Date: Thursday July 11th, 2019
Subject: Superior Fall Trail Race 2019 Volunteer Email 1
* Preface. This email is a bit lengthy. It is a request for volunteers for the 2019 Superior Fall Trail Race. If you have any interest at all, please try to make some time to read this email in its entirety (it will take you about 4 minutes) – thank you in advance for your time! FYI, If you have already signed up to volunteer, you are receiving this email as well.
Greetings Friends!
Founded in 1991, the Superior 100 Mile Trail Race is the 10th oldest 100 mile trail race in the country (there are over 150 now) – The 2019 Superior Fall Trail Races (100MI, 50MI and 26.2MI) are just under two months away and we need your help to keep Superior at the forefront as one of the best reputed 100 mile races in the entire country! This years races will take place Friday September 6th and Saturday September 7th, 2019. We have a record field registered and a lot of people already committed to volunteering! If you are receiving this email it is because 1.) You have volunteered in the past 2.) You have volunteered at other RSR races or 3.) You have previously expressed interest in volunteering – please forgive us if you have already signed up to volunteer and are still receiving this email. Due to the logistics of putting on a point to point 100 mile trail race, we need 275+ volunteers to make this event happen, not just on the race days themselves (Friday through Saturday) but also on Thursday for trail marking and the pre-race meeting and for Monday cleanup in the Twin Cities.
Volunteer Sign Up:
We ask that anyone who would like to volunteer at this years race please signup online – by doing so, you really help us to manage the amount of information we have to manually enter and you help keep us organized – so thank you in advance! https://www.superiorfalltrailrace.com/volunteer-signup/ If you are planning on volunteering, it would be very helpful to us if you could register as soon as possible so we can see what spots we still have to fill – the online signup process should only take about 5 minutes. After signing up, your name will show up on the ‘Volunteer List’ https://www.superiorfalltrailrace.com/volunteer-assignments/, this is how you can confirm you are signed up, as the weeks progress we will start making the volunteer assignments and your name will then show up with your assignment(s) next to it but keep in mind the majority of the volunteer assignments will not be made until about 3 weeks prior.
A Few Additional Notes:
1.) If you volunteered last year, in the “notes” section of the online signup form please tell us where and if you would like to be back in the same position, this can be very helpful to the race since you know that position already. If you would like to try something different, that is just fine too.
2.) Please consider finding / inviting a friend that has not volunteered at Superior in the past or does not do a lot of race volunteering – it is so common for the “usual suspects” to be the ones stepping up year in and year out, and while we need that leadership, we need new blood too!
Some Special Needs:
1.) If you are a skilled photographer or Social Media guru we will always take additional volunteer photographers and Social Media folks, so please let us know!
2.) If you would be OK with a more stationary, indoor volunteer assignment and are somewhat computer savvy we are looking for folks to help with data entry for runner tracking. This consists of hanging out with our HAM Radio / communications team at Caribou Highlands / the race finish. We need coverage for this the entire 38 hours of the race.
3.) If you happen to have Monday Sept 9th off of work and would like to help us with post-race cleanup at our home in the Twin Cities we would love to have you! Please let us know.
4.) Trail marking and trail sweeping. If you have previous experience marking or sweeping with us, either at Superior or other RSR races and would like to mark or sweep at Superior, let us know. Additionally, if you have never marked or swept for us, we would love to have you but with one caveat… we only open these positions to those who have a true interest in learning our system and making a commitment to mark / sweep year to year since this is such a critical job and it takes some training – heck the entire race hinges on whether or not the course is well marked so runners can get from the start to the finish!
5.) Do you have any other special skills – something unique about what you do for work / professionally etc. (truck driver, own a pickup, medical credentials etc.) that you think would lend itself to the race, please let us know!
In Closing:
Please be sure to review all of the race information on the website and under the volunteer section, this will help you be the best resource possible for the runners and for your fellow volunteers! As always should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. If you cannot make it or are already signed up to run the race, no need to respond, you can disregard this message. We are looking forward to spending another awesome weekend with all of you putting on one of the biggest, baddest and most historic 100 mile trail races in the country!
Thank You,
John Storkamp
Race Director
[email protected]