I'm hopeful that this is starting to change. Boston has failed to sell out two consecutive years after having a cutoff time for ten straight years. Anywhere from 2,000 to 9,000 qualified runners were left out. If Boston is failing to sell out, other races are certainly seeing a drop off in numbers. Maybe people are getting sick of the cost and just don't think completing a marathon is worth it anymore.
Most races, including boston, are in a covid hangover. You also purposely didn’t mention the stronger qualifying time and the race is SIGNIFICANTLY faster in the first two corrals. Both qualifying and race time. How many runners would have been left out if qualifying was at 2019 standards?
It could be a several different factors. 1.) the covid hangover 2.) inflation, people don't have the same income they did in 2019 to spend on races or travel to races. 3.) pickleball, america's largest generation are moving away from running to a more low impact sport. as they enter into retirement they are on a fix income and only feel like spending money at their local pickleball court
The DSE (Dolphin South End) runners put on a race in San Francisco every Sunday. It's $5 for members, $10 for non-members. They're called scenic runs and cover different courses. I'm not sure what the courses are now but they use to do the Bay to Breakers course, the Dipsea course on Mt. Tam (they also have a double Dipsea), Lake Merced (4.5 mi), Golden Gate Park and some along the waterfront (the Embarcadero). No t-shirt, but they have race results and finishers ribbons (also top 5 ribbons for males and females). Remember Walt Stack! Oh, and the nun, Marion Irvine.
I ran a half marathon this fall that was $160 (!!!!) and had a beer garden afterwards. who wants to go to a beer garden at 8:30 am after running your balls off for like 90 minutes?
we need more races that are just some guy with a timex, a bike, and a fistful of numbered popsicle sticks to give to runners at the end of the race. correlate popsicle stick number with lap time order at the finish, and bob's your auntie. of course, this doesn't work for huge races, but there's a local outfit that charges $40 for a 5k on a bike path. a bike path that I run on at least 3 days a week for free! races are so expensive that I mostly don't do em anymore.
Because 95% of the people that finished after you trained 3 days a week for a month and hobby jogged in 2.5 hours. They are there strictly for the alcohol
What I mean to say, is that in lieu of participating in these outrageously expensive events, we could instead see a movement toward more free meetups and Park Runs.
I don’t think parkrun has USATF certified marathons. The last parkrun i ran didnt even have a bathroom nearby. There was a designated tree
Then just hang out longer and keep running the Park Run route an additional 6 loops, or whatever, to get your Thon on. It’s not that difficult to figure out,
And deer hobbyjogger, if you think it’s important to get on USATF certified course so that you can keep paying that organization’s CEO a multimillion $ salary, then this thread is obviously not for you, so move along, m’kay?
The DSE (Dolphin South End) runners put on a race in San Francisco every Sunday. It's $5 for members, $10 for non-members. They're called scenic runs and cover different courses. I'm not sure what the courses are now but they use to do the Bay to Breakers course, the Dipsea course on Mt. Tam (they also have a double Dipsea), Lake Merced (4.5 mi), Golden Gate Park and some along the waterfront (the Embarcadero). No t-shirt, but they have race results and finishers ribbons (also top 5 ribbons for males and females). Remember Walt Stack! Oh, and the nun, Marion Irvine.
Yep, I used to run lots of those DSE races pre Covid. Have to get back out there. They put on the Lake Merced Half in the fall, same pricing as you mentioned. Run that one several times. My running club has a road race every other Saturday on road courses that have been run for 30 years. If all you want is an honest course and time and don't require medals, shirts, swag, water stops hit these up. They're basically free.
OP, I've seen this at many races. Half marathons charging $110-150 are no longer unheard of. The "cheap" regional ones many times are 90-110 then the 6-10 dollar "processing fees" for registering. In my experience, race prices really jumped past the rate of inflation. So much so that I will not even bother to race that often anymore. However, so many people simply pay it and run $60 5Ks.
Was looking for a regional half marathon around Memorial Day and they all were asking $120+ for a half marathon. Going to Canada for a half was actually a better deal for entry fee and lodging because of the exchange rate except for the cost of flights.
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I can't speak for CIM, but I can speak for myself - we put on a couple of open water swim events. When we started ~13 years ago, we would clear 3-4K, which we split with the timing company. Not getting rich but worth the time and effort to put on. This past weekend, we cleared $800. That's horrible and not sustainable unless everyone is okay with basically donating their time. We've raised prices a bit, but who's going to pay $50+ to swim 1 mile? Here's where some of the money has gone over the past 2 years:
Port-o-potties doubled in price
T-shirts increase $3 per t-shirt (and people love the t-shirts)
Insurance for 3 swims was $800, now insurance for 2 swims is $1,400
Park fees & parking have increased
We try to go pretty cheap for awards and get volunteers to help on the water and registration. We have a pretty good post race spread but nothing extravagant. Our number of participants is steady (~200, which we have to cap based on parking at the park).
Bottom line, I don't know how little races can remain sustainable in the coming years unless people want to pony up more money. The big races can probably get away with it better.
I wonder what’s up with the insurance hikes. Maybe something to do with covid like liability. I’m also surprised portapotties are so much. I recently did a 5k that’s been around for over 30 years. The portapotties arrived after the race was over due to miscommunication.
I'd suspect two different things at play here. First is inflation. All of the costs go up so the entry has to go up. The second is demand. If you have a price of $200 and you sell out you raise the price. If it sells out again at $250 you raise the price. Repeat until you have sold exactly the number of places you intended to indicating your price is spot on.
CIM is historically known to be a fast course. It’s where I set my PR back in 2009. I don’t recall how much I paid, but I bet it was $100-$130.
I think a lot of runners are willing to spend an extra $50-100 to run a fast course. Especially if you’re flying in for the marathon, the race fees are the cheapest part of the weekend.
I agree that paying $60 for a local 5K is pointless. I rarely race less than 1/2 marathon.
It’s funny when people think the money is made for those looking for a fast course or those looking for a PR or winning an age group. The money is made from your walk/jog crowd because that’s most of the participants.
CIM really got popular starting in 2017/2018. Previously there were 8-15 sub 2:19's any given year, then in 2017 there were 38 and in 2018 were 53.
I'm sure a lot of this is due to how the Trials standards have progressed and how the HM standard got much harder in 2020 and 2024, leading to most people trying to qualify through the full instead of the half like in 2016. I wonder if other marathons have followed a similar progression or if CIM is an outlier in this sense.
CIM really got popular starting in 2017/2018. Previously there were 8-15 sub 2:19's any given year, then in 2017 there were 38 and in 2018 were 53.
I'm sure a lot of this is due to how the Trials standards have progressed and how the HM standard got much harder in 2020 and 2024, leading to most people trying to qualify through the full instead of the half like in 2016. I wonder if other marathons have followed a similar progression or if CIM is an outlier in this sense.
Hmm, when did the VF4% (and relative facsimiles from rival manufacturers) start to hit the market? 2017. Yeah, maybe the HM standard was harder but a lot of people who otherwise would have been outside the marathon standard suddenly had an ace up their sleeves.
I remember last year the 'until sell out ' was $180 or so? Hotels and flights are way cheaper than some other destinations, so it's not as bad. But seeing it creep towards major marathon prices is a little weird
and what's the elite standard for a comp? Elites don't pay the bills. They are jacking up the prices so they can pay to bring more elites in and pay for hotels, flights, comps, etc.
and what's the elite standard for a comp? Elites don't pay the bills. They are jacking up the prices so they can pay to bring more elites in and pay for hotels, flights, comps, etc.
Appearance fees, comp lodging and flights usually are budgeted out of corporate sponsorship. Does a race like CIM really pay much at all in appearance fees? It's usually c-list Africans winning there, who can't command much more than 4 figures a pop. In years they host USA champs they shouldn't have to pay out anything to US competitors. I'd be surprised if Futsum and Droddy showed up for more than a free hotel room and a comp entry.