[Author’s Note: This is the final article in an eight-part series in AJW’s Taproom called Race Director Chronicles, where we profile the unsung heroes who make our sport’s racing possible.]
Michael Owen ran his first ultramarathon on the ripe outdated age of 21 at The North Face 50 Mile Championships in 2010, ending tenth. Now 34, Owen continues to compete at a excessive stage in ultras throughout the nation. Nonetheless, lately he has additionally established himself as probably the most profitable occasion administrators within the U.S. because the mastermind behind Southeastern Ohio Path Runners (now SEOTR Occasions). In his function as director, Owen presides over six wildly profitable path runs on this particular little nook of Ohio. Just lately, I sat down with Owen to ask him a couple of questions.
Michael Owen in race director mode. Photograph: Stu Siegfried
AJW: How lengthy have you ever been directing ultrarunning and path working occasions in Ohio?
Michael Owen: The primary race I directed was throughout graduate college in 2014, after I was 24 years outdated. It was a gaggle mission for an occasion administration course I used to be taking. This primary race was a path half marathon on a number of the most rugged trails within the area, and we had 82 runners!
This was the identical time I used to be establishing a path working “membership” for the world, referred to as Southeastern Ohio Path Runners, which aimed to advertise the game of path working and to foster a path working neighborhood within the area. I used to be so lucky the professor of that occasion administration class urged my group to placed on an occasion for SEOTR, and that’s what kickstarted all my occasions! That first occasion was my solely race for 2 years, but it surely grew to 180 runners in 12 months two, and that confirmed me there was some potential in placing on path races, and it was additionally an effective way to develop the path working neighborhood.
SEOTR as a “membership” morphed extra right into a race administration group in 2016, and is now branded as “SEOTR Occasions.” We at present host seven annual occasions with 15 race distances starting from one-mile enjoyable runs to 50 miles, with a yard extremely format occasion that has reached 229 miles.
The 12 months 2023 was the tenth 12 months of directing path races, and it’s exhausting to consider subsequent 12 months will kick off a second decade!
AJW: What’s the most satisfying side of your work as a race director?
Owen: I’ve actually cherished being a part of the expansion of path working in southeastern Ohio and the broader area. A variety of my finest pals are from this sport, and I might have by no means met them with out being a race director.
On an occasion planning stage, I’m actually drawn to particulars and group. Occasion directing is sort of a big puzzle the place there are quite a few items that have to be performed, some at particular instances and in a particular manner, all needing to return collectively for a last product. I benefit from the satisfaction of seeing all these items come collectively on race day. The purpose is for runners to have a tremendous expertise at your occasion, so if all these behind-the-scenes duties have been performed nicely it’s good to know you helped present that memorable expertise for them.
Michael Owen hugs a finisher at considered one of his occasions. Photograph: John Dolovacky
AJW: What makes working in Ohio so distinctive and particular?
Owen: I actually prefer to advocate for Ohio path working! I feel lots of people which have by no means been to Ohio view it as a flat flyover state with lots of cornfields and farms. There’s lots of that sort of land, however Ohio additionally has an enormous quantity of land formed by glacial outwash that carved deep and steep ravines. I used to be born, raised, and nonetheless reside within the far southeast portion of Ohio, the place the land is a part of the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. We don’t have lengthy uphills, however there are steep, rugged, and really frequent uphills.
In southeast Ohio we’ve got an awesome community of path programs at dozens of state parks, state forests, and the state’s solely Nationwide Forest. With out a big metropolitan space in southeastern Ohio. These trails will put you in some distant and much out areas, and that’s what I’m drawn to probably the most. There’s a way of freedom, possession, and wilderness in these areas, which might actually form who you might be as a runner. I feel this ruggedness is a good instance of the mentality of Ohio path runners, and it’s evident by the folks from Ohio who do some fairly wonderful issues on this sport!
AJW: What are the three largest challenges you face as a race director?
Owen: Being a race director requires drawback fixing, rapidly adapting to altering conditions, and considering quick when obstacles come up. Going through the COVID-19 pandemic as a race director was probably the most difficult second in my profession, however I prefer to assume it gave me extra instruments and perspective to face future challenges!
I’m so lucky to have a devoted base of volunteers at our occasions, in addition to a pair key employees members who work on bigger duties, however volunteer coordination and planning is without doubt one of the most essential elements of my race directing. With out having a serious metropolis populus to attract from, we’ve got restricted useful resource swimming pools, plus many of the path runners within the space shall be working the races! Volunteer recruitment, coaching, planning, and execution is without doubt one of the largest areas that I’m centered on whereas planning an occasion, as a result of it’s so essential in offering a superb expertise to runners. My longer distance races have single-loop programs that require extra assist stations — which is the expertise I wish to give our runners — but it surely supplies logistical hurdles to get the allowing, the variety of folks signed up, and the tools to these areas.
Climate has been difficult at a few of my occasions. Climate could make or break the turnout of the occasion, add security considerations, or create robust conditions on the subject of canceling, suspending, or delaying an occasion. I’m normally glued to climate forecasts as my occasions strategy and alter or enact plans primarily based on what the climate shall be.
Lastly, I’ve discovered it exhausting through the years to handle my private run coaching throughout race directing. Through the busy instances of race directing, I typically find yourself not working as a lot as I hope. Folks generally remark to me that I’m fortunate as a runner that I get to be concerned in working for my job, however generally it’s exhausting to separate private working from race directing, and on the finish of the day I simply wish to not take into consideration working. Through the yard extremely I direct, I find yourself not sleeping for a number of days straight, and people sorts of occasions are exhausting to bodily bounce again from. Fortunately, these are challenges that may be labored by way of, and I wouldn’t wish to do it otherwise!
AJW: What adjustments have you ever seen within the sport because you started directing occasions? Constructive? Detrimental? Each?
Owen: The game has grown a lot worldwide previously decade, which I’m grateful to learn from, however that has created adjustments that may probably be damaging. Nonetheless, I prefer to assume that development is at all times a internet constructive. One of many adjustments I’ve acknowledged is a shift away from “club-based” occasions to occasions being a part of a enterprise construction. I received into the game by working grassroots occasions placed on by golf equipment like West Virginia Mountain Path Runners (WVMTR), so I’ll at all times have an affinity towards these sorts of occasions.
However with the expansion of path working, I consider having people directing races as a profession is the brand new regular. To supply top-level races, there nearly must be somebody devoted to it full-time. On the similar time, I feel there must be a community-focused strategy to occasions nonetheless, the place the race director is a neighborhood one who understands and is a part of that neighborhood. I couldn’t think about directing a race in a spot I wasn’t from or conversant in.
AJW: What are you wanting ahead to most within the 2024 occasion season?
Owen: I stay up for rising our current occasions and getting them nearer and nearer to the imaginative and prescient that I’ve for them. I like to have a look at our lineup of occasions as every serving a novel objective. A few of our occasions are extra superior and supply an enormous problem to veteran path runners and ultrarunners, however different occasions are extra suited to first-time runners and youth. For the neighborhood to develop, I feel it’s essential to concentrate on all these areas, and never simply the massive, lengthy, and exhausting races — as grandiose and interesting as these sorts of occasions are. I feel our occasions are to the purpose in 2024 the place we will begin specializing in these areas of development extra, and I stay up for greeting all these new runners on the end line!
Bottoms up!
AJW’s Beer of the Week
This week’s Beer of the Week comes, appropriately sufficient, from Ohio. Wooly Pig Farm Brewery in Fresno, Ohio, is house to 1899 Previous Pils, a implausible, traditional, old skool German pilsner that’s mild and crisp. A splendidly easy pilsner, 1899 goes nicely with absolutely anything however particularly traditional U.S. Midwestern barbecue.
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