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For organisers

Organising a running event: the checklist.

From the first idea to the day after your run: what you need to arrange, and when.

Updated on 31 October 2026 · 3 min read

Well in advance: date and course

Choose a date and check which runs take place nearby on the same day. Draw a course that is safe and needs few roads closed. A course of several laps needs fewer marshals than one big loop.

Talk to your municipality in good time. It decides whether you may run on public roads, and on what conditions.

Permissions

  • The municipality. Apply for permission through your municipality's events desk. The deadline differs per municipality: one month ahead for one, three months for another. Check your municipality's website.
  • A route through nature or along regional roads. For running events and routed tours, Sport Vlaanderen runs a platform for routed activities (Routegebonden activiteiten). You enter your route once, and it goes to the municipalities, the Agency for Nature and Forests (Natuur en Bos) and the Agency for Roads and Traffic (Wegen en Verkeer), among others. Since 1 September 2026 this goes through the Sport Vlaanderen e-loket.
  • The Sport Vlaanderen deadline. Your application must be complete and approved at least 42 days before your event. From 35 days before, your route can no longer cross land of Natuur en Bos or Wegen en Verkeer. Read it at Sport Vlaanderen (in Dutch).
  • Insurance. Ask your insurer whether your club's liability insurance covers the event, and what is needed for your participants and volunteers.

Traffic marshals

Where your course crosses or follows a road, marshals (signaalgevers) direct the traffic. Agree with your municipality and the police where they should stand and what they expect from your marshals. The new Belgian road code, which comes into force on 1 June 2027, describes what a marshal wears and carries: a reflective safety vest with the word signaalgever on the front and back, and a disc showing the C3 road sign. Read the text on wegcode.be (in Dutch).

Entries

  • Choose your distances and start times. A children's run is best given its own start time.
  • Set price steps: a lower price for those who sign up early. That way you know sooner how many runners are coming. Read also how to set your entry fee.
  • Decide whether to cap each distance, and whether there will be a waiting list.
  • Set up a cash desk for people who sign up on the day.

With Revena you set all of this up in your dashboard, with a template for a road race or a trail run. Entries for your fun run.

Timing

Want times and results? Work with a timing company. Revena does not do timing itself, but you upload the results by race number, as CSV or Excel, and everyone who finished gets an email with their time the next day.

The last week

  • Revena sends the practical information to your participants seven days before your run, and a reminder the day before.
  • Print the start list, the pick-up list and the labels for the race numbers.
  • Give your volunteers the PIN for the cash desk and the scanner. They can practise with the trial scanner.

The day itself and after

Make a clear spot for picking up race numbers and for the cash desk. After the run, thank your volunteers, put the results online and check in your figures how many runners came back from last year. To prepare your next edition: bring participants back with emails.