Volunteer Service Run 169 Towns Society · July 2026
Building a Better Run 169 Towns Website Through Volunteer Service
As a cofounder of the Run 169 Towns Society, I have spent the past two months rebuilding and improving the organization’s website. I completed this work entirely on a volunteer basis, dedicating many evenings and weekends to creating a better experience for our community of more than 6,000 members.
I have always believed that our members deserve tools that make their journey through Connecticut’s 169 towns easier, more organized, and more enjoyable. What began as an effort to improve a few website functions grew into a complete modernization of how the Society manages members, town submissions, race information, progress dashboards, statistics, and recognition.
Moving Beyond the Limitations of the Old System
For years, much of our information was managed through Google Forms, Google Sheets, and Power BI. These tools helped the Society grow, but they also created limitations. Pages could load slowly, mobile users sometimes had difficulty viewing information, and reports were restricted by refresh limits.
Managing more than 6,000 members, over 100,000 historical town submissions, and an additional 47,000 town records for members who had already completed all 169 towns required a faster and more reliable system.
I migrated the primary member and race information into a MySQL database and developed PHP application programming interfaces to connect the database to the website. I then rebuilt the website’s interactive features using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
The result is a website that loads information more quickly, updates more consistently, and gives members access to substantially more information about their progress.
Creating Personal Member Dashboards
One of the largest improvements is the personal member dashboard. Every member can search for their name or member ID and open a dashboard showing their individual Run 169 journey.
Each dashboard includes a Connecticut map showing completed and remaining towns, a completion percentage, the member’s current round, county progress, races by year, race history, and a sortable table covering all 169 towns. Completed towns are displayed using colors that represent the year in which they were completed.
I also created a My Upcoming Races section. This feature compares the towns a member still needs with the current race calendar and displays upcoming races in those towns. Members can review the date, starting time, distance, elusive status, and registration link without having to manually compare several different lists.
Members can now select Add to Calendar to save a race to their phone or computer calendar. The event includes the race name, date, time, town, distance, and registration link. When a starting time is not available, the race is saved as an all day event.
Improving Membership and Town Submissions
The Join Us and Submit Town processes were also rebuilt.
When someone joins the Society, the system now assigns the next available member ID, saves the member’s information, records any previously completed towns, checks for duplicate names, and updates the public member information. The new member receives a professional welcome email containing their member ID, dashboard link, instructions, and helpful Society resources. An administrative notification is also sent automatically.
Before this update, sending the welcome email was a manual process. I had to review each new membership submission, prepare the information, and send the message myself. I automated that entire workflow. As soon as a valid registration is saved, the system creates the member’s ID, builds a personalized HTML welcome email, sends it to the new member, sends a copy to the administrator, and records whether the email was successfully sent. This gives every new member useful information immediately while reducing repetitive administrative work.
I also created an automated weekly new member report so the Society can recognize and welcome the people who recently joined. A scheduled process checks the membership database for everyone who joined during the reporting week and compiles their names, join dates, hometowns, towns already completed, and how they heard about the Society. The report is then emailed to the administrators, making it easier to introduce our newest members to the community and helping existing members learn who has joined.
The Submit Town system allows members to add a new town, correct an existing record, or delete a town. Members can submit multiple races at once, include race fees and comments, and identify their 169th town.
When a member completes all 169 towns, the system can automatically transfer the completed round into the Royalty records, assign the appropriate Royalty and certificate information, advance the member to the next round, and prepare the dashboard for a new journey through Connecticut.
Recognizing Member Achievements
Recognition is an important part of the Run 169 Towns Society. I created downloadable certificates for members who complete all 169 towns. The certificates can include the member’s information, completion map, races by year, and a complete list of the towns and races from that round.
The Royalty Hall now includes searchable and sortable member records, multiple completed rounds, Royalty titles, final towns, completion dates, maps, charts, and individual certificates. It recognizes Kings, Queens, Majesties, and members who have completed the challenge more than once.
Adding Better Race, Leaderboard, and Statistics Tools
The public Upcoming Races page now allows members to search, filter, sort, and review races throughout Connecticut. Members can filter by town, elusive status, and date, open the registration page, or add a race directly to their calendar.
I also developed a current year Leaderboard for motivation and community engagement. It shows members’ unique towns and miles completed during the year, along with their latest town and race date.
The Statistics page provides yearly and quarterly information about race submissions, towns covered, active members, new members, average race fees, estimated total fees, popular distances, and the most active towns. Interactive Connecticut maps help turn the information into something members can understand at a glance.
To keep these reports fast, I created saved reporting tables and an automated refresh process. The system updates immediately after important member activity and also runs on a scheduled basis as a backup. This avoids recalculating more than 100,000 records every time someone opens a page.
Built with Member Feedback and Volunteer Support
I want to thank the many members who sent me recommendations as they began using the rebuilt website. User feedback is essential to improving any website, especially one designed to serve a large and active community. Members identified areas that could be clearer or more helpful, suggested new features, and explained how they were using the site during their Run 169 journeys. I was able to review and implement many of their suggestions, making the website stronger and more useful with each improvement.
Special thanks also go to our three volunteers who continually research, review, and update the Upcoming Races data. Their work is extremely important because the My Upcoming Races section on every member dashboard depends on accurate and current race information. Without their ongoing commitment, members would not have the same reliable tool for finding races in the towns they still need.
The Upcoming Races page is also open to the public. Anyone can use it to search for and view races throughout Connecticut, even if they are not a Run 169 member. This makes the volunteers’ work valuable not only to our membership, but also to runners, race directors, and communities across the state.
More Than a Website Project
This work has involved database design, data cleaning, programming, automation, testing, troubleshooting, user experience design, reporting, and ongoing communication with members. I spent many evenings and weekends working through technical challenges, testing new features, correcting problems, and improving the experience. I completed it outside my regular employment and without compensation because I believe in the mission of the Run 169 Towns Society.
For me, this project is about more than technology. It is about using my experience in accounting, data analytics, database management, and community leadership to build something useful for others.
Every faster page, clearer dashboard, automated email, accurate report, and easier race search saves time for our members and volunteers. It allows runners to spend less time managing spreadsheets and more time planning races, discovering Connecticut, supporting race directors, and encouraging one another.
Continuing the Journey
Although the major rebuilding work is complete, a community website is never truly finished. I plan to continue listening to members, correcting issues, improving accessibility, and considering new features that can make the journey through all 169 Connecticut towns even better.
I am proud of what I have built during these two months, but I am even more proud that it benefits a community of more than 6,000 runners who share a remarkable goal.
Connecticut has 169 towns. Every member has a different journey. My goal was to create a website capable of supporting all of them.
Visit the Run 169 Towns Website
