Looking for input on creating an annual community ride/event for girls and women

[Catrin]

It is also good to recheck the markings the day before. We have had trouble with locals obscuring the markings...provide a good map with street names.

Indy will remember a ride in southern Indiana we did a couple of years back where I fell behind everyone and got very lost. I had a map, but it was poor and had very few street names. Thankfully I came across a lone cyclist who was able to get me back on track. There were enough riders that the 2 leaders had no idea I wasn't there for some time. It was an adventure... thankfully I like adventures. Provide good maps

[OakLeaf]

It is also good to recheck the markings the day before. We have had trouble with locals obscuring the markings...provide a good map with street names.

+1 on good maps. You have to zoom in pretty far to get all the road names - insets can help - also starting with a Gazetteer, if you can even find one of those any more, rather than online mapping that makes its own decisions about what level of resolution to show road names at. A link to the route ahead of time will allow those who have GPS to download it and both have the most accurate mapping, and save you some money on printing.

As far as markings getting paved over, it's a good idea to contact the County Engineers several months ahead of time in all the counties you'll be going through - and the Township Trustees if you'll be using township roads - to find out about road construction plans. Markings getting paved over, but having nice fresh reasonably cured pavement road on ride day, is one of the less disruptive things that can happen if you don't do your routing with road construction plans in mind.

If you have enough volunteers who don't have daytime jobs - either via shift work or retirement - we much prefer to mark on weekday mornings. That makes for MUCH less traffic to contend with, for one thing, but it also means club members who are not familiar with the route can pre-ride all the routes the weekend before the event, and return with feedback so you can tweak any markings and maps.