Getting Started
Race Command tracks runners through a race in real time: who’s checked in at which aid station, who’s dropped, and how the race looks right now. It replaces a paper clipboard and radio call-ins with one shared, timestamped record that the race director, aid station captains, and runners’ families can all see from wherever they are.
The three surfaces
Race Command is three separate apps that share one database:
Web admin (racecommand.run)
The Next.js dashboard where a race director sets up a race ahead of time — aid stations, cutoffs, runner roster — and manages the account and results afterward. Most of the Race Director Guides apply here.
Check-in app (race-day scanning)
Two things at once: it’s what aid station volunteers use on race day to scan bibs as runners arrive and leave, and it’s the race director’s live race-day dashboard — reviewing the timeline, editing or hiding a bad scan, marking a runner DNF. It’s built to work through bad or no signal — a scan records the true time it happened on the device, then syncs to the server whenever a connection comes back. See the Race-Day Playbook and How-To Guides for the situations volunteers and race directors run into most.
Public live page
A public page — no login required — where crew, family, and spectators can watch runner progress as check-ins come in. It reads from the same live roster the web admin and check-in app use.
Roles
Race Command has three access levels, set per person in the web admin:
- admin — full access: race setup, aid stations, all edits, and the few actions (like permanently deleting a record) reserved for this role alone. This is the race director.
- powerUser — the same day-to-day race operations as admin — reviewing check-ins, editing or hiding timeline events, marking DNF — without a couple of destructive, admin-only actions. Also typically the race director, or someone they’ve delegated to.
- readOnly — view-only in the web admin: can see the runner roster and results, but can’t edit them there. This is the role an aid station captain typically has; like anyone, they can also check the public live page. Their actual check-in work happens in the check-in app, which a station’s volunteers use directly once it’s paired to the race — separate from this admin-side role.
If you’re a race director setting up a race for the first time, start with the Race Director Guides. If you’re working an aid station on race day, the Race-Day Playbook and How-To Guides are built for you.