At the RA Clinic

Login and check your password.
Check your club data.
Check your mountain.

Check your races and make sure that Toby hasn't mistaken SMS for STC and that all of your races are the ones you think you're supposed to have.

Check trail and time data, and fees and deadline information.

Three weeks Prior: ________________

Receive your racecode from Janet Larson. Edit the event details on the website. (We'll try to hook up directly with live-timing.com and link straight to the race using this racecode. )

Put up a Fact Sheet ( How? ).

Put up a preliminary Entry List ( How? ), even if it's only ten racers.

Put all the information into Split-Second and save the file.

Two weeks Prior: ________________

Edit your preliminary Entry List ( How? ), even if it's only a few more racers.

In your entry list, put a note at the beginning that you will "post the final entry list on ____ date at approximately ____ time. Any entries in after then will be added to the end of the start list."
Now they can't bitch about it.

Understand your mountain's policies and procedures for getting the tickets you'll need. Who to see and how do you get them?

One week Prior: ________________

Edit your preliminary Entry List ( How? ), even if it's only a few more racers.

Make sure that somebody is responsible for all the people, volunteers, gatekeepers, gates and gate numbers, setting up the starting equipment, all that jazz. You don't have the time on race day.

Is your space ready to go? Are all the computers working? Has the timing shack been cleared of rats and did they drag it to the proper place on the mountain?

Two days Prior: ________________

Edit your preliminary Entry List ( How? ), even if it's only a few more racers.

Day Before: ________________

Edit your preliminary Entry List ( How? ), even if it's only a few more racers. This should be the last time. (Remember the note you put in about final entries? From here on, they can get in but they have to be nice to you about it!)
Print out the VARA Team List - they get comped!

Get your forms ready.
Get your Bibs in their boxes and in a row, ready to be delivered to the table.
Get all of your supplies into plastic bins, marked Men / Women / RA Crew.
Is your money box ready?
Pick up tickets.
Do you need extension cords and whatnot? Plastic bin.
Get your medals or trophies into a plastic bin, marked AFTER.
Recharge all your batteries and locate any replacements. Plastic Bin. Remind the Race Crew chief to recharge batteries on all the radios.

Fire up Split-Second and see if you can find the file. Check the data. Did you do both men and women - they're two races, remember.

Night Before: ________________

Post your final Entry List ( How? ), even if it's only a few more racers. This is the list that 25% of the parents and 100% of the coaches will look at. The procrastinators will perch in front of you at the table tomorrow - dismiss them with the admonition that you have done all you could be expected to and "Pay up now and enjoy the back of the pack. If you race well, you'll be close to the forerunners in the second run."
Take that final entry list and run it through the VARA membership check ( here ). Print the list out for the registration table. Make three copies so everyone at the table knows who needs to pay up.

Race Day: ________________

Get coffee. Relax. Remain Calm. The race cannot start until YOU are ready for it to start. Anybody who bitches needs to be reminded that "Screaming at me does not allow me to fix this problem. I will listen until you stop, then I will answer you as best I can, then I will proceed with my job. How long do you want to hold up everything? Thank you." Any problems, call the TD. He would be happy to dress down some dirtbag with an attitude.

Follow your raceday checklist. Be early. Don't worry, be happy.

Late fees are discouraged. Get as many into the race as you can, weather and the mountain bureaucracy be damned. They drove for hours to get here - LET THEM RACE. They'll love you for it, you'll get more money. What's more, you'll get a reputation for being a good mountain. Placing them at the end of the pile where they'll race last is all the punishment you'll need to apply.