Step 0: Give up on sleep, sanity and your own race ambitions.
Being a race director takes time. Caring for a group of 3-100000s of snails who text you their every single run (inluding grocery market sprints and occasional walks to the fridge) is time-consuming. Each KM needs to be logged, no matter how trivial that sprint to the store might seem. The snails know how many KM they should have gotten – and they will call you out for it if you forget to enter it. Then there’s the little chats that happen when you reply that you can’t believe your eyes (“Is that a 90K run you just sent in?!”). And of course you want to check in and ask why no KMs have been sent in by someone who’s normally doing well. Or how the injury is healing up.
That is the magic of King Snail Race. At the end of the day, this is your entry ticket to an absolutely amazing community.
Step 1: Choose your edition type, and make up the rules!
Each race edition put the focus on a different type of sport: running, cycling, pull-ups, swimming, and triathlon edition. The ground rules remain the same: pace is irrelevant, the only thing that matters is distance. You can change the “weight” of each KM in the triathlon edition by multiplying the KMs by using a point system (e.g. swims = 1KM x 3pts; runs = 1KM x 1pts; cycle = 1KM x 0.3pts).
Sometimes, there are bonus points for Special Performances (e.g. running in a costume) on weekends. The fun thing is: it’s all up to you!
Step 2: Announcing the Race.
Use any of the graphic templates available for download to announce on Instagram that you are a #KingSnailRace race director. Let people know when the race will be taking place, what the rules will be, the edition type and encourage them to sign up!
Step 3: Race Week – Logging KMs…
Snails send in their KMs as activity summaries from e.g. apps like Strava. Collect these KMs in the excel sheet templates provided and available for download.
… and posting race updates.
The excel sheet templates provided automatically generate a chart which you can save as a graphic and paste into the powerpoint graphic templates provided. Save and upload to your stories and watch as the race madness unfolds.
Step 4: Awards Ceremony
As the race usually begins on a Monday, and ends at midnight on Sundays, the awards ceremony has often taken place on Monday evenings, a week after race start. It is entirely up to you how you announce the winner – though I do it step by step, giving out the most highly respected position of Course Sweeper first, and then moving through the pack till only 1st and 2nd place are left.
What can I say. I like the drama.
Step 5: YOU WIN THE MOST HONORABLE AWARD
OF HAVING BECOME A TRUE #KINGSNAILRACE RACE DIRECTOR!
