Setting the Pace in Race Planning

It is a life in motion for Herb Massinger, who has spent the last 16 years encouraging large groups of people to get up early in the morning and run.

The 41-year-old Dana Point resident has coordinated more than 700 events in Orange County--mostly running races--since he created Race Pace Promotions in 1981. A star gymnast in high school and college, Massinger says he stumbled into the business while working at an athletic shoe store.

“The majority of my customers were tennis players and runners, and I became fascinated with the world of runners and what they did. They were always going to races and events. It became more and more of an interest.”

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Massinger was a regular at local running events by 1980, participating in some, but mostly observing how they were operated.

“What was being done here was rather archaic. We were still doing tongue-depressor finish lines in Orange County. When the runners crossed the finish line, they were given a number written on a tongue depressor. It was accurate enough for little races, but for the larger races where hundreds of people a minute are crossing the finish line, that system wouldn’t work.”

Other race operators outside Orange County had begun using computers and other more sophisticated methods for recording race times and results.

“I saw a need in Orange County to do some things better than what had been done,” he said.

In 1981, Massinger thought he was ready to set an example of how 5K and 10K runs should be operated in Orange County. He created the Super Bowl Stampede in Irvine’s William R. Mason Regional Park, expecting to attract about 300 runners. Some 200 runners had preregistered, but to his astonishment, another 600 runners showed up on race day.

“I thought it would be fun for people to come out and run a race on Super Bowl morning before the game. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. It was an absolute disaster.

“None of the races started on time. I ran out of T-shirts and everything. I had people screaming at me all morning. I went into it with these high expectations. I thought I was going to do so much better than all these other races I’d seen, and I actually did horrible. I seriously wondered if I should try and reach everybody and refund their money.”

One famous runner from Germany thought he had set a world record during the event, until Massinger delivered the bad news: Starting lines for the 5K and 10K runs had been accidentally switched.

“We had to tell him that he really didn’t set a new record because the course was too short. That day was a jam-packed learning experience.”

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Massinger recovered and his business grew.

“It’s been a seven-day-a-week business. We have to be in the office between 6 and 7 in the morning sometimes to get our East Coast phone calls, and we don’t get out of here until 11 at night. Then on weekends we’re producing the events. For years, I was doing 50 events a year. Every weekend I was up at 3:30 in the morning. It’s an intense business.”

Massinger is trying to cut back on his schedule a bit. He ran 41 events last year and has 28 events booked for 1997, including what he considers the Holy Grail of race promotions: a marathon. He has more than $100,000 invested in the Jan. 26 Pacific Shoreline Marathon, a 26-mile figure-eight course on Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach.

Massinger’s last Orange County marathon was in 1985, an event sponsored by the county and the Irvine Co. But no major sponsors came forward to keep the marathon going. The county’s most recent marathon was at Disneyland in March 1995, which also failed to become an annual event.

“In the industry of road race promotion, to have your own marathon is the big one. I thought I had it in 1985, but that one went by the wayside. It’s taken me 12 years to get it back.”

He is adding the marathon to Huntington Beach’s annual 5K and 10K runs, which he has coordinated for the last two years. About 3,000 runners are expected to participate, including 500 marathoners.

Massinger’s dream is to become the father of an annual Orange County marathon, which he is convinced could bring millions of dollars to host cities. But he has found city governments reluctant to invest taxpayer dollars and wary of road closures.

“There are going to be some people impacted by shutting down [Pacific] Coast Highway, but I’m hoping they will recognize that this is being done successfully everywhere. They shut down the Golden Gate Bridge; they shut down the Coronado Bridge; they do the New York City Marathon and shut Verrazano and five bridges there. I just don’t want this to go the way of all the other marathons that have been attempted in Orange County. I’m hoping we can establish this marathon and keep it here to stay.”

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Profile: Herb Massinger

Age: 41

Hometown: Medford, Ore.

Residence: Dana Point

Education: Bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology and sports medicine, Cal State Fullerton

Background: A CIF all-around champion gymnast in high school and All-America parallel bar gymnast at Cal State Fullerton; former district manager for Second Sole athletic shoe stores; director of children’s gymnastic program in late 1970s for the Cal State Fullerton Recreation Department

Race promotions: Began Race Pace Promotions in 1981 and has coordinated more than 700 events, including the Orange County Olympic Torch Run (held in 1984 and 1985 to raise money for the U.S. Olympic Committee), 1985 Orange County marathon, 1990 Fashion Island Cycle Fest; coordinates annual Turkey Trot run in Dana Point and Rudolf Runoff in Laguna Niguel; is planning revival of the Orange County marathon as director of Jan. 26 Pacific Shoreline Marathon in Huntington Beach

Marathon dreams: “I’ve been trying for over a decade to get a marathon back in Orange County. If I can survive economically this year doing it, Orange County’s going to have a great annual event over time.”

Source: Herb Massinger; Researched by RUSS LOAR / For The Times