PUBLISHED 06/03/2008
Because you'll be giving out a number of awards for different divisions, age groups, and race distances, it is best to begin them as soon as possible after the race winners have been posted and to hand out awards with as little pretense as possible. Keep things moving quickly in order to make sure everyone stays around for the presentation. Announce winners in age groups rather than separately, and ask them to pick up their awards after the ceremony or direct them to the side of the stage, where another person can present the award.
In order to entice your participants to stay around for an awards ceremony, hold a post-race party or other activity to keep interest high. Runners will also be more likely to stay for awards if they have somewhere to hang out and relax afterwards. They can sit down at a park, theater, or restaurant, but will be more likely to leave if they are on a street or in a parking lot. Also, offering a wealth of raffle prizes is another way to keep runners on hand. Choose raffle winners in between award presentations so that even non-winners will stay around.
If, for some reason, you can't hand out awards that day, make the announcement as soon as possible so that runners don't wait around needlessly. If someone challenges the results, you may have do hold off presenting awards for a division until you've had more time to review the results.
