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Alm: Experienced race director more than pays for himself 03/24/2001 
Tom Short's job is to worry.
As race director for Saturday's Uptown Run and Trolley Walk, Short spent the past few weeks fretting about scaffolding, sound systems, safety pins, portable toilets and hundreds of other details that go into a running event.
"The adrenaline rush comes on race day," he said during a break from this week's preparations. "You've worked on all these little details, then the starting pistol goes off and thousands of people take off."
Short was making a good living in graphic arts and printing when he started running races 15 years ago, then signed on as a volunteer on the West End Run, the Uptown Run's initial incarnation. After five years at the water stations and handing out bananas and bagels, he worked his way up to race director after the woman doing the job left.
"They had been paying a director," he said. "I just inherited her salary."
Over the next decade, he formed Tom Short Productions and gradually built a business out of what had started as fun and good works. This year, he expects to gross $120,000 organizing a dozen races, including events for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's Race for the Cure in Dallas, San Antonio and Winston-Salem, N.C.
"He's invaluable," said Linda Kay Peterson, chairman of the Komen foundation, a non-profit whose affiliates stage 111 U.S. and three foreign races. "We highly encourage all our affiliates to hire a Tom Short."
Matt Lucas, president of Luke's Locker, a store for running gear and Uptown Run sponsor, said Short's thoroughness created superior race-day presentations.
"He's able to do all the legwork that volunteers just don't have the time to do," Lucas said.
In a sports market where professional teams bring in tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars, Short carved out his own niche, doing on a small scale what the staffs of the Cowboys, Rangers, Mavericks and Stars do.
Professional race directors are common in California, where good weather creates a market for running events all year long. Short's occupation is unusual in Dallas, where weather limits most racing events to the spring and fall and volunteers operate many events.
"It's 100 percent of my time," Short said. "People are always saying to me, 'Do you really do this for a living?' A lot of people are surprised I get paid to do what I do."
A running event is a giant jigsaw puzzle. It involves laying out a course approved by U.S. Track and Field; setting up tents and scaffolding at the start and finish lines; spreading the word in brochures and posters; selling sponsorships; and arranging security, electricity and sound. Short will take control of it all – if that's what the client wants.
The Uptown Run, which begins on McKinney Avenue, comprises five-kilometer and five-mile races as well as wheelchair, walkers' and children's events. After the race, people gather at the finish line for snacks and entertainment.
"Events like the Uptown Run get more difficult all the time," said Webber Beall, a real-estate executive who has been Uptown Run's event chairman for 15 years. "It's more costly. There are more moving parts. It takes more time, effort and resources every year."
Custom preparations
The huge Komen race in Dallas, which draws 38,000 runners, celebrities and local television coverage, requires year-round attention. A smaller race, like the Uptown Run, takes at least three months to organize, culminating in long days that start at 2 a.m. as the event approaches.
Even with the best of planning, things can go wrong. At one race, a generator conked out a minutes before the start, a glitch Short rectified with duct tape.
A few years ago, an ice storm struck the night before the West End Run, forcing Short to adjust the schedule to minimize runners' exposure to bone-chilling cold.
Most running events raise money for charities. Once all the bills are paid, for example, the Uptown Run is expected to contribute $90,000 to Special Olympics Texas, Beall said.
Short's services raise the cost of staging events, but organizers say the race director more than pays for himself.
He bolsters the bottom line by striking good deals with suppliers, working to increase sponsor value and helping avoid costly mistakes that might ruin the day for participants.
"Tom is extremely cost-effective for us," Beall said. "He brings efficiencies. He brings best practices [from other races]."
Short wants to make a good living as a race director, but he never forgets he's working for charities. In fact, deciding how much to charge was one of the hardest parts of establishing the business.
"I'm just now coming into my own in that respect," said Short, who declined to divulge fees for any individual races. "I'm finally getting to the point where I know how to price, and I'm recognized as an authority. What they're paying for is my experience."
Staff writer Richard Alm reports on sports business for The Dallas Morning News. His e-mail address is .
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