Country road. Take me home. To please. I belong. Montana. Wait. Doesn't quite roll the tongue, does it?
Thank you for joining me for the Merchant Center podcast. I am Kyle Bondo. You're a recreational engineer. You're a merchant of dirt. And, of course, your coach to help you learn how to build a race from start to finish. My goal is to teach you the art and science behind race production So you can start,
finish, and even earn a living, building better races. And if you're new to the merchants at your podcast, well, on the board. Alongside with me is always my cohost, Mister Murphy, who's always out there to expose the weakness in your planning. That will probably wreck your race, but we get to see inside Mister Murphy's head. And together, we are here to help you start better races. By learning what to do, learning what not to do when it comes to building your next off road race.
But before I get started, I wanna take a few minutes to talk about an important milestone in the production of the Merchants of DIRTT podcast. This month, the month of October, Merchants of DIRTT did something really cool. It turned 1 years old. Now, I launched the merchandiser podcast with episode 1 back in October 13 2016. And it all started after I built wrecking gear.com. Now, I started wrecking gear.com
as a way to kinda get the the racing in information and education out of my head. I've been wanting to get into off road racing and was exploring different race promoters volunteering from them, watching what they do, going to different races. And as an active racer,
I had known the mechanics of how racing worked. But not the inner detail, not the stuff behind the scenes, not how to actually make a business doing this. So I created wreckingair.com, and wreckingair.com, turned that into a strong blog about off road racing and race direction, event management, sports management. Kinda played off my I got a a degree in sports management. To go with my IT degree, but kinda like I wanted to bring, you know, sports management and IT together.
So in a way, I've kind of done that. I've kind of explored the periphery of all this and it's gone to the core pieces. RFID timing, mechanics, announcing systems timing, all the kind of things that kind of flowed in with RFID, including things you know, the Garmin and Strata and the things that go along with, you know, how to how to, you know, track a athlete's progress from the beginning of a coaching cycle to the end of the coaching cycle so they go to a championship race.
So that became my my interest. Rickinear.com became kind of my sounding board for creating a place to put all that information that was inside my head. You know, I had to get the trail out of my head. So I was looking for another way to share my race building tips that the articles and my blogs and really wasn't really wasn't doing what I wanted it to do. I needed something else. So I I created this podcast. I discovered podcast production.
Was a way that could create content that people could actually listen to while they were out on the trail, which is something's really cool because I listened to podcasts before. I never thought about Well, I could do this too. I could put this information into an audible an audible form. There we go. And get it to people that you can actually listen to the car, listen to on the trail, listen to your leisure without having to read anything.
Be, like, right there, just you and me having a conversation about about trailed maintenance and about race production and about course design. And I thought that was pretty cool. So merch is a dirt. It's now grown into just 30 episodes. So I played around the format. I've taken a couple breaks. I've I've moved things around. I've discovered
what to put in, what not to put in. I've, you know, all the technology side of podcasting that went into the into building Merchant Center. And I even let me do a spin off. I created the get lost racing podcast. Is a way to I was exploring different experimental racing formats. I had all this information. These 3 ring binders full of different parks and different styles of racing and weird races I've been to and races that have seen different parts of the country in in different countries even.
I started thinking about, well, where do I you know, what do I do with all this? It doesn't really fit into rickin'er.com because rickin'er dot com is more about building kind of over the races that can make money and these experimental races. A lot of them don't make a lot of money, but they're fun. They're interesting. And they're exciting. And sometimes they're challenging to do even though maybe 10 people wanna show up.
So get lost racing became the spin off. And it also led me to to build a couple products to help solidify some of my thinking, like the go loop process. Or the race promotion road map to the free things I have on regular.com. And I'll put links to that, and the show notes if you wanna go grab those. They're totally free. There's no, like, no, ask her email address or nothing, just download it until yours.
But it gives you kind of the building blocks to think about where to start, gives you kind of like I said, the race promotion road map was my brain thinking about, okay. If I wanted to start a race tomorrow, how would I do that? And that's what led to this podcast. And it's a it's a really cool feeling to think about this. I mean, just after 1 year,
that I've learned how to podcast use the podcasting medium to make a difference that's directly helped other race directors build better races. And that's kinda cool. Think about that, hopefully, by listening to 1 of these, I think this is episode 36, so 35 other episodes notes that you've listened to and you've been able to go,
yeah, that's I never thought about that. Or, yeah, I do that, but I do it differently. Maybe I should try this way. So I hope that's what's happened. And I hope that in the next year, that I can continue to breathe in those kind of of tips and tricks and strategies and tactics and process to you so that when you go to build your races, when you go to to maybe up your game,
when it comes to to building a race. So maybe it's not doing so well that you can think back to the mergers or podcast or rickin.com, I think. That's where I learned that from. You know? So an honor of this 1st podcasting anniversary, I wanna thank you. I wanna thank you for subscribing. I wanna thank you for listening. Maybe even for sharing this with a friend, for giving me feedback, all that has kept me motivated
to continue this show. And it's been tough. It's been tough to to get to 30 episodes because this information is dense. You have to do a lot of thinking. Some of it I've tried didn't work. Some of it I've tried, it kinda works, but didn't know why it works. So after culminating all this analysis and research, I hopefully have brought you enough information that you know
enough to to be dangerous in building races. And that's that's my hope for you. Is you take this information, you pick the pieces you like, the parts that work in your business, and build better races with that. And that's what I hope. So in honor of this 1st podcast anniversary, thank you. Thank you for listening, and thank you for for subscribing.
And If you haven't been a subscriber, if you're listening to someplace else, please please subscribe. I'd love to have you on board and I know I've been kind of away for a couple months, but that I think we've we've kind of stabled made it stable of what's going on. And I plan for another 30 or 40 more episodes of next year. It's gonna be exciting stuff.
Got all sorts of new things planned, so love to have you on board. Give me feedback because that keeps me motivated. That keeps me going. I even on my website, I even started to the Patreon account. If you like to support the show, I mean, I I don't make any money off this show. None of my sponsors paid me anything. A lot of this stuff is done. Completely
you know, out of my I guess you have the goodest of my own heart because I love doing this. I love designing a racist. I love being in the mix of mechanics that come to the races. There's a lot to do with why I'm in I'm in intervention technology. I love problem solving. And I love problem solving that involves being outside. I couldn't find a way to make the 2 connect. So this kind of is a way to I've come creating, you know, that own my own niche with that.
So I look forward to continuing the Merchant Center podcast for another 30 episodes. And I hope you do too. Thank you again for being a listener. Okay. Like I said in the intro, there's a little meat to this this episode as well. And this has a lot to do with with understanding that your small race is a big race, only smaller.
And building a big race is no different than building a small race. It's just like any other small event only bigger. And I keep saying that because I'm trying to make you understand that all the pieces involved in building a small race are the same pieces you build in a big race. Now a lot of race promoters are like, well, how do I how do we do a championship event? How do a regional championships or national championships?
I only know how to do small races. I only get 50 or a 100 people show up to my race. That's not enough to be a national championship. I mean, there are, like, 300 500,000 people, maybe more. I can't be that person. I can't bid on a national championship opportunity. I've only done small races? Well, this goes back to my intro. Where's Kyle been for 2 months? Well, Kyle has
bin out, Kyle being me, of course. I'm not gonna talk on the third person. I just realized I was doing that. But I've been doing 2 things. 1, I put on a 2 day mountain bike race for collegiate and open writers. And that was a huge challenge. And in future episode, I'm gonna talk about what I learned the details of But for this event, for this episode, I'm gonna talk about the event I went to in Mozilla, Montana. Now, as a another side gig that I have, I am the
coach of the George Mason University cycling team. Now, I started the club back when I went to get my undergrad after I got out of the navy. Back in 2010. And I've been keeping this club alive and cultivating the leadership of this club with some really really key students that work go to the university, go on through their own degrees, and have the opportunity to see some of these kids,
not all kids. Some of them are, you know, just like me. Got a military or older people going back to to degrees. But seeing this club go to nationals multiple times. Only this time, 1 particular kid named CJ. CJ Coffee went to the collegic mountain bike national championships in Mozilla, Montana a couple weeks ago. And he's an a category rider in collegiate racing. And it was an opportunity to see How does USA Cycling put on an event like this in a West Coast area?
And it was it was eye opening. Because I thought probably much this the I'm not the a lot of the same thing that you did, that a collegiate or even just a national championships by itself is a very different event than my 2 day event I did right here in Virginia.
I thought, well, obviously, they have more of everything. They have, you know, they have staff, and they've got hundreds of people. So they've got they've got good resources or backed national organization. They probably have vendors, and they probably have all sorts of sponsors and stuff. Well, going to this event, I learned 3 key things.
And the 3 key things I think will help you. If you have any thoughts, if you think that you you want to put on a big event or that you have an inkling to think that I now have a good venue, I think, will be great for regional or national championships. I'm here to tell you the 3 things that you need to understand for that that will lead you to believe you can do it. It's not a secret. Having a big event is no it's it's no, you know, magic formula. And let's get into that.
So number 1, it's the same planning process. Now looking at the the collegiate champion, mountain bike championships in Missouri, Montana for USA cycling. You still need a good venue. Now they picked a venue that happened to be private property. It was an old ski lodge that with the ski lifts and everything kind of off to the side. It was been kind of defunct, gone out of business. Where they picked that had trails that were fantastic.
Now they were critically hard, especially for East Coast Racers. But It was a venue that had a huge parking lot. It was a venue that had existing buildings that you could base operations on. It had gravel roads and trails that kinda went up and and down. Just like I mean, it was just ski lodge at 1 point. So it's all trailed up. It access points to get different parts of the park.
Because you had to have you had to have, you know, ski rescue and those kind of things up there. So but it was a good venue. So just like in a small event, a big event's the same way. You're gonna need a good venue. You're also gonna need permission. Now, they didn't get private land because the owner was doing this at the goodness of his heart. They had to they had to buy a permit and get permission to be at that part. They had to create a a contract and talk with the owner to get a legitimate
I guess, you can say, a legitimate authority to be on their property because it's trespass if you're up there. In fact, talking to the people who live in Missouri, they're not allowed to mountain bike there on the regular day because the private property owner doesn't allow mountain bikers micromount bikers up there. Because of the third thing which is liability insurance. Because of these trails, you don't want mountain pickers to go up there and get hurt because now it's your own personal property and you could be sued for allowing people to be up there. So there's also liability stuff. So you'll see cycling,
of course, per you know, permits and and provides insurance. Just like your small race, the big race has to have that too. There's no special, you know, special program for national events. They still need permits. They still need permission to be on the property, they still need insurance. They also need marketing to get racers to come.
Now it just so happens that this race was kind of for national championships, especially for collegiate was kinda small. And it's kinda small because Mazula is not exactly the easiest place to get to. I mean, for for myself and CJ, we had to fly into Helena, which is, what, 2 hours away, rent a car and drive into Mozilla because we couldn't get a plane ticket. Into into Mozilla directly without spending another, you know, it's over a $100. So the marketing
has to come with the national championships. You have to be able to to get people into your in now your event. Now the problem with the national championships or even the regional championships, but in this 1, in particular, We didn't find out that CJ had qualified for the national championships until almost 2 weeks before the event. That gives you no time.
Now you get kind of a a you kinda capture an audience when you have the only 2 weeks for event, but think about all the small events that you've produced that maybe you didn't ties until the last minute. Now, a championship event gives you an advantage that you get to have Razer come because it's the championship event. They want the end. But think them out in a small event if you created a series
that people don't know whether or not they wanna go to the series till the last minute. But they know the series exists. This is the same thing with the national championships. They advertise this national championship months in advance. So everyone knows it exists, but no 1 knows if they can go to it, but they know where it is. So they can kinda start planning for it, but they don't know if they can actually get to it till 2 weeks in. So you have to always last minute registrations.
And that's kinda how this works. And the same thing on your small events, If you advertise it weeks in advance or months in advance, people won't know if they're gonna come to it the kind of the last minute, and you'll see that in a small event too. Is the hockey stick.
It always happens in a small event when you get people to come up to your to come to your event. And you find out that they find out your event a week before the event actually is gonna happen, and then they register. And suddenly you get this strange, like, 1 z, 2 z's registration. Suddenly, you get 10 registrations in 1 day or 20 registrations over a weekend. Same concept applies here is
the National Championships advertises a month in advance, do the same thing for your small event. Same way. They do the same thing. And then, of course, you need officials to make it legitimate. Now, you say cycling has a huge advantage of this cadre of people. In fact, I talked to 1 of their their their senior race directors, her name is Tara, and she calls it the circus.
Where they have trucks that have all their equipment in it, all they do is drive to national championship to national championships. There's like 20 or so USA cycling national championships throughout the country. On an annual basis. There's even some overseas too. So they go to the they go to UCI, they go to Canada, they go everywhere. So they call the traveling circus because they just go, they set up, they do a race, they pack up, they move on.
And they have the officials that come there, and the officials come from all over the United States too. They're not the same people in the traveling circus. So as a race director, in a small event, your officials don't have to be part of your staff.
USA cycling, if you if you the same with the USAT, the same with the with the track and field and same with a lot of the other organized events. If you're permitting through a sanctioned authority, The officials you get are gonna be the officials you get. So you're gonna find out who your officials are last minute anyway. The same with the national champion. Championships. In fact, I've talked to USAC officials before when they find out they were going to the national championships
until the last minute. And same with these with these people. I mean, they know the announcement was coming up. They've put their name in the hat, but a lot of times, they don't make the selection till the last minute. So the same is gonna be with yours. So small event, big event doesn't matter. He's not gonna really have to pick your officials.
So you but you gotta have them. So you gotta have to make your your race legitimate. And that's kinda that's I mean, that's the the small versus big. The planning process is all the same. You have to have officials. You gotta have permission. You gotta do insurance. You gotta do marketing. You need a good venue. Same with small, same with big, it's no different. You just have to accommodate for the scale. That's the that's the 1 piece, the x, you have to to compute
is they have to combat it with scale. Right? So where a hundred people would fit in a venue, you need to find a venue that's a little bit bigger, or you need permission, Well, permission's the same. Right? Your permit might be different costing to your permit. Your insurance might be bigger only because of the cost. Your marketing's gonna be the same, and getting your visuals gonna be the same. It's all the same.
So that's that's the first thing that I that I discovered between the big and small. Let's go on to the second thing. Okay. The second thing I discovered is that it's the same design course design process. I mean, you still have to define a course you still need to find the same same trail that'll work, and you still have to go fix that trail because no trail's perfect.
You have to go cut a log or trim the brush or fix a hole or get rid of a puddle. It's all the same. And at the at the national collegiate mount championships was the same deal. It was a mountain bike course, easily that could have fit 20 riders. As much as it did fit a 100 writers. And they broke things down into categories. So, of course, you have, you have club and varsity going, men and women and that's 4 sets of riders going off at different times.
So they break it down to smaller groups anyway. So your trail size doesn't have to be something that can come need a 1000 writers or something crazy. Same thing here. And the level of difficulty also allows you with a gap speech between categories to create an environment where you can spread people out enough on the course. If the course doesn't have to be we could doesn't have to be super long.
Doesn't have to be, you know, wide enough to encounter, you know, to to take on all these writers or runners. Or what have you. So if you think about the the way you define a course for national championships is the same you do it in a small event. It's the same. Now, they had a fantastic venue to go to the this mountainous terrain that took you from 4000 feet to 5000 feet. In fact, during the race, the riders is a rain at the bottom where the where the course officials were at.
Went through the woods for 4 miles climbing, climbing, climbing, it was all hot and sweaty, so now you're peeling off layers. Get to the top of the mountain, open field, and it's snowing on you. Which is crazy. Then it's a 2 mile descent, which of course you're freezing to death because you're covered in sweat. Temperature has dropped into the thirties. And then you get down the bounds rainy again. It's just bizarre, this course. But it had nothing different
than a small course did. When you're thinking about, you know, a bid for national championships or thinking about going after a course in its size, it's the design
that defines the course is all the same. The fixing the trail and making it work is still the same. You have to figure out the best ways to make it safe. Just like you would do a small course. You still got to find a way to get someone out of that top, that 5000 foot level course. Snow, and you still got to find a way that if they face plan or hit a tree or fall off the edge to go grab them. In fact, while we were there, they have a downhill course kinda cuts through the middle of a cross country 1 of the downhillers 20 seconds off the start, flipped over the handlebars, hit a tree, broke his femur in half. It took people
several minutes to get a backboard down to him, then pull him up the side of the hill. Then when the rescue helicopters showed to get him, couldn't land right where they needed to be. They carry them over to helicopter as well. But they found a way. They found a way that if you had the helicopter somebody out of the top of the mountain, you knew where to do it. Wasn't easy, but you could do it. Same in a small event too. You have to find the best way to make it safe because with 10 riders or a 1000 riders, you still have to put safety as a primary concern of your course design. Same with marking the course too. You still have to make it make sense. In fact, I found it interesting that an international championship event, there were still intersections and course markings that someone walked through and broke,
that were not marked the way they should be. Now the trail was was well worn after this point. So it was you kinda couldn't figure out where the trail is going. But there was enough offshoots and dirt roads and places that if someone wasn't getting quite there, got their their wits about them could have made a mistake, especially when you stretch out from from the length of the ride where you're riding by yourself. And a lot of times when you're racing, you find out there's plenty of opportunities
where you're on the trail in suddenly years by yourself is no 1 around you for for several yards. You think you're all you're all you're all by yourself alone come around the corner of somebody or someone comes up behind you. But there's times. Plenty of races have been in where being last banana or somewhere in the middle or just the gap opens up enough or even at the very front
where you're by yourself for a long part of the race. If there's a trail marking or then your section that's confusing, then this is the thing that could really wreck your race by people go off the course. And finding out that that happens in national events, just as much as happens in the small events, was refreshing. To know, hey, they're not perfect either. So marking the course is all the same. And same with cleanup when you're done.
The the difference between, I think, a small and a big event is probably the amount of garbage have, but I've been at small events where people are just disgusting. They throw cups and garbage and bottles everywhere. In fact, the the national championship people told the racers, hey, dump your goo packs and everything and what they had a feed zone where you could hand off bottles and whatever. And it was this particular place they had set up that you could only do it Now,
did that trail was that trail pristine when they got done? No. There was people who replaced tires and left their tires in the side ride bike levers, there's bottles that fell out, goo packets everywhere.
It's just the way racing is. So cleanup is the same. Same in the spectator area. Spectators, there was food trucks that showed up. Do people throw stuff in the garbage can? Sure. Do they always hit the garbage can directly? No. Same thing. So small, big event didn't matter. Cleanup still the same. You're gonna have to clean up your venue. You're still gonna have to mark your course. You're still gonna have to figure out how to make it safe. You're still gonna have to fix the trail because especially in wooded areas, trees do not care about your race. Ask Mister Murphy. He loves race morning to drop a tree on your trail. That's his favorite thing. It's like Christmas to him. So and your course design?
Small, big? Doesn't matter. If you can break up your categories enough to fit the volume of traffic a trail? You could make a small trail into a national championship trail. K. The final thing that I found by going to a national championship was that the same race day direction execution process was in play.
And I thought there would be multiple race directors, like, subrace directors. I thought there would be these kind of, like, horse marshal armies I thought there would be med techs everywhere. And what did I find? Well, I found out that everyone's still gonna get registered. And I found that when we went up to the top of the mountain after we got our. So we were told when we first got there that there was a a building down in Mozilla, Montana, that USA Cycling had rented to
to hand out all the race registration information. You know, like Bolton boards and give your Bib number and zip ties and all stuff to put on your bike. But did everyone know that? No, they did not. We got to the top of the mountain, I had another coach walk over to me and say, hey, where do you get the bib numbers at? And I had to tell them, hey, it's down to the bottom of the mountain at this this 1 location.
Did you not see that in the program? He's like, no, I didn't. He pulled his program at, wasn't exactly very self explanatory. It was kind of in an email that came later. Eventually, it showed it back on the website. It was, you know, a lot of communication confusion. So to find out that you still need to get everyone registered and they still need to be clear where the heck registration is,
happens in a national event as much as a small event. It's kinda refreshing to know that, hey, national events aren't perfect. That's fine.
You still need to also get people to the starting line. Just like in a small event where it's like, okay, everybody. Time to start. We're starting at 8. Where is everybody? People still appear on the core on it. Same in a national event. Only a national event, they are a little more a little more rigor involved because they do call ups, and it all depends on where they rank your school coming into a collegiate event. So there's still that going on. But
as far as the execution goes, it was the same process. Hey. Everyone stand over here. Everyone showed up. Okay. Let's do call ups. You go because the front of the line, you line up. Everyone gets into place. You're at the tape. You're ready to go. The official gives you the official you know, hey. This is how the race works. This is what's gonna happen. If you come down the mountain, you come down the mountain. This is how many laps you have to do as you have any questions and bang on there off.
That's it. The same in this small race. It was no different. Aligning people up and letting them start. Now a national event, of course, gets an announcer who I know that's really that's a cool fringe benefit of the guy who has an announcer with an announcer voice. He's like, hey, everybody. Let's about kinda make some noise, and people start banging the boards, and everyone gets all exciting. For the varsity guys, but club guys get up there, the spectators are all gone.
Yeah. Shocker. Yeah. Just like another race. Right? The experts are at the front line. Woo. Experts. The sport guys get up there. No one's you know, 1 cowbell for the sports guys. The same thing. It's the same thing. There's there's the there's the the clicks in the groups the people people came to see. And I thought funny is if you watch Saturday, you watch Saturday football, and all the schools you see in Saturday football, Those are the schools you hear about in club sports.
I mean, University of Virginia was there. We had app state was there. You had all these. You had all the the Colorado states were there, Montana, a lot of the the California, you go see the varsity guys, and it's all schools you never heard of. And that's the difference in collegiate racing. Varsity is usually a program where the coach is paid, and they have huge boosters. They came with giant trailers. They had roller upon rollers. They were warming up inside their trailers.
It was teens of 15. It was crazy. The kids are awesome. They're they're they're Their entourage is awesome. It's a school you had never heard of. Now at George Mason, I'm the volunteer. Jordan Mason doesn't pay me anything. I think the only benefit I get from from from George Mason is I get a parking pass, and once a year they have a coach's dinner. Woo hoo.
But I don't do it for the money. I do it to be able to have the opportunity to go to places like Mozilla, Montana and see these kind of events take place and get these kids there. That's the kind of thing I do. So it's just interesting to find out that the the national level events are not perfect.
That's kind of refreshing to know they're not perfect. That they have an announcer whose Internet went down and he couldn't tell you who was coming across the finish line because he'd have Internet access and he came back up and suddenly he could tell you again. Just like in a real event when the generator dies or you don't have any power or you showed up in the socket in the the closure that you rented at at the park. They turned the power off for the winter. Those kind of things. It's just interesting to see that. They had these giant trailers and to see that, hey, it fails too. Even with all of that money and all of that dedication to to the job. Mister Murphy still shows up. He still shows up. Are you still kicking over generators and unplugging stuff? K. What else within the the the the the on the race date direction that execution needs to know about? Well, You still have to keep people safe during the race? And like I said, they still had they still had they had a a group of volunteers who were up there who were the former
ski patrol of the law lodge that we are at. And there's another place called Snowball, which is kind of over the mountains that they also work at. But they're kind of like a volunteer fire department in a way. And the ambulance was up there with volunteer fire department. So just like in your own race, doesn't have to be a paid staff EMTs you can also have a race in a national level race with volunteers, with EMT volunteers.
And you can utilize some of the local environment to, you know, augment your your your your medical needs for keeping people safe at a race. Also had to find out they had to find a way to know who won. It's just like in a small event, the same as a big event. Now at a national event, they could, of course, use chip timing, which is fantastic
when it works. It started raining and the chip timing got a little weird. They started putting paper timers out on the course. So even in a big event, You have to supplement yourself even with high-tech, even with chips, even with with great superior technology, you still need the analog stuff when everything when Mister Murphy shows up and ruins everything. They had to do the same thing. They had paper timers out there.
Teams of 2 with a clipboard writing down numbers, making sure the feed zones weren't being violated, making sure people are staying on the course just like you do in your race. So, yeah, chip timing is great. Better have a backup. They did too. So but they plan for that backup. So the race execution and the race the restriction that they provided for their race is they knew they needed a backup and they had it, which is great to see that. You also have to give everyone results.
Now the 1 cool thing about chip timing Those results bang. They were up fast.
Very, very fast. Which is kinda cool. Same in a small race. If you wanna keep those people coming back to your small race, result up quick. Now small race gives you an advantage because not a lot of racers. You can figure that out pretty quick. Same international race. The chip timing allowed them to put that stuff up. Really quick. Do the same thing. So you still need to have results up quick no matter what, because international races results aren't up quick, they grab pitchforks
and torches and they get upset. And last but not least, you have to have a podium for top winners. Now this is something that's tough to do, podium I mean, kind of the last afterthought of some racers
of race directors. I mean, what's it gonna be? It's gonna be boxes. It's gonna be, you know, tree tree logs. It gonna be a a a no podium? Would you like a fence or a dirt hill or something? Whatever it is, have it. You still need to have the the podium for top winners. And then Collegiate's weird because because during the race the recession, collegiate writers don't really get a podium. But in national championships, it's kind of a big deal. They have the big backdrop.
They put 5 deep. People go up there. They have they have all the cameras there. It's kind of a big deal. Well, you should make it a big deal in your race too. In a small race, just like in a big race, you need to have a podium, and the podium's at a certain time, just like in the regular race. So think about those things. Think about the direction that you go through, and the execution at race day. The same principles apply. The same processes are required. Only difference is scale.
And now you know. Alright. My last this last little part of the podcast, I wanna do something called paying it back. I mean, when you get to a special time of year, you need to think about paying it back to those who help make this year great. And I have 3 groups that I wanna acknowledge for 2017 that helped and in 2016 too, that helped make this podcast go from from 1 episode to 30, 35, 36. And the first 1 I wanna chat out is a place called Biknetek.
Now, Biknetek is a full service bicycle shop owned by Jan Fukener and Helen Hule. And it's a small family owned shop in Falls Church, Virginia. Now Jan and Helen are bike enthusiasts that have all the love of bikes that you can imagine. They centered their entire bike shop around. I believe that the brands that uses Kona, Jammes, Benocchi, salsa, Raleigh, Surrey.
So they're a bike shop that specializes in some really cool brands of bikes, but they also do some really cool things where they have they have shop rides, all their their equipments on wheels. So what they do is every now and then, they they push all the equipment away and they put up some chairs, and they they they host musicians. They have rock parties and folk parties and alt rock parties. It's really awesome. So there's a bike shop that is deeply involved in community.
Now, my connection with them is that because they're really serious about local biking, is not only did BikeConnect provide the support to help me launch the George Mason University Cycling Club, but they've also helped me with some of my own races with the wolf bouncer, they provided a a podium prizes.
I had a a a problem. I had some sponsors who just didn't show up So I've got all these racers coming. I got nothing to give them. They win. Well, Jan Helen stepped up. And every time I've asked for their help, Biokinetic has been there. And I really say the same for a lot of other bike shops, but I can say the same about Jan and Helen because they are worth the trip. They are a bike shop that cares.
They care not only by helping race directors, but they care about helping collegiate riders. They care about helping Virginia riders in in always. You can imagine. So I just wanna say that this is a bike shop you need to go check out. If anything, go hear some music. I mean, maybe you're not a bicycle rider. Maybe you're a runner or maybe you're maybe you're into into a venture racing or triathlete. Go to
bike nimics full service bicycle shop in falters, Virginia. I'll have the link on the in my show notes. And go check them out. It's it's an experience like none other. It is seriously a family like environment. These people really care and it shows. So that's my first shout out. It's the bike netting. My second 1
is to my buddy Will Nichols. Now Will Nichols is the host to The Angry Mountain Bikers Show. There's a podcast that I'll link to his his show there. And he's a professional mountain bike instructor. Certified level 1 PMBIA. He's a wilderness 1st aid certified. He's a this is the thing I really think is cool about him. Is he's an adventure in wildlife photographer? For. And he had come to 1 of my races just to hang out and pick pictures, and his pictures were fantastic.
I mean, not only is his podcast interesting because he talks about mountain biking and all sorts of things about mountain biking because his his association with being a instructor, but he talks about all sorts of other things, rock climbing. He talks about sometimes his podcasting stuff and even his his loves of his love of chips and salsa, and just the way his show is. So I just wanted to shout him out that the photos he took were fantastic.
I mean, these were action shots. These made collegiate writers look like professional,
like the cover of a magazine type writers. You can't beat that. And it's called Will Nichols Photography is his side gig. So a big shout out to Will Nichols and the Angry Mountain Biker podcast. For for coming out and taking photos of the wolf bouncer this year. It was really awesome, and his pictures were fantastic. And go see some of his other work. He's got a whole gallery. I'll put the link up on the show notes to check out his his gallery of all the other shots. And if you have a race that you would like someone to come come shoot photos at, give Will a call and ask him to come out because not only will he take fantastic pictures, but he just makes a little I mean, he sells them on the side as, you know, the high res images or even the prints for next to nothing. So he's not doing this to make a living off of, but they're worth every penny. So give the Angry Mountain Bike or a shout or go listen to his podcast. Just listen to his podcast. It's kinda cool too because it's like short quick trail hits and he comes up with some of the craziest topics, just his his rants he goes on about certain issues. It's fantastic. It's a ghost in him. That's Will Nichols at the Angry Mountain Biker.
My third 1, of course, is something if you're a if you're a listener, the the merchant of the Dream podcast, you've heard me talk about these guys time and time again. Now, I love these guys because they're right down the street from me and I drink the heck out of their coffee and they have been huge supporters of the collegiate racing community for helping just bring coffee into our races. Think about, you know, now I'm not racing in coffee? Yeah. You know, you think beer mostly, but no.
I'm doing the coffee side because I'm not a beer drinker. But I am a coffee drinker. You know, it's the navy in me. So that's a big shout out to Rick's Roasters coffee company. I mean, this is this is the coffee company owned by Sean and Keelie Ricks. They're veteran. It's a family run copy a roaster. It's right here. It's it's like on the border of Fredericksburg and Stafford in Virginia. But They are wholesalers.
So you have you know, you're you're listening to this from Colorado or or Montana or Washington. Some place in the middle, maybe Texas, they'll send this stuff to you. And you can get some of this fantastic coffee sent to your door, which is awesome. I mean, they're passionate about their coffee. Every time I go there and get a tour, it's something new. They've done something different. So they've they've really kind of delved into
making sure that the quality product is something they put out. So I would say, if you got a chance, give Rick's roasters a try. And if you ever, you know, you really want a recommendation.
I'm the fan of the 4 horsemen. The 4 person coffee is fantastic. It's like 4 different beans mixed together. There's something about that flavor that beats any other coffee. And I like my coffee really food up. When I drink 4 horsemen, I don't know food food so much. So this is something you definitely need to go. So that's rickwursters.com. And because of of just this this great relationship I have with Recruiters,
they've offered to give the 1st order. So this is my very first like, it's not the very first thing because I guess Seismac from or the race race hub. We had a the Rechinir promo code for his shirts, but for coffee. This is for coffee. So if you wanna order coffee, you wanna be the during the first time, give them a try. Maybe you're like, no. I'm not sure of Kylie and Coffee, whatever. Give them a try. For the first time, for your first order, You can get 13% off, which is this is this kinda strange number. Yeah. But, hey, it's Halloween. Right? So 13% off by using promo code wolf bouncer, and I'll have that in the show notes too. If you go to richroasters.com,
the richroasters coffee company, and use promo code wolf bouncer, you get 13% off your first order. So what's not the lose there? So you can order a couple pounds of coffee.
Try the 4 horsemen. Try it because he's got jeez. It's like he's got 50 or so blends on there. And then he's holiday blends and seasonal blends, he's he's a wholesaler. So he's doing hotels and restaurants and those kind of thing. But if you need just a little bit for your personal supply or maybe your got a business. Maybe you want some coffee going there. You know, go check out Rick's roasters. It is worth it is worth it because it is This passion too, it's all about the bean makes a difference, especially when you go to places that are kinda like, you know, well, you know, it's kinda like the bean. You know, we get what we get. But if you're more know, like that what I think they call that the level 2 or level 3 coffee person. Go try Rick's roasters promo code, wolf bouncer, and receive 30% off. You you can't lose at that. Get a couple bucks off, try some good coffee. And then if you if you like it, let me know. I'm not getting any kickbacks on this. I just love their coffee. And when you love something, wanna tell everybody, and I'm telling you. So go there.
Thank you so much for listening to the merchandisinger podcast. I would love to hear from you. Please reach out to me via email at mergersadir@gmail.
Dotcom. And I will definitely write you an answer back. Also, if you just have a short question, you need a short answer. You'll be up on Twitter. I'm at merchants Adura on Twitter. And I'll just shoot you 1 back. And if it gets too long, hey, we'll just start hooking up on email. Also, I've started the Patreon account. Patreon account is a way for you if you wanna support the show and you need the youth love the content. You wanna hate Kyle. I need to motivate you to keep good bringing out content and, you know, get you past all your struggles because I do this this show. This is all prebono. I do this all for free. This is a show that just a passion that I like to do. And hopefully, it comes out that you get that same passion back. And if you wanna be a support of the show, go to merchandisinger.com.
And on the right hand side, you'll see the Patreon button, click there, and I'd love for you to be a Patreon. And I have a couple different promos on there, some some exclusive content for Patreon. On for subscription on subscribers only. It's almost like a little Mimi membership program that if you wanna hear some extra stuff or you wanna specific
specific content that you would like to hear, I will deliver that to you because that will definitely motivate me to know that there are people out there who says, you know what? This content is important, I need to hear more of it, and I need to hear more of this kind of content. So go up there and find that. Meanwhile, when you're getting ready to go out there and start, you know, designing your next course, or thinking that, you know, I need to maybe a national championship is something I wanna go for. I hope to see you on the next episode at The Register podcast. Until then,
Go start better races. Take care. No Mister Murfrees were harmed during the making of this podcast.