Joe Gigas has faced a mountain of challenges over the past year as Race Director for the official New Jersey Marathon. Super Storm Sandy, the loss of his house, diversions on the course, roads ripped up, town budget cut backs, but through it all, this May the race was to be one of hope and rebuilding for the community. The amended race course was shaping up, the Health and Fitness Expo at Monmouth Park has New Jersey health sponsors like Barnabas Health Systems and Novo Nordisk, participation for the full marathon and smaller events were rising, and the vision of the event becoming an even bigger harbinger of positive things to come was falling nicely into place.
Then Monday came, and suddenly marathons, road races, any event with large gathering of people in open spaces suddenly came into question. Many events, but not the New Jersey Marathon. Why? Gigas and his senior staff have been working with police and other officials for months even more than other years, because of all the changes and potential risks along The Shore for the amended course. Instead of driving people away, the race, on a day when there will be more road races across the country than any other day except July 4, will now serve an even larger purpose…rejuvenate the Shore and remind those affected from far and near by the tragedy at The Boston Marathon that these races are about the triumph of the human spirit, and the destruction of the human condition.
So after consulting with all officials, the Marathon went on the offensive using social media and email to remind all interested that the race course was safe and secure and that the organizers have always worked with law enforcement to make sure safety is a top concern. They went the extra mile is talking directly about a larger presence without creating panic…business as usual as the message, and it was communicated very clearly. Gigas and crew did not go out and seek publicity for their race about this issue, they took inbound calls and went right to participants to tell their story in the best possible way. The decisions were clear, immediate and very effective as true leadership is supposed to be in the time of crisis. It reassured brands, runners and the surrounding community that the race was going to be a positive and that business was continuing on, with the obvious deference and respect paid to those traumatized in so many ways over the past year.
The carefully thought out messaging was effective and quickly got race officials back to focusing on the task at hand, pulling off a great start to summer for the community in the form of a healthy and impactful event, a spring board to positive energy, not negativity and panic. They were not tilting at windmills or ricking people’s lives for the sake of a brand or a business, they were making a smart decision aimed at a greater good, one that everyone in Boston or other places that have been hit with tragedy could respect and admire.
So the New Jersey Marathon will go on and will get the summer started, a great message by their leadership to a populous that was nervous but will now hopefully be reassured that they are as safe and secure as they can possibly be and that they can be part of come May 5. Simple effective messaging goes a long way.
National Golf Day Lobbies On The Hill…