Winning a Race of Details, Details

Putting on a road race used to be such a simple matter. Toss up a start/finish line. Ready, set, go.

How times have changed.

“It’s like planning a huge wedding every week of the year,” said Herb Massinger of Race Pace Promotions in Dana Point. “It’s that planning and taking care of all those tiny details, day in and day out.”

Said George Guibert of Elite Racing, which has offices in Costa Mesa and San Diego: “It’s a very intense, emotional, involving thing. . . . You become the event.”

Massinger, 33, and Guibert, 38, have organized races throughout the county for the past five years. They’ve seen the events develop from low-key neighborhood affairs to more elaborate productions with big-name runners, corporate sponsors, prize money--and lots of details.

Between them, Race Pace, which has put on such races as the Bastille Day 8K and the Mid Summer Night’s Dream 12K, and Elite Racing (San Clemente Fiesta 5,000, Carlsbad 5,000), organize the majority of road races each year in the county.

They hope to continue--if it doesn’t drive them crazy first.

“You’ve got to know what is going on every minute; you’ve got to be on your toes,” Guibert said. “It’s like a war game.”

Massinger and Guibert have witnessed a few too many races--including one or two of their own--where something unexpected ruined the whole event.

In 1983, about a year before he became involved with race production, Massinger ran in the San Francisco Marathon. There he learned his greatest lesson: Always make sure you have your portable toilets delivered on time.

“There were 10,000 runners in Golden Gate Park without one toilet,” he said. “There was no backup facilities. The race director was at Safeway at 6 in the morning trying to buy every roll of toilet paper in the store. . . . The race people just stood on a stage, throwing rolls of toilet paper at the people below.”

Guibert’s biggest nightmare came during the Carlsbad 5,000. The 3.1-mile course crossed a set of railroad tracks twice during the race. Before the race started, an oncoming train was to be radioed to stop before reaching town.

But because of a mix-up in communication, the race started early.

“All of a sudden we heard, ‘On your mark, get set, go! ‘ “ said Guibert, who was about 50 yards ahead of the start in the lead vehicle. “It was like in a Western when you see a runaway herd coming your way. There was no way we could stop them.”

Fortunately, the train was stopped.

Of course, not all facets of race production are this exciting. According to Massinger and Guibert, most runners who plunk down $15 to run a race and then complain have little idea of all the work that goes behind it.

“Because it’s such a complex event, most people don’t see the scope of work the job involves,” Massinger said.

A typical day?

“You might be at a 7 a.m. meeting to meet Caltrans because that’s the only time you can talk to them,” Massinger said. “Then from 8-9 you’re in bicycle pants riding around measuring the course. Then at 10, you’re in a suit at a business meeting with a sponsor.

“At 11, you get a call from the city and find out they just tore up a sewer line and you’ll have to design a new course. Then you turn around and someone tells you we just lost a thousand race entries in the mail . . . It goes on and on and on.”

The work starts months before race day. Among the items on the agenda: establishing and training a corps of volunteers to help on race day, securing permits, renting parking space for race entrants, putting together advertising and promotions, designing T-shirts and race brochures, mailing entry forms and reserving equipment such as sound systems, waste containers, tables, chairs, canopies, radios or walkie-talkies, generators . . .

And then there’s the expenses.

According to Guibert, cost for an average event is $25,000 and up. Many cities require a $1-million insurance policy. T-shirts cost the race director $3.50 to $4 each. A morning’s worth of traffic control by city police is about $7,000. Then there’s the cost of banners, trophies, ribbons, and, if offered, appearance fees and prize money for the elite athletes.

For the most part, the race director is paid as a consultant to the charity that benefits from race proceeds.

“Our fee might be $5,000 for a race, though that might mean you’ll work a year for it,” Massigner said. “We try to establish a management fee based on the scope of the work we think we’ll be doing.”

Massinger added that Race Pace is also working toward incentive bonuses, meaning that if his event raises more money for the charity than originally expected, Race Pace would earn a bonus.

Barrios Coming to OC? According to Guibert, Arturo Barrios of Mexico, who set the 10,000-meter world record-holder last week, is planning to come to Santa Ana Nov. 26 for a race appropriately called the Arturo Barrios Invitational.

Barrios, who set the 10,000 record in 27 minutes 8 seconds last week, is competing in Europe, but his wife, Joy Rochester, said her husband is very interested in doing the race because it will benefit Latino education in Orange County. Barrios, a resident of Boulder, Colo., received a degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M; and is working toward a master’s degree.

“Arturo wants to be a positive influence in academics as much or more so as in athletics,” Rochester said. “He wants to do a race to benefit a scholarship fund possibly for Hispanics growing up in Orange County.”

Guibert said Elite Racing would like to organize the race much like the Carlsbad 5,000, where many elite runners would be invited to compete for a cash purse of at least $20,000. A “peoples’ race” also will be offered, Guibert said.

Notes

Tom Cheese of Irvine was the first county finisher at the Mule Run Ultra 50K in Bishop last weekend. Cheese, who coaches the Corona del Mar High School’s girls’ cross-country team, finished third overall in 4 hours 6 minutes. Fred Shufflebarger, the overall winner in 1986 from Laguna Beach, was fifth in 4:11 and Earl Towner of Laguna Beach was seventh (4:19). Renee Ortego of San Clemente was the first county woman to finish in 5:29. Laura Knebel of Trabuco Canyon was 104th overall in 6:00:33. Finland’s Jussi Hamalainen won the race in 3:53:49 . . . The first meeting of the Orange County Cross-Country Coaches Assn. is scheduled for Sept. 13 at 7 p.m. at the Coors Hospitality Room in Anaheim. . . . PattiSue Plumer has compiled enough points that she only has to finish the 3,000-meter race at Monte Carlo this weekend to win the women’s 3,000-meter title of the Mobil Grand Prix Series. Plumer, who was featured on this month’s cover of Track & Field News, will win $10,000 for having compiled the most points through the 1989 Grand Prix meets.

Race Schedule:

Thursday: Paramount Ranch Cross-Country 2 & 3 Mile Grand Prix Series, 6:30 p.m., Paramount Ranch, Agoura.

Sunset In The Park 2.8 & 4.8 Mile Cross-Country, 5:25 p.m. at Huntington Beach Central Park. For information, call 841-5417.

Saturday: Park to Park 8 Mile Run, 8 a.m., Miguelito State Park, Lompoc. Call (805) 736-6168.

Monday: Twenty-fourth Mt. Baldy 8 Mile Trail Run, 9 a.m. Begins at base of ski lifts (6,000-feet elevation) and runs to the top, elevation 10,064. Call 981-7487.