Going the Distance
by Mary Beth Romine
The Inaugural UC Half Marathon is scheduled for this Sunday, April 29, at 7:30 a.m. The University of Charleston Sports Administration students have been working diligently on this event since early fall 2011.
Each week team leaders meet individually with our advisors, Michelle Wells and Anne Brackley, to see what tasks need to be performed. Some areas include event managing, logistics, sponsorship, volunteer coordinator, communications and public relations. This is a student-managed event. Every Sunday at 7 p.m. we then meet as a group to see how much progress we are making in each of the respective areas. These meetings help us learn what details are important to communicate to each group to ultimately create a successful event. The timeline we use for the event indicates deadlines we must meet. With multiple assignments we also learn how to delegate jobs to other students in our major.
The race day options include a 5k and half marathon. Both courses start on UC’s campus and highlight the capitol view across the river and the surrounding neighborhoods in Kanawha City. This course level is flat creating a great course to set a personal record in running, or for getting your first one under your belt. We will provide water, power gels and energizing food to make sure we handle our participants with care. Those finishing the half marathon will receive a tech t-shirt and finishers medal. Participants in the 5k will get a race day t-shirt. Other awards will be given out according to age and gender categories. We will also be offering kids races and a diaper dash located on UC’s campus. All participants will receive a child safe medal featuring our mascot, MoHarv. Come out and support UC for a fun-filled weekend of Govenor’s Cup and the UC Half..
As you can probably tell from the description of this event, the Sports Administration program at UC is very hands on. We take the initiative to conquer big projects and learn how to effectively run multiple types of events. One of my favorite quotes that Professor Michelle Wells emphasizes is, “ Learn, Do, Teach.” This engages students to take the initiative to learn something, implement it, and then teach others what you have learned. It works quite well in my opinion. We also are advised to read Sports Business Journal weekly to see what is going on globally in the sports industry. It is interesting to see sponsorship opportunities and new ways to market an event through this common read. It also helps us brainstorm to create unique attributes for our events we put on as a major here at UC. As students, we come out on top and our program makes us stand out in the crowd!
For more information, or to sign up for the race, visit uchalfmarathon.com.
