A Chat With Tim Dean

Tim Dean

Cool Running had the opportunity to interview Tim Dean, Director of Health Promotions for Healthsource, Inc., and race director for the Healthsource Corporate Road Race in Manchester, NH. This year the Healthsource 5K race was ranked as one of the top 25 largest road races in the country. Dean shared his thoughts on the event and the future direction of his race.

COOL RUNNING: How many years have you been involved with the race and have you been involved as the race director the entire time?

TIM DEAN: Right from the beginning. I started the race five years ago by getting approval from our Senior Marketing Executive, Donna Lencki, who is a runner. She gave me the thumbs up and approved the budget for that first year. We haven't looked back since.

COOL RUNNING: This must be a very expensive event to put on. I would guess as the numbers increase, so does the cost.

TIM DEAN: Actually, it is fairly expensive to put on, but we have been able to recoup some of it back as the years have gone by because we have been able to template materials. We also have gotten more assistance and support from our co-sponsors as the event has grown. They [co-sponsors] wanted to be more involved. In some ways we have realized economy of scale and because of the high level of awareness, and the popularity of the event, we are getting some breaks from vendors too. We are actually doing pretty well with it financially, and, of course, the more people we have involved, the more we get back from entry fees. This does help offset the cost some.

COOL RUNNING: How many runners did you have the first year?

TIM DEAN: Sixteen hundred and that was the largest first year race in New Hampshire. It seems like we have been setting records every year, but the second year we did not set an overall record [Editor's note: That record was still held then by the Salem Screen Five]. By year three we did set the all-time attendance record.

COOL RUNNING: How many runners did you have this year?

TIM DEAN: We had 6300 total entrants. I don't know the total finishers yet, but in terms of total entrants to be over 6000 is pretty darn good. We're very happy.

COOL RUNNING: The first year you put on the race, did you ever expect it to be this big?

TIM DEAN: No, I didn't. In fact, the first year we held the event, I remember being down on Elm Street and standing on the fence looking. It looked like a sea of runners at that point. I mean sixteen hundred people and I thought to myself, "I've created a monster." That was in the first year. So to see the volume, the actual magnitude of it now, it still boggles my mind. It's great! It's fantastic! We're just so thrilled, and of course, the bigger it gets the more money we can give to our charity every year. This year it's United Way of New Hampshire. Their Success by Six Program gives assistance to children in the different communities in New Hampshire - educational assistance and with health and medical care. You couldn't have a better cause.

COOL RUNNING: I noticed a check over there for $20,000.

TIM DEAN: Yes, $20,000. We donate three dollars per participant [to the charity] from this event.

COOL RUNNING: Is [being race director] a full time job for you?

TIM DEAN: It is not a full time job. It takes about seven or eight months of planning each year.

COOL RUNNING: Where do you go from here?

TIM DEAN: I think we are going to just keep continuing to build on the momentum of this event. We're going to keep trying to get bigger and better. I don't think we've seen the end, by any means. You know growing by almost a thousand per year is a pretty good rate. One thing we are going to be looking at is the venue. Is this venue going to hold us if we continue to increase by 500 to 700 runners and walkers per year? Probably not. Although we love it here at Veteran's Park and I don't know where else we would go. We'll continue to try and come up with innovative ways to manage the event better with the increased volume; you know by doing different things like our toll booth system for the finish line, which Bob Teschek designed. It works great with ten lanes. Then there's the event fencing and the corralling of people into the park so it goes from one side to the other through the refreshment line. We're moving people from one side of the park to the other and utilizing all the space. We continue to try and do things like that to really maximize what we have. We don't want to leave downtown Manchester. If two years from now we have 8800 people here, to be realistic, we're going to have to look.

COOL RUNNING: How about the airport (laugh)?

TIM DEAN: That's one of the things we did consider. We actually looked at it as a possible site last year. We realistically have to look at other possibilities.

COOL RUNNING: Congratulations, Tim.

TIM DEAN: Thanks.