I just moved to Philly and I heard about the Broad Street Run, 10 miler. I read how cool it is and then I go to the site and the registration is closed even though it's 2 months away and blah blah blah special charities or else you have no chance of getting in blah blah. Trying to run road races has gotten so annoying and expensive. That's it, just venting.
I don't mind the process, but the cost is extreme. $40 for a shitty 5k and people think that's fair? Not this guy.
What gets me is when you have to start an account to enter a race. Please, just let me enter the race, no accounts no email updates about the race or anyone sponsoring the race. Plus the whole having to enter months in advance issue.
They always hide the cost as well you have to enter or hunt around to find out what you are getting ripped off by
CyndiLoper wrote:
What gets me is when you have to start an account to enter a race. Please, just let me enter the race, no accounts no email updates about the race or anyone sponsoring the race. Plus the whole having to enter months in advance issue.
I refuse to enter any road race if those rat-bassturds at Active.com are collecting the fee.
The first time I entered a race, I parked my car, walked to the registration area, filled out the form, gave them five dollars and then jogged around for 15 minutes. They called us to the start. The gun went off. Forty something minutes later I crossed the finish line.
The race was called Bay to Breakers. This was the early 1970's.
I am going to say about 2009 when it really started getting stupid with virtually every bigger race wanting registration months in advance or selling out.
I got tired of it and bolted to trail races but so did everybody else and now they are even worse because they have very small limits of how many runners can be on the trail.
I wanted to run the Crazylegs Classic 8k a few years ago, but since I hadn't run it before, I would have had to start with runners much slower. They must have had a lot of complaints though because I just checked the site and you can now put a time of 29 minutes in as the fastest. Before I thought it was really slow like 35 minutes so I didn't want to have to race it twice just to be able to run with other runners comparable to me. (It's about 10 hours away) Even at 29:00, that would suck for a 25 or 26 minute guy who just wanted to run it one year. He would have to spend the first mile passing a bunch of slower runners.
I ran a 5k in October and registration is already open for next year.
My solution has been cutting my racing in half. Just too much hassle to deal with and the races you can just show up and race want double the early bird rate or are non competitive.
60$ for a 10 miler around here...insane f*** that noise
Balian wrote:
The first time I entered a race, I parked my car, walked to the registration area, filled out the form, gave them five dollars and then jogged around for 15 minutes. They called us to the start. The gun went off. Forty something minutes later I crossed the finish line.
The race was called Bay to Breakers. This was the early 1970's.
Yes I remember those days well. My first marathon was in Cleveland in 1989. I registered for the marathon an hour before the race, and it was 10 bucks. Ahhhh.....the good ol' days.
werew wrote:
I don't mind the process, but the cost is extreme. $40 for a shitty 5k and people think that's fair? Not this guy.
That's why I don't give a damn about banditing a race or three.
nancy kerrigan - why me? wrote:
I just moved to Philly and I heard about the Broad Street Run, 10 miler. I read how cool it is and then I go to the site and the registration is closed even though it's 2 months away and blah blah blah special charities or else you have no chance of getting in blah blah. Trying to run road races has gotten so annoying and expensive. That's it, just venting.
Uh, 55 min man and 65 min women can register up until 4/1.
a lot of these races are not races anymore, they are events. i might do one or two of these a year for thr hell of it, but i mostly stick to running unnattached on the track or xc and cheap club series races.
Rocky Balboa wrote:
Yes I remember those days well. My first marathon was in Cleveland in 1989. I registered for the marathon an hour before the race, and it was 10 bucks. Ahhhh.....the good ol' days.
Even in 2003 I signed up for the Pittsburgh Marathon the night before the race at the expo for about $50. It was my first marathon and I didn't even decide to run it until a week before.
Now a lot of weekends I would have raced, I find a great trail to do a couple runs on instead.
10 km races 2 weeks apart
Bolder Boulder - $50 (inc. shirt, no opting out)
Sunrise Stampede - $12 (shirt-free option)
Brooklyn Half-Marathon 2006 - 3,999 finishers
Brooklyn Half-Marathon 2013 - 21,427 finishers
Crazy!
More and more, I fully appreciate Yogi Berra's classic quip: "Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded."
I suspect in a few years the pendulum will start to
swing the other way.
I personally will not spend that much money on a race,
let the bucket list crowd have at it.
Balian wrote:
The first time I entered a race, I parked my car, walked to the registration area, filled out the form, gave them five dollars and then jogged around for 15 minutes. They called us to the start. The gun went off. Forty something minutes later I crossed the finish line.
The race was called Bay to Breakers. This was the early 1970's.
Those were the days- Once I got to a race late- they were on the starting line as I was running up, putting on my racing shoes as I went yelling for them to wait.
My wife paid the fee and signed the form.
I ran and finished 4th in an 8K.
There were about 300 in the race.
Im glad some races make allowances for faster runners by letting us by pass the lotteries and such, but...
Every since this second boom started it's been a general mess. Race fill so fast you have to register months and months in advance, if you get hurt or "life happens" you are screwed. I know I've donated too many race fees to races I never ran over the past few years.
There has to be a better way.
Ditto to many here about all these 5k's. They charge $ 35, $ 40, and up, to run a crummy 3+ miles. And yes, at age 70 there is vitually no competition out there and I've won many age group awards, but it is phony ego gratification due to the small number of competitors. Plus with all those little $ 10 merchandise coupons I now have too many socks !
Bottom line, I now run virtually no road races and stick to trail races. They are also a lot more fun.