Race and Event finding - online resources

By the time you read this it's probably Friday. Yaay !


But, this weekend is strangely quiet as it's the end of half term. OR the end of the economy. I'm not too sure which from here.
If it is half term, then as I recall it used to be the the last day of a week where I could get a seat on the commuter train, and the roads were relatively easy to drive on to get to work, and there are parking spaces too. Luxury. As my main journeys are all done at 6am on Sundays now - I know nothing of this rush hour anymore, but have also forgone the concept of weekends and evenings with the family. Web-shops don't close dammit.

We're going to be covering some Irish Dancing (yep a new one for us too - wish me luck) as well as the Seaford Half Marathon, and I hope wherever you end up - it's as calm and serene as the lake was last weekend at Leybourne.

So, I imagine you're now wondering what to do next half term ?, or perhaps what races can I do that don't clash with the one Sunday you have got free ? OR you just fancy spending a bit of time "over lunch" on a friday planning your race calendar ?

Well, seeing as an important part of our job is to make sure were in the right place at the right time (handy for photographs really!), at the right events - we thought we should share some of our favourite links with you.

Apart from our calendar of events where we're going to be - which is obviously going to be your first choice if you want to say hello to us, then the next step is a bit of internet surfing. Hopefully below you'll find some handy links to get yourself going. You probably know most of these, so I'll just leave it as a list for you to search through. None of this is sponsored by the way (if some of you are thinking I'm trying to make money on click throughs), it's just very handy resources to have and share with you.

Click here for our race finding link page on the blog or have a look at these pages:

Race Finding links
Who ?	Just click on the Logo or link below
Fetch Everyone: Race finder - with mapping
The Sussex Race Planner	Sussex Races
Active Europe Running races
Runners World - Events
Running Diary

As well as these links, we have a few race organisers that we know amongst our ranks of readers, so I thought I'd put out a few links for you to consider if you want to make your lives a bit easier too !

I have to admit, I'm constantly amazed by the number of bespoke solutions out there, and the number of larger events that still take paper entries. Some of the race organisers are working their proverbial socks off for event registration, and I take my hat off to you all.

If you want to do something a little more sophisticated than just the Runners World online entry scheme, then at the moment there are two companies that we know out there that can help you - SportSystems and ActiveNetwork (see the links below). I think there are a few more, but are less common in the UK. Let me know if I'm mistaken ok !

I'm not going to go on about how using the web can make your life easy - but if I was going to be organising an event - I'd be using one of these services. Apart from anything else - they can tell a lot of people about your race - which is always handy (as well of course you have posted in the above race calendar services with your race details to advertise it properly too ?!?).

Thinking of planning an event ? Event Entry and Admin services
Sport Systems	http://www.sportsystems.co.uk/
Active Network	http://www.activenetwork.co.uk/
If you know any others - then let me know !

So I'll leave it at that for this Friday reading, now get back to work or get another coffee !

If you like me, hate the friday rush hour traffic - here's a link for you to watch it all go on if you're not travelling - http://www.highways.gov.uk/traffic/traffic.aspx
and here's something else to cheer you up:


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Have a  great weekend, slip, slap, slop and make the best of everything you can.

cheers
Anthony