My Experience as a First Time Event Host!

Here's My Experience as a First Time Event Host!

Before you read on, I would like to thank every single person who supported Initial Mile's inaugural Anime Fan and Fitness Festival. This includes all the athletes, vendors, guests, local businesses, local clubs, guest cosplayers, partners and sponsors, all of my friends and family who came out the night before to help build final props and those who came at the butt-crack of dawn to help lead this event, and of course my wife who had my back through all the ups and downs throughout this process.

Behind the scenes on my first time hosting an event this large and this unique!

When I first set out to host the Anime Fan and Fitness Festival, I had no idea what I was signing up for. What started as a simple idea on a 5-hour drive home from Southern California quickly grew into one of the biggest challenges of my life. Some may think that hosting an event this large may have been one of the most rewarding experiences ever, however I would be lying if I said, that is what I immediately felt after. Don’t get me wrong, it was rewarding, however, it took me almost up until now to experience that feeling.

Here is my honest reflection on what it was like to host my first event. You’ll read about the struggles, the joys, the breakthroughs, and the behind-the-scenes chaos that guests did not see.

It Felt Like a Whole Second Full-Time Job

Many years ago, I was a highly competitive endurance athlete and have volunteered at a few events, attended a number of fandom conventions both as a guest and content creator and have had experience as a vendor at local markets under my wife's small business. In addition to this experience, my day job includes managing corporate fitness centers, so with all my experience combined, I thought hosting this would be a piece of cake. HA! I was wrong.

The initial thought when creating something like this, you think you’re simply planning for a simple gathering and a simple 5k race. What could be hard about this, right? Simply, choose a spot to have the event, invite vendors, invite athletes, map out the course, promote on social media and BOOM, you’re done. NOPE. What you’re actually doing is stepping into a combination of different job roles at once. I suddenly became an official business owner, the marketer, the graphic designer, the web designer, the coordinator, the accountant, the logistics manager, the customer service team, the creative director, the social media department… and about a handful of other titles I thought I didn’t apply for.

Every day felt like juggling ninja stars that were on fire, while balancing a Pokeball on top of my head and walking up a hill with loose rocks not knowing when the ground could collapse beneath me. In other words, I was dealing with emails. Deadlines. Graphics. Schedules. Updates. Marketing. Networking. Building props. More updates because the updates required updating.

For those of you who really know me, I am the ultra-introvert. Thankfully, my wife stepped in and took the lead on a list of tasks such as the networking portion and connecting with local businesses, finding sponsors for our event and went shop-to-shop to hang and handout flyers.

The Struggles I Didn’t Expect

Asking for Help Was Harder Than I Thought

I’m naturally someone who tries to handle everything on my own. I simply didn’t want to burden anyone. I’m quite prideful. I wanted everything to be perfect and didn’t want to blame anyone if something went wrong. And again, I’m an introvert. But this event forced me to face the reality that doing it all alone isn’t just unrealistic but it’s impossible.

I struggled to delegate. I struggled to communicate exactly what I needed. And, I definitely struggled to admit when I was overwhelmed. It was a lesson I had to learn the hard way.

Lack of Communication

Although based on the surveys I received, my communication to the vendors and athletes were clear, I lacked communication between myself, my wife and my team. I started to plan this event around March and didn’t gather a team until August, a month before the event! Even at that time when I put a team together, we didn’t have our first and only meeting until 2-weeks out before the event. The next time after that meeting, we didn’t see one another until the actual event day.

This was an incredible, stupid move thinking that one meeting would be sufficient. However, I am very thankful for all of them who came together the morning of and were proactive while my wife and I were running around.

The Panic Attack the Morning Of

I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I've never had a panic attack. I've jumped off a boat in front of Alcatraz and swam back to shore; no panic there. I've entered the cage to go up against some brutal opponents; no panic there. This daunting feeling was new and I had no clue what to do. The morning of the event, the stress hit me like a Kamehameha wave from Goku. In other words, for those who don’t know what this is, essentially, I got hit by an energy blast full of panic and anxiety.

I had a full-blown panic attack. While we only had about an hour before the start of the 5k race, I wasn’t even close to finishing up the Warrior Obstacle Sprint course. There were delineators on the ground, flags all over the place, vendors were arriving to find their vendor space and runners picking up their bibs. Seeing everyone arrive and knowing the clock was ticking, my heart dropped. Hands started shaking. I started sweating bullets. I froze in the middle of setting up the course. The fear hit me. Everything was going wrong. I almost said, “FORGET THE OBSTACLE SPRINT!” Luckily, one of my friends looked be straight in the eye and yelled start DELEGATING! Those simple words snapped me out of it.

Life's Curveball

You know that saying "life happens"? Well, life really did happen! About two weeks before the event, our son came down with a serious virus and then my wife caught it. Then three days before the event, I was supposed to visit the Humane Society to record some content with them but unfortunately, I got into a minor car accident. Although these didn't directly effect the event, this did effect mine and my wife's mental states.

Time Away From Family

Having a full-time job and hosting an event this large can take time away from family. There were days when my son wanted to play, but I chose not to because things needed to get done. There were nights when I worked late and didn't get to bed until 2 a.m. There were moments when I was physically present but not mentally present. This is a part of the job I am not proud of.

Behind-the-Scenes Chaos (a.k.a. The Cluster F*ck)

After receiving our event surveys, I am truly thankful to have received more positive feedback than negative. Overall, visitors thought that the event was well organized!

If only they knew……

Behind the scenes, it personally felt like pure chaos the morning of the event. I didn’t even know where my wife was throughout 90% of it. All I know is that she was also running around just as much as I was, if not more.

About 20 minutes before the start of the run, we didn’t even have our run volunteer team out on course yet, we had the City of Santa Clara Health inspector arrive to review food vendors, we had our rental vendor arrive late, and we didn’t even have half of our “recharge” station set up.

If you attended, you may have noticed that we didn’t have any water stations set up in the festival area! It’s because we simply forgot to set up the station. We didn’t set up a number of things! We were supposed to have a Pokemon space, children’s coloring table, another fitness challenge station, water misters, games and more! We also almost forgot the large balloon arch that my family put together the night before.

BUT, even though my mind was all over the place and felt like everything was collapsing, my team came in and “GOT SHIT DONE”. While I was running around, my team was supporting vendors, bib pick-up was running smoothly, my lead cyclists were out on course making sure everything was prepared, my neighbors were popping up canopies for me, and magically, that balloon arch made it's way down to the festival. It’s absolutely wild how something that feels like a storm backstage can look effortless from the outside.

The Joys That Made It All Worth It

Despite the stress and chaos, there were moments that made everything worth every sleepless night.

Connecting With the Community

Seeing people show up excited, smiling, and fully embracing the anime and fitness vibe was everything I hoped for. As mentioned, I didn’t know what I was signing up for and didn’t know how this unique combination would be received. But based on the outcome, the community is there and I hope to continue growing this community of passionate, positive, and supportive fans.

Being the First to Bring the Worlds of Anime and Fitness into on Event

This wasn’t just another 5K. This wasn’t just another anime meetup. This was something completely new. This was a concept that didn’t exist until we created it. Watching people react to that uniqueness was incredibly fulfilling. It reminded me why the idea mattered in the first place.

Raising Funds for Humane Society Silicon Valley

Knowing that this event not only brought joy, but also helped raise funds for the Humane Society Silicon Valley, made the entire journey even more meaningful. It’s powerful to see how creativity and community can make a real impact.

Showing my Son What can be Done

Although my time with my family and son was effected throughout the planning phase, I am proud to have created something that my son could see and hope one day he can tell all his friends "My mom and dad run that event!".

My Friends and Family: The Real MVPs

If there’s one thing I’ll never forget, it’s how my friends and family showed up for me. They really came through for me when I needed it the most. They didn’t wait around for instructions.They didn’t need me to micromanage them. They stepped in, took initiative, and handled things before I even knew there were issues that needed to be fixed. They checked in on me and even brought me snacks and water because apparently, I wasn’t even paying attention to my own needs during the event.

Honestly, they carried so much of the load on event day that it allowed me to breathe and stay grounded. And I’m forever grateful for that.

Lessons I’m Taking With Me

• It’s OK to ask for help - SO I NEED TO ASK FOR HELP. Not only were my friends and family asking to help but local fitness clubs, businesses, vendors, cosplayers and even another event promoter was offering to help!

  
  

• Communication is everything – I absolutely cannot rely on only one meeting and think everything is going to run smoothly. I also need to ask for second opinions. Although I may have "what I think" are good ideas, I may be missing some factors that could make my own ideas, bad ideas.

  
  

• You can’t control every detail – Although I would like everything to go perfectly, I need to trust that my team can handle details.

  
  

• Your community is stronger than you realize – Without a community, this event wouldn’t be possible. Specifically, the community of Gilroy really stepped in to help us out. Our council member, Zach Hilton helped spread the word of the event, The Garlic City Ruckers, Garlic City Runners and Xios Fitness helped spread the word and led some of the fitness challenges and Bubs comics allowed us to stand in front of his store front and hand out flyers. Additionally, we had our friends at Iron House Rabbit lead one of the fitness challenges, and had our community of cosplayers help spread the word and come out to support us! This includes Team Inferno Cosplay, UpTillSleep, Six String Shooter, Julia of Asgard, PepperJaq, Compleckz, Yuzuerror and Cicinettle.

• Growth happens when you step outside your comfort zone – Overall, I definitely stepped out of my comfort zone to host this event, but I need to step out of my comfort zone in a number of areas such as asking for help, asking for opinions, delegating tasks etc.

  
  

• I can't rely solely on social media - Although I spent thousands of dollars on social media marketing and spent time posting flyers around the South Bay, the guest turnout was not what I was hoping for. We had guests finding out about the event by driving by, or by going on their weekend walks and runs. They had no clue that the event was happening.

• Don't give up family time - Thankfully, I've never had this issue with my day job, but as an event host now, I need to learn how to balance my "new" work and life.

  
  

Closing Thoughts: This Is Just the Beginning

Hosting my first large scale event, The Anime Fan and Fitness Festival event, pushed me to grow in ways I never expected. It challenged me, humbled me, stressed me out, and motivated me all at once. And despite the behind-the-scenes chaos, the panic, and the endless to-do lists, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

At the end of the day, this event wasn’t just about anime or fitness, it was about bringing a new and unique community together where we could all celebrate our fandom passion at one event.

And now that the first one is complete, I’m back to the drawing board to bring another unique event back to Gilroy, CA in 2026, Run The Manga! 

Adapt. Evolve. Ascend.