Between March and November every year, runners on the roads around Columbia become a common sight. Even in Missouri — less than ideal territory for race planners — there’s an average of four races per weekend across the peak months and as many as 15 events in a single weekend.

Traditionally, runs have been associated with charities and not-for-profit organizations such as Susan G Komen’s Race for the Cure or the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, but of late, private companies have started holding their own runs. Companies such as Columbia’s Ultramax Sports are holding runs around the state and, as technologies such as electronic timing have made putting on these events more complex and cost intensive, are consulting on and producing events for the charities, a niche filled by another Columbia business, ReadySetResults.

The marathon niche

ReadySetResults and Ultramax both provide a gamut of services for organizations looking for help putting on their own events. Both companies can provide everything from just electronic chip timing to acting as race directors and providing full setup and teardown services on race day. At Ultramax, baseline pricing runs from around $1,200 for electronic chip timing to about $5,000 to produce a whole race, with an additional fee per runner over an agreed number. Marketing services are available through both companies as well.

Mark Livesay, the founder and owner of Ultramax Sports, didn’t initially plan to get into the running business. The graduate of (then Southwest) Missouri State University came to Columbia hoping to go to medical school and ended up with a job at the Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation, where he worked for 22 years while running triathlons and marathons on the side. That’s not to say running wasn’t important to Livesay. He and his wife ran more than 15 Iron Man triathlons together and even competed in the 2002 World Championship in Hawaii after qualifying in Brazil during their honeymoon. “Racing was a part of our culture and a part of our lives,” Livesay says.

In the late ’90s, Livesay was working the finances at the foundation and needed new ways to raise money. “I was going to these races, and a lot of them were for charity,” he says. “So I said, ‘Why don’t we do one? I have enough experience racing, I can pull this off.’” The idea evolved into one of mid-Missouri’s first triathlons. The first Race for Sight, held at the old Wilson’s Fitness location near Stadium and Forum, only drew about 125 people, but in a city with as few triathletes as Columbia at that time, the outlook was bright. Within a few years, the race outgrew its first venue, moved to the University of Missouri campus and changed its name to TriZou. The race is still held every year in May and celebrated its 15th running this year.

Encouraged by the success of TriZou, Livesay began doing more fundraising runs with the foundation, but around 2007, the charity was looking to get out of the events business. “The money was OK, but it wasn’t really big enough for a medical charity to devote that kind of time and energy to it,” Livesay says. “It just wasn’t fitting into the culture of a medical charity.”

However, around the same time, Livesay and his wife, Amy, had just opened a running store called The Starting Block, and they’d noticed that the more runs held in Columbia, the better the store did. With this in mind, Livesay made one of the toughest decisions of his life. “I ended up coming to the decision that after 22 years [working at the eye research foundation], I was going to take a monster pay cut and offer to buy the events out,” he says. And so Ultramax was born.

Race to the finish

Combined with the added stress of opening a second store in Springfield, Ultramax’s first year was a tenuous time, but unflinching work ethic — about 85 hours a week from his home office — built a strong base, including running four Ultramax events that year and consulting on another four. Since then, business had more than quadrupled with Ultramax currently producing about 20 races and helping on approximately 70 other events and employing 10 full-time workers with another 30 or so part-timers. The business has taken its toll on Livesay, however. Since he struck out in 2008, he hasn’t run a single race.

ReadySetResults also came about organically. The company started in spring of 2010, an outgrowth out of owner Patrick Hanson’s time race directing for the Columbia Track Club. A competitive runner through high school and college, Hanson was a member of the club’s elite team while continuing to run competitively after graduating from MU. He began race directing for CTC following that, and after he had enough events under his belt, several small organizations came to him for help putting on their own races. Currently, the company provides services ranging from only timing all the way up to helping with marketing and finding a printer for the race’s T-shirts.

Hanson continues to handle timing services for the CTC’s larger events, such as the Heart of America Marathon — one of the most difficult marathons in the country — held every September, but most of his business comes from nonprofits and small organizations. One of ReadySetResults’s largest races is the half marathon and 10K held yearly by the Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival. The event isn’t a simple, traditional run either. Music by the festival’s artists is played along the course, which begins at Flat Branch Park downtown and loops down along Stadium Boulevard and the MKT Trail near Forum Nature Area. Free beer and barbecue await runners at the finish line.

These kinds of extras, however, are becoming more common as races look to set themselves apart in an increasingly crowded market. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon series, which began in 1998 in San Diego and has live music every mile, was among the first to provide these trappings. With multiple 5Ks every weekend, even small cities such as Columbia are experiencing market fatigue. Many of the inquiries Hanson gets are companies asking how they can get their races to stand out. “You’ve just got to be a bit more careful about when you plan your event,” Hanson says. According to Livesay, for a charity race to be successful in the current climate, they need to draw 750 to 1,000 runners to cover costs and allow sponsorship money to go to fundraising.

Running the business

Although traditional runs such as 5Ks make up the bulk of business for Ultramax and ReadySetResults, themed races have become a force in the industry in recent years. Mud runs, where participants must navigate obstacles like climbing walls, mud pits and even electrified wires, have been some of the most successful of the themed races. National companies Warrior Dash, Spartan Racing and Tough Mudder are among the national leaders in this new genre of events, drawing as many 15,000 participants for a single race.

But according to Livesay, the success of mud runs isn’t just in the obstacles but rather the whole experience. Runners often register in teams, encouraging groups of friends to race together. At the finish line, the racers are greeted with live music and free beer to celebrate their accomplishment. “They’ve made these things into productions,” Livesay says “It’s a spectacle; the run is secondary.”

Mud runs aren’t the only themed runs either. The Color Run, an untimed 5K race where runners are showered with paint powder each kilometer, has also become a national success, holding events in 200 cities in countries around the world. Glow runs, held at night and featuring neon lights and “rave music” along the course such as the Electric Run have also become popular as of late.

One of the keys to the success of the themed runs has been strong use of social media marketing, particularly on Facebook. The larger mud run organizations and The Color Run have Facebook followers numbering into the millions; compare that to the Boston Marathon, whose page has about 120,000 “likes.”

“They’re social media geniuses,” Livesay says. Livesay attributes this success to the run’s high visual appeal and large, if hard to pin down, marketing budgets.

Ultramax’s Epic Mud Run, held at the start of September, is the local business’s foray into obstacle racing. Its initial event last year drew around 3,000 runners, and this year’s event is  expected to host even more. In just its second year, the event is already adding a new twist: an opportunity to run the same race in the dark. Epic After Dark will also feature a new “zombie zone.” Ultimately, Livesay says, the key for success in the running business nowadays is to come up with a unique idea, be the first one to bring it to the market and “make sure everyone knows it’s awesome.”