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www.rakmarathon.org records surge in traffic
Ras Al Khaimah October 7, 2007: With only four months to go until the second edition of the annual RAK International Half Marathon, the internet is once more playing an integral part. In its first year, the official event website welcomed nearly 12,000 unique visitors recording over 147,000 page views and those numbers are set to increase substantially heading towards the second staging of the race on February 8, 2008.
The website was designed and built in-house by the event organizers, Premier Marathons and last year picked up its first accolade, the sliver award (2nd) at the UAE Web Awards.
Race Director Nathan Clayton is passionate not only about the race but the website as well; “We believe that just having a presence on the internet will not necessarily help; most events can create a simple website but we find that most are only updated around the date of the event itself and often contain only the basic information, directing your queries elsewhere. We know our website performance is intrinsically linked with our event performance and it has been structured to not only provide information but to handle logistical aspects of the organization as well. Registration is now handled primarily online (66% of registrations last year), last week we launched the online media center, our downloads section includes volunteer, charity fundraising and registration forms as well as race photos, nutrition advice, training tips and other useful materials. We would strongly encourage all events to put more into their websites in order to get more back out – domain awareness is key – 96.1% of our users accessed us directly by knowing the address to go to. We constantly innovate what our site offers so we encourage everyone to bookmark the site and check back regularly.”
Along with enjoying 99.9% uptime to service the sites users in the best way possible, the site also allows the event organizers to handle queries efficiently which means that 90% of queries are responded to within 15 minutes with a maximum response time of 24 hours - 7 days a week.
The site also looks after your pocket choosing to provide registrants with a local online payment gateway which accepts payment in UAE Dirhams. This is preferable and cheaper than other sites which divert the user to a European or American payment service provider which then charges in a foreign currency with exchange rate differences payable by the registrant. The RAK International Half Marathon is the only such event in the Middle East to offer local online registration. Clayton noted that “As we donate 50% of ALL registration fees to charity, it’s important to us that everyone benefits as much as possible from an efficient and effective event structure.”
From registering to take part, finding out about running for charity, becoming a volunteer around the time of the event to reading about last year’s race, the website has extensive information for runners, spectators, media and supporters alike.
For registration information and to know more about the race itself visit www.rakmarathon.org. Registration closes on November 31, 2007.The RAK International Half Marathon is organized by Premier Marathons and supports the Paul Tergat Foundation.
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