This year is the 10th Anniversary of the flrunners.com Invitational. What started as a small grassroots event run by a sophomore at Florida Southern College with a running web site has now become a big grassroots event run by a 28-year-old in Orlando with a running web site!
A lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same. Though the meet is now one of the largest and most competitive in the country and has major corporate sponsorship from Nike, we still have striven to keep that grassroots and family feel. We don't want the event to become plastic, corporate, and impersonal and I think we have achieved that over the years.
We've done so by keeping it a family-run event... you still buy the t-shirts from my wife and parents! We've done that by partnering with great and caring folks on the meet staff like Jeff Kramer and Steeple Timing. And most of all by just remembering the spirit and purpose of the event is to have fun and celebrate our sport and the talented runners in our state (with a few out of state visitors).
It is also my goal every year to improve upon the previous year, which gets harder and harder to do! We want this to the the most fun event of the year that is “more than just another race” (my personal mission statement). I hope that we are the meet that teams circle on their calendar before the event and that kids look back on with fond memories long after they graduate.
In helping us one-up the previous year, we have an exciting announcement!
We have worked out a partnership with IPICO Sports, the makers of a new advanced-technology RFID timing system. The tags (chips) you will wear are yours to keep--souvenirs. They will be a small square that will go on your shoes custom-made to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the flrunners.com Invitational with the meet logo on them.
In other races with tags/chips you have been in, after the race you are exhausted but you had to be wrangled up and forced to sit and untie your shoes and turn in your chips when all you really want to do is collapse, get water, or find your team. Not so this year!
This IPICO system not only relieve the backup we have struggled with in the past with trying to keep everyone in order through the chute and keeping it from going across the finish in busy races, but we won't even need to hold you to get your tag back. When you finish the race you are just done!
Not only that, but here's the really cool part!
We will also be setting up check-in points every mile that you will run through. This will record your exact split AND will calculate the team scores on the fly. So we will know (and announce) at the mile and two mile what the team scores are and the mile splits from leaders.
Your parents and coaches will also be able to sign up through flrunners.com for text alerts, so that they will get a text message on their phone with your times and team score at each mile and at the finish almost instantly. How cool is that?!?
Thanks to IPICO Sports for this partnership. You can check out their web site at ipicosports.com to see more details on it.
Look for more announcements on the meet throughout the summer!