Race Trends: Summer 2021

With races starting to come back, and at least a hint of normalcy slowly returning to the endurance events market, it’s a good time to take stock of where we currently are on the road to recovery.

Are more participants signing up for races? Are they signing up later, as some race directors have suggested? Are in-person races making a strong comeback? And what about virtual races which dominated events for most of last year?

We’ll be answering these questions and more today with the help of my guests, Johanna Goode and Bob Bickel from GiveSignup|RunSignup. With registration data coming in from thousands of races, GiveSignup|RunSignup is in a pretty unique position to be able to provide actual data-driven insights into what’s happening in the market - and, as we’ll see, the conclusions coming out of the data are not always what you’d expect.

In this episode:

• Total registrations volume is still down, but recovering
• In-person races are making a strong comeback, but virtual races are still a thing
• Entry fees are starting to normalize towards 2019 levels 
• Contrary to anecdotal evidence, the data doesn't support the narrative that participants are registering later than usual
• No clear evidence right now that more first-time racers are entering events
• Downward trend in participation for younger audiences continues

Thanks to GiveSignup|RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 21,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use GiveSignup|RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about GiveSignup|RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more free resources on planning, promoting and organizing  races on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about the findings in this episode or anything else in our race directors Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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