The Ironman Operations Trifecta

As the race director for Ironman 70.3 Traverse City I’m fortunate to have a strong leadership team around me. I’m not the only one leading up the planning for the race. There are three of us: a regional director, an operations director, and me, the race director.

The regional director, Frank, is in charge of about a dozen Ironman and Rock ‘n Roll events in the Midwest and Great Plains. It’s his responsibility to make sure all events run smoothly and successfully.

Tim, the operations director, is in charge of operations for all of those dozen or so events. Tim makes sure things like forklifts, barricades, and fencing are all in place, as well as working with the race directors to make sure they have their operations tasks accounted for.

Finally there’s me, the race director. As a race director I work closely with Frank and Tim on all aspects of the operation of the event. I’m the boots on the ground. I’ve got the local knowledge. One of my biggest responsibilities is writing manuals – lots of manuals – for the staff that will work at the race.

One great feature of having three of us leading the race, is that it assures that even if one of us gets sick on race week, or some other event happens that precludes is from being at the event, it’s not a problem. The other two can manage. With events as large as the ones that Ironman puts on, this is critical.