As a race director, few things in the race planning lifecycle can be as exciting and enjoyable as designing a brand new race course. From picking a start area to mapping out race distances and figuring out where to place amenities, such as aid stations, race course design constitutes an important first step in shaping your race’s identity - one that will likely affect all aspects of your race experience, safety planning and logistics for years to come. So, how do you nail this critical first step in making your race a reality? How do you design a course that is as enjoyable for participants on the main stage, as it is safe, practical and easily accessible for you, your team and emergency services behind the scenes? That’s what we’ll be discussing today with my guest, DMSE Sports’ Director of Events, Meryl Leventon. As industry people go, Meryl’s a Swiss army knife when it comes to race planning and race day ops, and with tons of experience and a plethora of events under her belt, Meryl will help lay out for us the most important principles of effective race course design, from designing for speed and a great race experience to delivering a course that respects host communities and works well in emergencies, should things happen to go wrong around the race. In this episode: Deciding on a type of course: know your town, know your marketWorking with local authorities on approving your coursePicking and planning out your start/finish areasDesigning your course for a specific distanceWhen you should (and needn't) certify your courseHow to combine different race distances on the same course (and how to think about start times)Fixing course bottlenecks with a good wave start planResponsible course planning: communicating with and minimizing disruption for local communitiesPublishing race day road closures through Google Maps, TomTom and other popular mapping sourcesIncorporating spectator zones in your course planDesigning for safety: emergency planning, access lanes and coordinating with emergency servicesLaying out alternate course contingencies in case of weather disruptionDesigning your course on Google MapsMeryl's lululemon 10K Scottsdale Google Map: Public version: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Ousob6UVaQdHUBuUDL6tByBZfwdPx_A&usp=sharing City, police and internal team version: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1M9T2BNTHaEo-6JIMmRZkgjuXlXfwx6g&usp=sharingThanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com. You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com. You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.