Online "processing fee" for race = $20?

Agreed,

Look at the NYRRs. This year the "application fee" for the NY Marathon is $11, in addition to the $255 for the race entry. You are out the $11 even if you don't get in the race. I know it doesn't cost $11 to process an online application.

I went through the registration process to see what the fees are like. I used the registration page at

https://www.formstack.com/forms/?712503-wajrKTxWLW

to "register."

The half marathon alone is $65.00 plus a $5.85 processing fee for a total of $70.85.

The half marathon plus Race Day Packet Pickup (I thought all races did this?) is $65.00 plus $22.20 in fees for a total of $87.20.

Adding an extra donation ($1, $5, etc.) adds the donation plus 9 cents for every dollar donated (so a $1 donation becomes $1.09).

I don't know how the OP got his total amount.

stuck with match.com wrote:

I am a race director and I can tell you it costs a lot of money to put on races. There is a lot of things that the average runner doesn't know about that goes into putting on a race. Even the average runner on here doesn't know a whole lot. Pay the fee, run the race.

That is naive. If you do your job poorly, then why should I accept the additional cost. I would rather not run and register for cheap/efficient races: bel air Towne run in Maryland, Cherry Blossom 10 miler in DC. Bel Air costs $14 with generous prize money, ~1000 runners.

Cherry Blossom isn't all that cheap and they charge like 40 bucks to mail you your packet (no race day pickup).

I'm seeing more and more races provide really CRAPPY service just because it may be a little more work. Things such as no race day registration or packet pickup. How hard is it to type the info into a computer and hand out a race number?

The other thing that bugs me is the sliding scale of the entry fee. It's $50 by x, $60 by Y, and $95 at the expo(since they don't allow race day registration.)

I race about 40 times a year and never know how I will feel or what distance I want to run until shortly before a race. Way back when, I could just drive to the event, sign up and be ready to go. Those races that put all the restrictions on me registering is NOT going to get me to their event even though I may have wanted to run it.

$38 for a very competitive 10 mile race in a major city. That is cheap, competitive with local 5k prices.It is standard practice not to have race day pick up.

An Archy wrote:

Cherry Blossom isn't all that cheap and they charge like 40 bucks to mail you your packet (no race day pickup).

out in SF, the DSE runs weekly races around Lake Merced for a dollar. They record your time and post it online, and you get some regular delicious chocolate brownies or chips or whatnot and water after the race for free. The dollar cost is to the city for parking in the lot where the start/finish is. You cannot park elsewhere in the city for that amount of money. And there are some pretty decent runners usually. If you want to really pay a bunch, they have weekend races elsewhere in the city for maybe five or six bucks. We the runners get nothing whatsoever out of the for profit races.

http://dserunners.com/schedule/2011/lakemercedsummerseries.html

what gives? wrote:

Turns out the total is actually $84.95, with the "processing fee" included.

$87.20.

Maybe because I'm out of state (NY).

Keepin it real wrote:

It is standard practice not to have race day pick up.

).

[/quote]

That's the point I was making. It hasn't always been "standard practice" and there are many races that do have race day registration and packet pick-up. Even if they didn't allow race day registration, I can register online a couple days before the event. It is even easier to just grab a packet and hand it to me. How long does that usually take? About 7 seconds? A race that gets a couple thousand runners can't have a person reach into a box and hand a runner their packet the morning of the race? That is bad service if I am paying $50 for a race and driving a long way to get there.

mr spontaneous wrote:

Keepin it real wrote:

It is standard practice not to have race day pick up.

).

That's the point I was making. It hasn't always been "standard practice" and there are many races that do have race day registration and packet pick-up. Even if they didn't allow race day registration, I can register online a couple days before the event. It is even easier to just grab a packet and hand it to me. How long does that usually take? About 7 seconds? A race that gets a couple thousand runners can't have a person reach into a box and hand a runner their packet the morning of the race? That is bad service if I am paying $50 for a race and driving a long way to get there.[/quote]

Agreed. I misread the first time

stuck with match.com wrote:

I am a race director and I can tell you it costs a lot of money to put on races. There is a lot of things that the average runner doesn't know about that goes into putting on a race. Even the average runner on here doesn't know a whole lot. Pay the fee, run the race.

Does the race get a cut of the reg fee? I am under the impression that the reg fee goes to the online company.

I tend to agree that few know the costs that go into putting on a race and that those costs are increasing as local communities are asking for more expenses to be covered.

not a rutgers student wrote:

I went through the registration process to see what the fees are like. I used the registration page at

https://www.formstack.com/forms/?712503-wajrKTxWLW

to "register."

The half marathon alone is $65.00 plus a $5.85 processing fee for a total of $70.85.

The half marathon plus Race Day Packet Pickup (I thought all races did this?) is $65.00 plus $22.20 in fees for a total of $87.20.

Adding an extra donation ($1, $5, etc.) adds the donation plus 9 cents for every dollar donated (so a $1 donation becomes $1.09).

I don't know how the OP got his total amount.

It looks like there is a surcharge for Race Day pickup to discourage it.

mr spontaneous wrote:

Keepin it real wrote:

It is standard practice not to have race day pick up.

).

That's the point I was making. It hasn't always been "standard practice" and there are many races that do have race day registration and packet pick-up. Even if they didn't allow race day registration, I can register online a couple days before the event. It is even easier to just grab a packet and hand it to me. How long does that usually take? About 7 seconds? A race that gets a couple thousand runners can't have a person reach into a box and hand a runner their packet the morning of the race? That is bad service if I am paying $50 for a race and driving a long way to get there.[/quote]

Race day pick up is a PITA for the RD. It still takes staff to do that and that is more staff needed or it takes a staffer (even a volunteer) away from something else.

DSE also fails to attain permits and undercuts the races in SF that do. Tide will turn.

I'm surprised this thread has made it this far without a Keith Stone meltdown.

luv2run wrote:

mr spontaneous wrote:

That's the point I was making. It hasn't always been "standard practice" and there are many races that do have race day registration and packet pick-up. Even if they didn't allow race day registration, I can register online a couple days before the event. It is even easier to just grab a packet and hand it to me. How long does that usually take? About 7 seconds? A race that gets a couple thousand runners can't have a person reach into a box and hand a runner their packet the morning of the race? That is bad service if I am paying $50 for a race and driving a long way to get there.

Race day pick up is a PITA for the RD. It still takes staff to do that and that is more staff needed or it takes a staffer (even a volunteer) away from something else.[/quote]

I fully understand that race day pickup is a pain in the ass for the RD but what about the participants? If you are not within easy driving distance of the race that means you either have to stay all night or make the drive twice. This practice is probably causing some people to skip the race entirely and go elsewhere.

Race day pick up is a PITA for the RD. It still takes staff to do that and that is more staff needed or it takes a staffer (even a volunteer) away from something else.

They need just as much staff to do bib pick up the day before. What I think is really going on is that one of the sponsors pays the race extra to hold the bib pickup at their business (i.e. Road Runner Sports, YMCA etc). So the race makes more money if they eliminate free race day pickup.

One of the companies that puts on races in San Diego will mail you your bib if you include a self addressed stamped envelope with your entry. Now that's how it should be.

Tired of fees wrote:

Race day pick up is a PITA for the RD. It still takes staff to do that and that is more staff needed or it takes a staffer (even a volunteer) away from something else.

They need just as much staff to do bib pick up the day before. What I think is really going on is that one of the sponsors pays the race extra to hold the bib pickup at their business (i.e. Road Runner Sports, YMCA etc). So the race makes more money if they eliminate free race day pickup.

One of the companies that puts on races in San Diego will mail you your bib if you include a self addressed stamped envelope with your entry. Now that's how it should be.

BINGO! Requiring runners to pick up their bibs at a running store or other business prior to race day drives traffic to that store. It's just that simple.

If I live more than 15 minutes from the site, and they require pre-race day packet pick up, I'm not running it. Time and gasoline are too expensive.

luv2run wrote:

Race day pick up is a PITA for the RD. It still takes staff to do that and that is more staff needed or it takes a staffer (even a volunteer) away from something else.

But it's not a PITA to secure volunteers for before race day (and often DURING the work week), transport packets to a remote location, and transport unclaimed packets back?

If I'm a race director, I'd rather ask for volunteers for one day (a weekend) and have them be a bit more busy than to ask for them over several days, including missing time from work. I think other posters had it right when they said this trend is all about driving more foot traffic into a local business by requiring bib pick up before race day.