Athletics Australia Releases Evidence-Based Guide to Enhance Running Event Experience

Athletics Australia has today released a free resource for mass participation event organisers to enhance the experience of participants at their events. The Practical Guide to Managing Congestion During Mass Participation Running Events is the culmination of a PhD research project conducted by CQ University Australia student, Sean Peckover.

Congestion in mass participation events has an impact upon the experience of participants in mass participation events with 73% of runners surveyed as part of the research project indicating that their experiences with congestion somewhat to extremely negatively impacted their satisfaction with an event. 

The problem can also be a costly one for race organisers with Research during the project indicating that 47% of runners surveyed chose not to register to participate in an event if they had previously experienced congestion in that event or they were aware that others had previously experienced congestion.  

Athletics Australia collaborated with Peckover over the past three years to support the research, with Athletics Australia General Manager of Growth and Development, Adam Bishop, contributing as part of the project reference group that reviewed the research and provided feedback on the Guide. 

Peckover says that congestion within running events has long been a problem that has challenged race organisers.

‘Congestion can result in injuries to runners as the race commences and contribute to negative feedback from runners post event, due to either being injured or unable to run at their predetermined race pace’, said Peckover. 

‘This Guide is the culmination of research investigating the experiences of Australian race directors, surveys of runners, measurement of race congestion, and testing of controls for effectiveness. By implementing simple controls to reduce congestion, it has been shown that runners are safer and have increased satisfaction with the running event’ he added.

Altas Multisports Managing Director, Jason Crowther, participated in Peckover’s research after experiencing congestion issues at their Sunshine Coast Marathon and Cairns Marathon Festival events in 2019. 

‘Start line and on-course congestion resulted in some negative feedback from our participants’, said Crowther. 

‘Following this, controls were implemented at the Sunshine Coast Marathon Festival and Cairns Marathon Festival, which improved overall event satisfaction for our participants due to less congestion. Sean was able to provide a practical solution to manage congestion at our Running Events for a more positive participant experience.’

The nine page Practical Guide to Managing Congestion During Mass Participation Running Events provides event organisers with practical information regarding effective controls to reduce running event congestion. Managing congestion should be viewed as a core event quality for event organisers to manage and the Guide provides evidence-based information that, when implemented, will reduce congestion and in turn improve runner safety and satisfaction.

‘Aus Play data shows that there are more than 3 million Australians that participate in running in some form and thousands of participants who line up in formal running events across Australia each year’, said Bishop.

‘Athletics Australia is very pleased to have been able to support and contribute to this valuable research project and to be able to provide this guide to the mass participation running event community to help more people enjoy their experience when participating in events across the country’.

The Guide can be downloaded for free from the Athletics Australia website HERE. 

By Adam Bishop, Athletics Australia
Posted: 3/6/2022