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It does seem i am entirely on my own in the quest for prices to be held at a certain level. I am not trying to set the prices myself but do want UK Athletics to do so. Even if you set a price and prize structure that i wouldn't agree with- at least we would have some guidance for the future and wouldn't have some new organisations popping up and charging £35 for a 10k- i have seen this price, who would pay that? Clearly some people!
Some organisations are charging over the top and hardly any prizes! One person said i am selfish, however for some promoters its a licence to print money. I still have never had an answer when i have posed the question- why are there no cash prizes or hardly any? Is it legal under the UKA rules or only when you call it a subvention? If so, why? We have proffesionalism in sport now- pro and amateur, they really don't exist now whether you like it or not! If you doubt it have a look at Tennis in the olympics!
If volunteers have to be paid as one post suggested, then we are all in trouble and the sport will die. But the answer is volunteers are not being paid but are giving up their time willingly and some clubs(not all, yet), charities and buisnesses are benefiting.So there is not a direct relationship as everyone is using volunteers and i am sure Reading half is no different.
One final question before i give up fighting against the masses who want to pay £25 or more- how many entries would they get in a cycling time trial or a road race for that matter if the price was £25?Ok another question, how did we get into the dire situation where we all expect a t-shirt or medal for just turning up. Maybe, this started with charities but why are we all doing that now. This puts the prices up, even i can see that!
So, come next summer i'll go back to cycling. No loss you will all say i'm sure! At least i can be sure i don't end up with a medal that i didn't earn but on the other hand i may get a cheque in the post when i do a better ride. If i get a prize i want to make sure i deserved it.
We don't all expect it, where'd you get that impression from? If I enter a race that states that all finishers get a shirt, then yes I do.
Most of my next years races will be club opens, no shirt...... you can enter them too.
Or maybe you want to be able to enter the bigger races and pay a reduced fee for not having a shirt. Bit less if you don't use the portaloos?
IMO, bit of an elitist attitude to say that people who finish a race, where it says "Medals/shirts/momentoes to all finishers" didn't earn their prize if they actually finish.
How can you regulate prices for races when the costs are variable? An off-road 10k for 150 people is going to have vastly different costs to one on the road for 1000 runners.
Why shouldn't everyone get a medal? I explained to my daughter many years ago when she asked if I'd won the London Marathon that everyone wins their own race against themselves. If it was about winning, then the field for most races would be very small. And I suggest that costs would be high per runner as you still need a certain number of marshalls for a race independent of the number of runners. First cover still required. You'd need chip to chip timing too as these elite people will probably expect it and that's expensive, and so on. You might suggest that the plodders are subsidising the event for the fast people up front who get the prizes.
I think Peter has a bit of a point - some races are getting very expensive - mainly charity 10k type events. I don't mind paying £15 for a half marathon - to be honest I don't mind paying £25 if it's an event with road closures etc and I can see where the money is going but I wouldn't pay £25 plus for a 10k.
As things stand prices aren't too bad though and I'd rather have plenty of races and organisers making a bit of money (for charity, club or whatever) than fewer races.
But thats it, you wouldn't pay.
I felt great respect for Jane Tomlinson, but theres no way I'll pay £21 for a 10k. Plenty will tho, according to their website ( http://www.runforall.com/ ) places for next years races are going fast. Doesn't mean I won't be doing 10k races next year.
Races like these are an introduction for many. In the last year I've seen several people come to the club I run with saying they did Race for Life etc.
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Personally I'd be happy if prizes for winners were stopped. Run for the achievement, not a cheque in the post (subsidised by all the slower runners, including me).
By chance I have a 1984 copy of Athletics Weekly in front of me. I've picked out 2 race adverts.
The Wembley Half Marathon was costed at £5 affiliated, £5.50 unaffiliated and offered a medal to all finishers plus trophies for 1st man & woman. It doesn't say who the organiser is but it's a half page ad with graphics - so quite a professional looking ad.
By contrast Fareham Athletic Club's 10 miler is costed at £2 /£2.50 and offered individual and team prizes in a tiny (cheaper) "box" advert.
At that time AW was 45p and it's now £2.75 so just multiplying the race prices gives £30 for Wembley and £12 for Fareham.
Not sure if there's a great point to be made from this but shows, I think, that current pricing isn't really much different. Was there ever a "golden age"?
My first ever race was ten years ago, and I can't remember exactly what it cost, but I think about £5.
There was a t-shirt for all finishers - most races I've done have had either a t-shirt or a medal.
There's nothing new in giving a memento to all finishers.
I thought this was (for most people) an amateur sport? If by some miracle I won something, I would be happy with the trophy - I wouldn't be expecting any cash.
I choose my races - I would not choose to do a race which charged £21 for a 10k.
To expect UKA to regulate entry fees and prizes is nonsense - we do not need any more regulation, thanks.
Will re state that some races seem overpriced, and can't justify paying £25 (or more) for a 10k.
Similarly I can't justify travelling an hour away for a race but I'm guessing a lot of people do, which again has a cost in terms of fuel and sometimes accomodation. Ultimately its up to the individual to determine how they spend their time and money.
I'm beyond the point of wanting a t-shirt and/or medal and that doesn't influence me one way or tthe other, but I can understand why some people like them.
Peter, good luck with the return to cycling. Out of interest how much do you spend on your bike and associated accesories?
Racers decide on the amounts they'll pay. They arent forced to enter races. If its too pricey - they wont.
I'd much rather have this free market system, where brave race organisers can make a living out of races than have some communist era installed with set prices for set races. They wouldnt happen.
Stick with your Time Trials - but its a completely different sport, and cyclists are notoriously cheap. Willing to pay a couple of grand for a bike that may shave 20 seconds off their 10 times, but get all arsey about club subs increasing by a quid or two.
Testing (time trialling) is better as it's <£10. My event I put on is £8.50 entry and I get 70-80 riders which is enough to cover costs. Yes it's cheaper but the amount of kit I see is phenomenal. Testing is a sport dying on it's harris tbh - it's dominated by vets and most races don't get the maximum permissible number of 120 entrants. Even the Rudy Project series is poorly supported.
Most people coming into the sport (cycling) now are doing sportives which really are money for old rope!
Make it a Century TT - and charge £27 like they do for the Cheshire Cat and you'll easily get 1000 entries. Sorted !
;-)
I've not road raced for yonks, but that wasnt cheap from what I remember ? Oh hang on EOL for the Soens is £15 - so thats not particularly cheap is it ? If you get a flat - then you could have run a couple of marathons for the cost of one race. Easy.
as MM says, sportives are the new black in cycling and sure they aren't cheap but I think you get a good return on it in terms of time out and the support offered with aid stations etc
Still don't get why so many will pay silly money for a sportive "for support" to train for IM.
When 100 mile TT costing £7.50 is avalible and much closer to doing an IM leg.
With road runing, you have your "super" events. They do bring in new blood but I think the ones that stay in the sport do find the cheaper races and club events.
I don't know about you lot but my (running) club membership is £15 and for that I get free entry to as many XC races as I want to do over the winter. I get entry into the club ballot for FLM so could theoretically run FLM for nowt if I won one of the places, I get to run 6 x 5km summer handicaps for free and a few other races that the club puts on for it's members and the odd race like the Hilly 100 in the Cotswolds.
After all these free entries I also get money off when I enter road races as I'm a club runner. It surprises me when people moan about high entry fees when as a club runner, you get the best of all worlds for basically a pittance in terms of club subs.
My cycling club membership is £10 and for that I get no discounted race fees and the although the club puts on more club races than the running club they cost £2 entry each time
That said - if I can get my cycling legs on - I fancy doing the Anfield 100 again instead of the Cheshire Cat. Last years just got silly with the amount of climbing, and IMDE is pretty flat.
a course thats meant to be quite fun
Fun! Where is the fun in that
100 mile TTs dates are set now same as sportives. Saying about busy roads, 1st 100 I done was on quiet country roads, not being run this year but if I could get a lot of IM intrested in it, i would look to run it the year after.
My gear bike cost £97 and my fixed bike cost £450. I bought the gear bike this year and the fixed last year. I have beaten the hour 6 times this year- 3 times on the gear bike, three on fixed. I don't have any special wheels either- the best wheel i have came with the fixed bike and it's a screw on block.
So it is not that costly unless you want it to be. But my feeling is, this is nothing to do with the cost of races. I spend plenty getting to events as well but that is not my issue. It's not that i can't afford to pay but my problem is promoters taking the money and not giving anything back in return. Why are they promoting running races, to make money. That's not a great reason in my view. All i said originally about cycling races is that clubs feel it is their duty wheras in running races most clubs are making profits. Maybe that's why your club subs are quite cheap, if there is money in the bank, they don't actually need to charge you anything. And not only that, they are making money every year.
I wouldn't ride sportives, what are they anyway? Reliability trials! By the way, cross country is free in my club too. But i wouldn't do them if they paid me, neither would i do cyclo cross. Mud- no thanks!
Hi
From a newbie and power walker/non runner on the subject of event costs etc, I entered the Riverness 10K in 2008 and it was 19 for a non club member - wasnt what i was expecting but it didnt bother me, I WANTED to do it as a challenge. The RFL is quite frankly a farce, or at least last years Edinburgh was so for £15 it was a waste of money in my view, however I did this a week after the Edinburgh moonwalk which is a similar sized event so I am comparing these 2 events directly and is my own view - i know other folk who have loved the RFL - both are really dependant on their volunteers
Compare this to the London/Edinburgh Moonwalks (full/half powerwalking marathons) which is £42.50 entry - this is regardless if you do the full marathon or the half marathon as the facilities etc are exactly the same, all that happens is the half marathon entrants do a slightly different route. Personally i think this is fab value for money as the moonwalk is an experience in itself but its also really well organised - there was some road closures but not too many, they were more for entrants safety rather than anything else on narrow parts of the route as the event is done on pavements.
I have entered the ballot for the GNR but this is for 2 reasons, one it is an event ive always wanted to do and therefore for the experience I am happy to pay the £44 entry fee and 2 because it is to maintain my fitness for after london/edinburgh this year.
As other folk have said - if its an event you want to do you'll pay the cost, if you dont then thats fine but stop moaning and stick ot your smaller events!
P.S - who ever says that Power walking is easier than running, all i'll say is that you try it! Many moonwalkers are runners and they have all said that it is completely different and uses different muscles etc!
£1 a mile max is my rule of thumb but it is getting harder and harder to keep to.
I prefer lower price races with no memento - why do people crave these useless pices of tosh. Why pay an extra £5-10 for the privilege of a T-shirt plastered with garish advertising that will be lucky to be worn one before it ends up in the decorating drawer?
Andrea - for someone like me who sees every event i enter as a challenge due to my dodgy knees (I know my limits with them) these "useless pieces of tosh" as you call them are a reminder of what i have achieved. I regularly wear my MoonWalk t-shirts from last year out and about and I am very very proud to wear them in recognition of what I and so many others have achieved.
My next set of challenges include the Berlin Marathon in 2011 and whichever events that WTW send a team to that i cant keep away from!
T-shirts are one thing, you can wear them at work, well i can in my work. But medals just for turning up, why do you want them? I have chucked all mine , the ones for just showing up as they lessen the value of the medals i have had for actually winning something. But as i have said before, we need deeper prize lists. No one wants an event where there are no prizes, thats not an event, its a training run!
I'm afraid we are all to blame for entry fees that just go up and up and up. We keep entering even if the entry fee is massive. So promoters put the prices up just to deter too many entries. My clubs promotion is an example. Despite not needing the money, we have moveed the price up to £11 attached from £9 2 years ago. I said 2 years ago that we should put the price down to £7 as not to do so would increase our bank balance every year, something which we didn't want apparently! I think the problem is clubs are scared of attracting a lot smaller field as they could then make a loss. I would only say that's not the end of the world, is it!
The charity that organise the moon/sun walks only give out medals to those that actually complete the challenge something that they make very clear in their pre event pack and whilst the entry cost may seem high, i know for a fact that this only covers their costs for the events
As i have said, I am not a runner, i only do these events as challenges for myself so will pay the entry fee for the experience however as an accountant I can understand everyones gripes about entry costs for events and appreciate that if you do several events in a season, especially competitively, costs can certainly mount up.
my opinion is that race prices should go up or stay and the same. more cash and voucher prizes for runners as we all know running is not like football and with the few good runners we have in this country we should be supporting them with cash prizes which will benefit their training and motavaite them to continue to have success in the sport.
i think there is a culture in britain running at the moment is that it is ok to run the marathon in 5hr or 5k in 20 mins which is ok for a fitness point of view but not for a country wanting world success in running. I know in kenya running is one of the only ways people can get out of poverty.
It is OK to run a marathon in 5 hours.
People run for different reasons, and in a race of a thousand people, you may well have a thousand different reasons.
Staffs Runner,
You are absolutely correct and i think i am right in saying this is the only post i have seen that has backed me in my plea for more prizes. However, we don't need entry fees to go up to provide this.
The other thing i would say is that we don't have a uniform price structure and so you can't say that you want them to remain the same. You can pay from £5- £35 for a 10k right now. What we need is some sort of lead from UK Athletics on what they deem to be acceptable. I personally wouldn't pay anywhere near £16 for a 5k race which i saw for a race on Jan 24. This race is run with a duathlon which they charge £35 for. That is why i don't do duathlons! They say prices for events are higher in the U.S. and they probably are for a marathon or 1/2 mar as they are run in conjunction normally but for a 5k you will typically pay $10-12 in Florida where i ran in 3 events there while staying with my brother.
Running commentary,
No, its not o.k to run a marathon in a time you can easily do i.e 5 hours when you could do better. I am personally fed up when i see people waving to the crowd when they should be racing. It is a race, you can do a run anytime. I even saw a runner hi-fiving in the runners world mag! Is he winning or something- no, he's not. However 5k in 20 mins , that's a different matter! I did precisely that time in the Tampa Bay 5k and before the race i was warming up and heard a comment- there's one of those elite runners, but as i am sure you realise i am not!
I'm quite happy to pay my £44 for my GNR entry, and anywhere from £5 to £15 for a 10k in this obscure part of the country as RC calls it. Not to mention that we have the most scenic race in the country up here in the Northumberland Coastal run, and some fantastic local clubs which put in huge amounts of effort with the GNR and their own club races including the UK's oldest road race.
The simple fact is you're not being ripped off if you're charged whatever it says the cost is on the entry form. If you want to pay £25 for a 10k it's up to you, it's like choosing to pay £16 to sit in the nice seats in an Imax cinema, or going to watch a bunch of guys kick a footie round at a big stadium for £45+ for 90 mins.
I've just one more thing to add: xc is free to the individual athletes, but your club does have to pay for you to enter, this money has to come from somewhere, your subs, club race fees and whatever other money making concerns they may have.
running commentary- yes i know this. but there are other people who can acually run/jog but not walk a marathon with the people who are running it in 5/6 hrs are stopping them from doing this as they are taking their entry away from them becuase they havent got the motavation to run on the cold evening in december and only start training properly in april.
peter- i agree with all which you write apart from 20 mins for a 5k is not hard- i am a junior athlete running 25 miles a week and with smart training most people apart from the obese can run this average time.
vicki- i totally agree- i would also say that most xc have higher standard of competition than the tin pot road races where the M35,40,45,50,55,60,65,70,75,80,85,90 can all win a little trophy ( so basically half the field) why not stop paying trophies for the also rans and support the up and coming athletes to meet their goals with vouchers and cash prizes.