This past Saturday, August 29, I held the "Welcome 5K" on the standard approved JMU 5k course.
(See http://www.jmu.edu/events/documents/5k%20Run%20Route.pdf)
The technical aspects went almost perfectly.  However, only 6 runners showed up, despite my efforts at publicity, and an entry fee of only $5.  I had bought six $15 gift certificates for awards (out of my own pocket), so it seemed to me that it was fated that each runner should receive a gift certificate, regardless of finish.  I had bought gift certificates instead of asking for donations, because the race was a fund raiser for a club Madison Liberty which I advise, and not a fund raiser for a third-party charity.  Purchase also gave me greater flexibility on awarding the gift certificates.  Madison Liberty club did almost nothing last semester, and I had hoped the race would serve as a club activity.  No one else showed up.  Fortunately, I had designed the event such that I thought I could handle it myself.	    

I had intended to purchase the refreshments for the finish line: 5 gallons of water, 24 bagels, and 5 lbs each of bananas, apples, and oranges.  But Dining Services at JMU offered to donate the refreshments.  The runners took all the bananas. But there were some apples, oranges, and bagels left over, which I salvaged; and almost all of the water.  Thank you, Dining Services!
	    
I was on the course, setting up by about 7:30 am, for a 9am start.  Temperature was about 65F, and overcast: good weather for a race.  Set up had almost no delays, but I finished with too little time for comfort, at around 8:30am.  In the future, I should start set up at least 2 hours before starting time.  To mark the course, I set out ten 9-inch orange traffic cones that I had purchased.  I had written in black marker on each cone an index number (0,1,2,...14), and an arrow pointing the direction to go.  Cones that were encountered twice had two numbers and two arrows.  Inside each cone I put a map of the course, with "You are here" marked.  After the race, runners told me that they had no trouble following the course.  Before the race, I explained all of this to the runners, and warned them to look out for traffic on the course.
	    
Rich Ruozzi had kindly lent me his finish line chute.  Start and finish for the race were at the same place.  I set up the registration table at the end of the chute.  It was my 3'x3' card table.  I brought 2 folding chairs, in case I might have someone helping me.  But, the second chair went unused.  On the table, I set the laptop PC which I used for timing and results.  With only 6 runners, it was superfluous.  When I first booted up the laptop PC, I could hardly see the screen, because the laptop was working on battery power.  Although I had fully charged the battery, I had neglected to check performance of the PC on battery power.  After the race, I found the setting for a bright screen when on battery power.  But, at the time, I was worried, especially since I had forgotten to bring my backup system of numbered notecards.  But, with only 6 runners, I should not have worried.  As each runner registered, I wrote the runner's tag number on the registration form.  Later on, as runners finished, I also wrote the finish times on the registration forms, after recording them on the laptop.  Using this method, I could have kept time by wristwatch instead of by computer.
	    
The timing program worked perfectly.  However, I had one glitch when the first runner came across the line:  I pressed space-bar to register his time, but nothing happened.  I had forgotten to click on the DOS window where the program was running, so the key entry did not register for the timing program.  I solved the problem about 90 seconds later.  Fortunately, I had written my program to display a rolling time, and the runner had kept his own time, and they agreed: a blistering 16:45!  We also had a neck-and-neck finish for the 4th and 5th runners.  The one other glitch: I had forgotten to check my camera's batteries.  So, I got no pictures.
	    
All in all, I think that my first race went well.  Hopefully, more people will show up for the Minuteman 5k on September 9.  I am not sure what more I can do for publicity.  I emailed my race announcements to WSVA radio, I posted notices on public bulletin boards around JMU, I sent the notices to Erik Dart who posted them at Westover Recreation Center, and I emailed them to Valleytrack and LPVA listserves.  I did not have notices at recent races because JMU approval for them came too late.  I guess I could have pursued approval earlier.
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	    Overall results.
	    Index, Time, Tag, Gender, Age, Name
	    1 , 00:16:45.73, 179, M,  23 , Adam Malloy
	    2 , 00:19:55.47, 183, M,  27 , Adam Smith
	    3 , 00:21:39.96, 181, M,  22 , Kevin Murach
	    4 , 00:22:25.30, 177, M,  43 , Daniel Koeppen
	    5 , 00:22:26.08, 175, M,  32 , Clark Ritchie
	    6 , 00:30:33.50, 185, F,  25 , Katie Dewolt
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Joe