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Hello
I work in the Events Team at a national charity and I am looking to have items donated for our runners goodie bags. We have events running throughout the year, including the Great North Run and London Marathon, and we are keen to improve the quality of the items in our goodie bags.
I am now on a mission to ask companies to donate small items for our goody bags, so it would be really helpful to have runners' opinions on what they would like to receive after running a 5k/10k/half marathon/marathon.
I have already secured a donation of energy drinks and we supply every runner with a 10% discount voucher for Up & Running when they sign up to run for us. The other ideas I've come up with already are:
- Energy gel sachets
- Cereal/energy bars
- Sample sized deodorants/anti-perspirents/body spray/shower gel
Any ideas/feedback you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Vicky
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Comments
I'm not bothered about goody bags - why not get your sponsors to give you cash for your cause, rather than a load of stuff, half of which gets thrown away?
I certainly don't choose which event to do based on the quality of the goody bag.
Bar of choc would go down a treat. T shirts that fit would be good too ... did GNR last year and the smallest T Shirt is huge. I'm a size 10/12 and there are a lot of runners smaller than me (esp elite half marathoners) so an XS Tshirt would be nice.
Maybe travel sized products rather than samples - tend to just bin the samples if I'm honest as its more hassle getting the stuff out of the packaging than its worth.
Baby massage rollers to relive tired muscles maybe.
I'm afraid nothing on the list floats my boat and, like Wilkie, I don't choose events on the basis of the goody bag. A medal or other memento for finishing, something to drink at the finish (water in summer, hopefully something like hot soup in winter), and that does for me. Maybe a T-shirt if the organizers/sponsors have any knocking around.
I usually empty the goody bag into the bin on the train home (sorry!). Promotional samples (lip salve, cereal, gel, antiseptic wipes, anti-cellulite cream /wtf?/) get ditched immediately although I have in the past kept teabags.
I have done charity events in the past and thought that the money would have been better used for the cause than for various fripperies.
Choccie - yum
Bottle of water.
any sample sized anything - lets face it variety is the spice of life, I'd hate to get the same thing in every goody bag.
think about the length of the race and how easy it is for the runner to access assistance at the end of a race - I liked the goody bag at VLM - had the recovery shake and used the muscle rub before I upped and away - oh and drank the water - best thing.
Recovery bars would be a good idea, or other things to eat. Echo micro-dots view on chocolate bars. I've had a banana in my goody bag before now and that was brilliant. Wet wipes too, to rub over hot sweaty faces post run would be appreciated.
The only race t-shirts I keep are technical ones, so perhaps no cotton t-shirts?
something to eat is generally a good move - not 'sports' guf though, however I am with wilkie on the 'dont choose events for a goody bag'.
That said, a halfway decent bag is something that you will notice on race reviews - comments related to 'rubbish goody bag'. Leaflets and what-not are largely ignored.
A drink (fruit juice or milky) and something to eat (sweet and savoury) would be a good all rounder in my opinion.
You will never please everyone though, so dotn even bother trying!!
I like jelly babies.
Please stop putting bloody nut products in my goody bags because epipens hurt when they go in your thigh....
But really I'm not bothered about the goody bag. Had some interesting stuff over the years including big bags of Mars planets and a jar of cranberry sauce that smashed all over the inside of the bag!
I would DEFINITELY stay away from the glass products.
You will never please everyone though, so dotn even bother trying!!
Ain't that the truth ...
Thanks everyone, that's all really helpful.
For those of you worried about the charity wasting money on goodie bag items, I must stress that we will be asking for items to be donated from companies, and will not be spending money on them.
The people we are giving the goody bags too will have already raised lots of money in sponsorship for us, so it is intended as a small token of appreciation. They will also have received running vests from us before the event and a finishers T-shirt from the organisers in most cases, so another T-shirt might be overkill, as well as expensive!
Nick L, you make a very good point, it's impossible to please everyone, so as long as we have drinks and choccie bars (everyone, unsurprisingly, seems united on that one!) anything else will, hopefully, be a bonus. We'll keep leaflets to a minimum too
Suppose a Rolex watch is out of the question?
Anything that is immediately edible is fine with me. Cereal bars, fruit, chocolate.
I used to be involved with organising a half marafun and when we had really good things donated we would drop them in goody bags at random. So one person would get an MP3 player and someone else would get voucher for a local running shop.
Pot noodle
(just kidding! we got those at the Dublin marathon a few years ago)
I seem to be out of step here but I LOVE a good goody bag! Best things we ever got in goody bags were a mug with the race date and logo on it, towels (ditto on logo etc) car stickers saying you've competed the race, a small pack of haribo sweets, salt and vinegar crisps - they really hit the spot!
I would like a charity to simply appreciate any and all money which I raise for them rather than setting me a expectation or requirement for a place. I will not run at all for charitys which do this on principle and no goodybag will suffice.
Having said that I would like a goody bag with something to deter all those damn paid 'chuggers' in my local high street asking me for my credit card details.
While I may seem like a charity humbug, I do give away a percentage of my wages each month to charity and run for charitys which I have personal connection with.
Personally I'm not keen on them either - partly because they are usually plastic - eccup 10 did a good one in 09 though - it was a rucksack itself instead of medal/goodybag - nice one. Mostly I'm of the turn up, run race and feck off home type, but I appreciate that charity runners probably arent...
Also if you want inspiration check out the stockport 10 goody bag rap on you tube- thats a lot of stuff!
Sarah George 2 wrote (see)
...or those horrible Lucozade bars that are like compressed sawdust topped with orange radioactive goo. I'm not a fussy eater, particularly after a race, but that was absolutely disgusting!
All the way round I was looking forward to a steak bake or something.
We got a packet of crisps and some shortbread. I was gutted!
Ouch! I could imagine heartbreak like that! Personally best I ever got was a box of Oatso Simple! I couldn't believe it! After finishing IOW recently where all you get is a medal with no ribbon and a glass of water (Or a few! Damn I was thirsty!) I'd say anything is better than nothing. Call me shallow but I like some sort of reward at the finish line.
Personally I like a medal and not really fussed about the rest of the goody bag.
However, if you're asking...
Always include a drink, we need it! Water is preferred but a sports drink goes down well.
Food - nothing too weird. Getting sick of those Ricola things that seem to turn up in most goody bags, straight in the bin! Chocolate bars are ok as it goes to the bf as a thanks for coming. Healthy stuff though (Nature Valley etc) is very much welcome.
Sample toiletries depending on how useful they are may end up in the bin. 10ml of body lotion isn't really helpful whereas mini deodarant comes in handy.
Please don't include leaflets. Not keen on pens, keyrings etc.
I'm a medal junkie, too
Some sort of food is great but, as others have said, not the sickly radioactive stuff
A drink is always excellent. Water is fine for me
And I have to agree that cotton tee-shirts are a nightmare
If I never see another Fruit Of The Loom it'll be too soon !!! Technical tee-shirts are a great idea, though 
as long as they come in different sizes. Massive thumbs up to the organisers of the Notfast 10k on this one 