The two weeks before race day aren't about big decisions. They're about execution. Confirming, reminding, printing, charging, walking the venue. Boring stuff that makes race morning calm instead of chaotic.
At a glance
| When | What |
|---|---|
| 2 weeks out | Confirm every volunteer in writing. Audit supplies. Send parent reminder. Test the timer with the track in the venue. Walk the space. |
| 1 week out | Close registration. Send second parent reminder with arrival details. Print signage and schedule. Confirm food. Charge every device. Prep awards. |
| Day before | Walk the day on paper. Pack the race-day toolkit. Confirm setup access. Send the "see you tomorrow" message. Sleep early. |
| Race morning | Arrive 2 hours before check-in. Set up track. Run a test heat. Brief volunteers in person. Open doors on time. |
The rest of this post is the detail behind each row. Skip to whichever phase you're in.
Part of a series. This pairs with the free planning checklist for first-time chairs.
Two weeks out
This is your last good window to fix big problems. After this, you're in execution mode.
Confirm every volunteer. You should have a written list by now. Email or text each person: their role, what time they're needed, what they'll be doing. Get a confirmation back. People drop out — better to learn now than the day before.
Audit your supplies. Walk through the day in your head and list every physical item you'll need. Trophies, ribbons, tape, calibration weight for the scale, extension cords, the scale itself, printed signage, garbage bags, snacks. Put a name next to each one — who brings it.
Send a parent communication. One message: registration deadline reminder, what to bring, what NOT to bring, arrival time, parking. Short. Parents skim.
Test the timer with the track in the venue. Not in someone's basement. Set up the actual track on the actual gym floor with the actual cords. Run a test car. Look for surprises. The single best use of two hours you'll spend all month.
Walk the venue with the day in mind. Where's check-in? Where's impound? Where do spectators stand? Where's the awards table? Where does food set up? You're not committing to anything yet — you're forming a layout in your head.
One week out
One week out, execution starts. Most things should be locked.
Close registration. This is the day you stop accepting new sign-ups. Pull the final list, sort by den, confirm every racer has the info you need.
Send the parent reminder. Different message from the two-weeks-out one. Specific: arrival time, weigh-in window, what to bring, parking. Re-link the rules for any parent who still hasn't built their car (there will be at least one).
Print everything on paper. The schedule, large enough to read across the room. Signage for check-in, impound, awards, restrooms. A backup printed copy of the rules. Yes, even with everything digital — phones die. Paper doesn't.
Confirm the food plan. Who's bringing what, when it arrives. Hungry kids mid-awards is a problem you can solve a week in advance.
Charge and inspect every device. Tablets, phones, cameras, the timer's laptop. Replace anything not holding charge — you still have time.
Prep the awards table. Sort trophies and ribbons by category. Confirm engraving pickup. If something's missing, you still have time to order a replacement.
The day before
Setup day. Use it for the cognitive work that's hard to do at 7 a.m.
Walk the day on paper. Open your schedule. Check-in at X. First heat at Y. Lunch at Z. Awards at W. Look for tight transitions and pre-solve them. If lunch is right before awards, who's clearing the food area?
Pack the race-day toolkit. One bag or bin: tape (masking and painter's), spare batteries every size, screwdrivers, extra extension cords, calibration weight, a sharpie, blank index cards, a roll of ribbon for ad-hoc awards, a phone charger. You'll dip into this twenty times and be glad it exists.
Confirm venue access. If you have the night before, use it — even just to drop off equipment. If not, confirm what time the building opens and who has the key.
Send the final message. "See you tomorrow at [time]. [Location]. Bring your car ready to weigh in." That's it. No new info. Parents read this one.
Sleep early. Chairs who slept seven hours run a noticeably better event than chairs who slept four. Ignore the temptation to do "one more thing" at 11 p.m.
Race morning, before doors open
The race officially starts when the first heat runs, but the difference between calm and chaotic gets decided in the two hours before that.
Arrive at least two hours before check-in. Every race uncovers at least one surprise: missing extension cord, sticky lane, locked back door, timer's laptop refusing to wake up. Two hours of buffer means fixing without panic. One hour means panic.
Set up the track first. Longest single task. Everything else can flex if the track is slow. Run a test heat with a designated test car.
Brief volunteers as they arrive. Walk each one to their station. Explain the flow. Five minutes of in-person briefing prevents an hour of confused questions during the race.
Open the doors on time. Five minutes early is fine — a small kindness that lowers everyone's stress level.
What changes when something breaks
Two weeks out, you have time to recover from most problems. One week out, your options narrow. The day before, you're working with what you have.
The general rule: find problems as early as possible. The test heat, the venue walkthrough, the supply audit — none of these are because you expect everything to work. They're because you expect something not to, and you want to find out while you can fix it.
A race where everything went perfectly is usually a race where the chair caught and fixed three things before anyone else noticed. That's the job.
Working through the rest of your race planning? Grab the free planning checklist →
