Derek Knabe Portfolio

2023

Race Director – Producer

The Grandview Mile, part of the Tour De Grandview hosted by the city of Grandview. Hosting a road mile with over $4,000 in prize money awarded in the elite section and an open section that topped out at 110 participants. With Fleet Feet Columbus as a partner I cold-called the city of Grandview with a proposal for the event. The Tour De Grandview had seen a recent decline in participants due to gravel racing becoming more popular and was willing to try something new this year, insert a foot race in between a packed schedule of cycling races.

The gist was that hosting a road mile is fun and exiting for the runners as well as the spectators. Hiring medical/police personnel and shutting down roads is expensive and in most cases would make that not financially feasible. Lucky enough that the Tour De Grandview would already have those resources in place and have the roads shut down, so it would be financially doable to just buy a 60 minute time slot from them and use it to host our race. Bringing a whole new set of eye balls to the race by marketing to the running community instead of just the cycling community. Mutually beneficial in pumping up an already existing event and cutting out many of the expenses for a stand-alone race. The time schedule of hosting multiple road mile heats in between the cycling races worked perfectly and partnering with a local brewery, Hoof Hearted, made sure everyone of drinking age had a crispy beer waiting for them after running.