Is road racing outpricing the ordinary person?

Years ago it was possible to look through the racing calender & enter races regularly but now i'm finding it's become a luxury & can no longer afford more than a handfull a year. It's getting hard to find a half marathon under 30 pounds & there was even a 10k back in the summer that wanted 50 pounds! Disposable income is at it's lowest for years but the price of road races as rocketed & surely there are a lot of people who have been outpriced, we're being asked to part with money months in advance & pay on the day is becoming a thing of the past.Admittedly it's very expensive to put on a race but surely there's way's of making it more accesible for everyone to enjoy.

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Comments

  • Plenty of low priced races if you look around. Some city centre races will always be pricey due to their infrastructure.



    You can park run 52 times a year for zero expense - so its not all expensive.
  • My favourite distances are half/full marathon so 5k park runs are of little interest to me.With a family & mortgage there is no way can i afford 45 pounds to run 13 miles on a regular basis, i used to run at least one a month without busting the bank but now it's turned into a luxury,as for loads of cheap races,they certainly don't exist in Cardiff.

  • Cheaper house or sell a kid or two ? Sorted.
  • there'll be bluebirds over....,, wrote (see)

     It's getting hard to find a half marathon under 30 pounds & there was even a 10k back in the summer that wanted 50 pounds! accesible for everyone to enjoy.

    6/1/13 Central Lancs HM £12
    20/1/13 Inskip HM £14
    10/2/13 Liversedge HM £13
    17/2/13 Wrexham HM £12
    24/2/13 Gt NW HM £18
    3/3/13 Haweswater HM £14
    10/3/13 Newton fraction's HM £18

    It cant be that hard as these are the first 7 I came across. image

    But to answer your question, if you're averaging more than £10 entry fees across a year for your races then you're looking in the wrong places.

     

  • Parkfunrun, the nearest race on that list to me is about a 300 mile round trip so i don't think i'd be saving muchimage. Pity because the central Lancs half sounds appealing.Oh well, maybe i'll mark out a route in the local forestry, get the kids at the drinks station, two sticks in the ground with a ribbon attached at the finish & the missus clapping me home, make my own crappy goody bag with thing's i'll never use & use a old cheap medal so i can chuck in the drawer the next day & save myself 30 quid, happy day'simage

  • Seems to be the higher the entry cost, the larger the entry field you get. If a particular race with a £30 plus entry fee reaches entry limit then it does send out the message that that is what people are prepared to pay.

    What works for me is to mix and match the races -parkrun or Halewood 5k which are free Saturday races, mid week 5k, 5 milers and 10k club organised races in the summer which are less than £10 or even less than £5. Then throw in a dozen or so of the longer Sunday races steering away from the commercial ones unless one is particularly appealing.

    You do get to race regularly though not all at your preferred distance. This year I reckon 65 races will have cost me £200.

  • Sticking to local races tends to keep the prices more reasonable. If you want value, try the Mortimer Forest 10 hill race at £5 for 10 miles next Sunday. (A couple of hours away from you, near Ludlow). For real, consitent value, try some of the fell races, there are some crackers in the Beacons and elsewhere in south Wales.

     

  • Did a 10k this morning that was ??8. A 10 mile. Couple of weeks back for a tender and someone has already listed the Wrexham half for ??12.



    Think you are looking in the wrong place
  • Damn iPad ! But you get the gist.



    What's a goody bag ? Oh yeah something that people get ripped off extra in entry fees for
  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    There are quite a lot of cheaper events out there. You just have to search them out. Look on the websites of local running clubs , they often have a list of cheaper local events in there.

    It does seem that some races are getting very expensive though. I was exited when they announced a marathon in Bournemouth but found out it was ??50, I can do 2 other local ones for that. It makes you wonder how some of them go about thinking up their pricing structure.
  • Tom.Tom. ✭✭✭
    Join a club - you'll get lots of races for next to nothing...XC, closed club series, road relays etc and you'll save that iniquitous unaffiliated surcharge. Despite your complaints road racing is still one of the cheapest sports you can compete in.
  • Did a race today for a tenner. It was great. I think there may have been an ordinary runner or two.
  • Use the RW events finder...shed loads in SWales and across the border in Gloucester/Hereford and Worcester relatively cheap. £45 for a half...where's that and what sort of goodies came at that tag?

  • Run to the beat was 46 quid with the Bath not far behind, Brighton was astronomical as was the GNR, London is about the only quality race that is value for money.Not really interested in events being organised by the local pig farmer running knee deep in pig shit, just affordable quality road races.I just think that road racing is ending up for the well off & people on lower income can no longer afford to compete in mass events due to the astronomical costs, there's even been a competition on here recently where people who were successful  were asked to travel to Birmingham for a boot camp, ruling out those who could'nt afford it.When i first started running the beauty of it was it was accessible to everyone & there was some excellent value for money events but they now seem as rare as Yeti shit.

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    Relaxing Sunday trading laws killed road racing, at least in urban areas.

    Traffic all over the place off to Homebase and the sofa shop.

    Police insisting that they must be in attendance. Oh that's £10,000 please. If you don't pay we'll site a public order offence being committed etc, and put the block on it.

    Extorsion. A criminal offence I thought.

    🙂

  • ToroToro ✭✭✭

    I look at races you quote and these are the premier league big field races.  Things may well have changed but that is the market.  I remember doing the great south run when only 15000 people entered!  Now it's monstrous and expensive.  There are still good VFM events out there though just not the big ticket ones.  I think you pay for what you get to some degree although Edinburgh marathon was stupidly expensive and not worth the outlay.
    Cheaper than triathlon and IM though (£400!)

  • E mmyE mmy ✭✭✭

    I know what you mean. In the South of the UK - if you're not affiliated to a club -it's hard to find decent/cheap races. 

    I used RW race finder and googling: half marathon surrey/hampshire. For me it's not feasible to pay 12 GBP to enter a race in Wrexham as it'll cost me 40quid in petrol just to get there and back.

  • It's the same as everything has always been and always will be; if you cant afford it then you dont do it. I've had to keep my helicopter in the garage the last few weeks due to high aviation fule costs !

  • E mmyE mmy ✭✭✭

    @Carter - All I was saying that there may be races that are 12 GBP but if the 'real' cost of the race is over 50quid due to the petrol etc - it makes that race uneconomical.

  • @Emmy - my comment wasnt aimed just at you, it was just a general statement about the cost. I would love to travel abroad every month and run a marathin but cant afford it so obviouslu wont do it.

  •  

    Emmy_H wrote (see)

    @Carter - All I was saying that there may be races that are 12 GBP but if the 'real' cost of the race is over 50quid due to the petrol etc - it makes that race uneconomical.

    The thread question was about whether 'road racing is outpricing the ordinary person?'

    Since when did race organisers become responsible for the cost of fuel?

    And if travelling a fair distance to a race do what everyone else does and get a group of 3-4 people together to share travelling costs, thats what clubs are for!

     

    there'll be bluebirds over....,, wrote (see)

    Run to the beat was 46 quid with the Bath not far behind, Brighton was astronomical as was the GNR, London is about the only quality race that is value for money.Not really interested in events being organised by the local pig farmer running knee deep in pig shit, just affordable quality road races.I just think that road racing is ending up for the well off & people on lower income can no longer afford to compete in mass events due to the astronomical costs, there's even been a competition on here recently where people who were successful  were asked to travel to Birmingham for a boot camp, ruling out those who could'nt afford it.When i first started running the beauty of it was it was accessible to everyone & there was some excellent value for money events but they now seem as rare as Yeti shit.

    I think the problem lies with what you consider to be a 'quality' race.

    If you think that somehow a 20,000 runner race is better than a 1,000 runner race than you're just asking to be a lemming to the slaughter.

    What exactly is it that you do with the extra 19,000 runners that gives you a better race?

  • there is always the option of organising your own race.....it will be local and cheap.........image

    there isn't going to be many really cheap events because petrol and therefore all other costs rise........but if you check out your local running club websites their races are all usually nice and cheap and easy to get to....

    big city events are always going to be pricey......

  • It seems to me that races are becoming more popular. So no it's not pricing runners out of it.



    There arent many sports cheaper than running - and yes you can quote the GNR price - but look how popular it is. It's always selling out.



    If you want to see how much a race costs - check out the Liverpool marathon thread. Alan Rothwell the organiser is quite transparent about all of his expenses. You can't run a city Marathon without a lot of costs.
  • Tom. wrote (see)
    Join a club


    What Tom said.

    Is competitive running really an expensive hobby?  Come off it!  Yes, the popularity of mass-participation events means that it is a lot easier to find overpriced events to run in but compared to so many other things you can do with your time - triathlon, watching live football, playing a round of golf, taking the family to Legoland - it's really quite a cheap pasttime - especially if you pay your annual club subscription and take advantage of all the FREE races the club can enter you in.

    I was joking with a club mate on a run yesterday about his running shoe expenditure allowance.  Given that his wife spends £40 a month on gym membership we decided he's allowed to buy a new pair of shoes every two months.  I'm sure he could get a lot of races out of that budget as well!  image

  • I think it definitely has become more expensive to enter races. For example, Leamington 10k is £23 unaffiliated, RW's own 'Trailblazer 10ks' are one arm and one leg (and they're off-road, so no policing required) so I would never consider entering. For the two of us, that's £50+ for a total of 110 minutes' entertainment and we'd have more fun for longer on a trip to the flicks and a pizza.

    I've entered a couple of 10ks for £11.50 each inc. online fees (they're two of a series, supposed to be hilly, will provide a good test of how effective my winter training has been), a half for £16 for a PB attempt, a half for £23 as 'last long run' before  marathon (could've done the marathon for the same price so don't mind the expense of this one) and £29 for a marathon PB attempt. None of these is 'cheap', but they don't breach my 'don't travel for longer than it takes to run the race' rule, so I'm happy enough to pay.

    I also got a Challenge (IM distance) race for under £250 on an early entry, so the bargains are out thereimage

  • Do ordinary people spend ??40 a month on gym memberships?



    What is ordinary?
  • Crash Hamster wrote (see)

    None of these is 'cheap', but they don't breach my 'don't travel for longer than it takes to run the race' rule, so I'm happy enough to pay.

    What a funny 'rule'!

    Good job you're not an 800m runner then image

  • DustinDustin ✭✭✭

    the OP cites big city races where the costs are just plain stupid, and I think it was Emmy that said in the south cheap races are hard to find.
    I live in the South, and there are plenty of races for 10-15 pounds, several more (10ks) under a tenner, and has been suggested bundles of free races for club runners. I did a cross country (not club series) yesterday for a fiver.
    As has been mentioned the exhorbitant costs of policing & insurance push up the costs, but anything sponsored by one of the large compnaies (crash cites trailblazer) are going to push the price up - supply and demand and all that.
    However, prices in general have risen for race entry over the past 20 odd years that I've been racing, some of the larger ones a victim of their own success. If they put the price up and it still sells out , what would you do?

    However , running is still one of the cheapest sports to watch & participate in.

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