Charity walks and challenge events

If you run a sponsored walk, a fun run, a swim or a challenge day, you can give everyone who took part a finisher medal. You don't need a timing company or a stopwatch: an untimed race gives a medal to everyone on your list who finished, and the medal shows the finish rather than a time.

Set up the event

1. Go to Events and choose Add an event.
2. Fill in Event name, without the year, like "Riverside Hospice Moonlight Walk".
3. Choose a Sport, like Walking, or Other for a mixed challenge.
4. Under This year's edition, fill in the Date, Where, Country and Time zone. Add a Last day only if it runs over more than one day.
5. Choose Add event, then its races.

Add an untimed race

Each route or distance is a race. A walk with a 5 mile and a 10 mile route has two.

1. On your event, choose Add a race to the year.
2. Fill in Race name as it should read on the medal, like "10 mile walk".
3. Fill in Distance and Unit, or leave Distance empty for a challenge with no set distance.
4. Untick Finishers get a time. The medals then show the finish, not a time.
5. Under Who takes part, choose Adults only, Mixed ages or Junior race. This decides which medals must stay private, and it has to be set before any medals are released. If children take part, choose Mixed ages.
6. Under How results arrive, choose A results file after the race.
7. Choose a Medal design, or Choose later.
8. Choose Add race.

Import your list of finishers

After the event, put everyone who took part in a spreadsheet: one person per row, with their name and email. Add an amount raised if you'd like it on their medal (see Showing amounts raised on race medals).

1. On your event, choose Import a file (or go to Imports).
2. Choose the event, and under What's in the file choose Results from the timing company or Both in one file. Either works for a walk.
3. Choose your file (CSV or Excel), then Continue to column matching.
4. Check each Column in your file is matched to the right Breaktape field, then choose Check the rows.
5. Review the rows, fix anything flagged, and approve the import.

If your edition has more than one race, include a column saying which race each person did, or upload one file per race.

Who counts as finished

In an untimed race, everyone with a name counts as finished, unless their row says otherwise. If someone didn't make it, put DNF (did not finish) or DNS (did not start) in a status column, and they won't get a medal. A row with no name is flagged, because there's nothing to put on a medal.

Check and release

Once the import is approved, the medals are made as drafts. On your event, choose Check sample and release beside the race. Look at the sample, choose when the emails go, then approve and release. See Checking and releasing medals.

Good to know

• Medals say "You finished" and the email subject is "Your" event name "medal". For thanking people with no race day, use awards instead. See Awards or an event: which to use.
• Under-13s' medals are always private and kept by a parent or guardian.
• Next year, choose Add an edition on the event to add the new date and races.
• Your column matches are saved, so next year's file in the same layout matches itself.

Related guides

• Showing amounts raised on race medals
• Setting up an event
• Importing results
• Column matching