Just don’t give me a terrible t shirt that is uncomfortable I’ll never want to wear it.
The point of those bad race shirts shirts, if you absolutely cannot get out of accepting them, especially the long-sleeved ones, is to wear during warmup of your next race so you can just drop it at the starting line seconds before the race starts. Often, the shirt is still there when the race is over so you can take it to goodwill etc.
They can also be good for doing messy yard work on warm days.
I’ve done this many times. Layer them up for Boston. Sayonara once the guns fires.
A running club near me does a 5k series with a points system, $5 per race and the winners of each age category at the end of the series get gift cards to a local running store. Def not chip timing (FAT maybe?) but they do a pretty good job and it's a great way to stay motivated through the winter and watch your times improve on the same course. The T-shirt is nice but extra $ and optional.
Most of the comments and the attitude of the holier than thou on this post is the main reason I stopped organizing local 5K's last year. No they were not attended by thousands but by around 300 every race. The amount of runners who felt entitled grew each year. I'll wear headphones even though they were asked not to. Complaining because the watch on their arm was .02 miles off of what we had listed.
It was not my full time job, but something that WAS fun and USED TO be appreciated. Never heard a thank you in the past 3 years while the previous 15 everyone was happy to have a low cost, great post race party and well organized races.
Racing is pointless unless you MAKE money off it or compete for a school. Otherwise it’s just an excuse for fat chicks to post on Instagram their finisher medal. Save your money.
Most of the comments and the attitude of the holier than thou on this post is the main reason I stopped organizing local 5K's last year. No they were not attended by thousands but by around 300 every race. The amount of runners who felt entitled grew each year. I'll wear headphones even though they were asked not to. Complaining because the watch on their arm was .02 miles off of what we had listed.
It was not my full time job, but something that WAS fun and USED TO be appreciated. Never heard a thank you in the past 3 years while the previous 15 everyone was happy to have a low cost, great post race party and well organized races.
I'm not oging to miss it.
You seriously think guys on LRC are wearing headphones and complaining about minor measuring discrepancies in local 5Ks??? Are they the ones demanding a water stop at the turnaround point, too?
I agree with the premise of this thread--a lot of road races suck for serious runners because serious runners get stuck with whatever race arrangements "the masses" demand, and that always means a higher price tag.
I ran a 5k last week: $44.50 with no shirt. No elevation profile for the course provided, ended up being absurdly hilly with the distance almost certainly measured using Google Maps. I placed overall, no awards whatsoever but a finisher's medal. "Post-race food" provided was an assortment of vending machine snacks.
If you were putting on good local races suited for serious runners, your effort always was appreciated!
I've often thought about creating a no BS (shirts, food, medals, "charity") race where the winners, get as much prize money as there is "profit" from the event. Course would be on small roads, or a park that is easy and hopefully inexpensive to close for a short time.
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I live in Mexico and we have a lot of such races. 10$ entry fee, and you can register 2 hours before the race. No T-Shirt, no chip timing. Maybe a bottle of water and banana at the finish. Cash awards like 150-100-50$ for Top-3 guys. Guess what? Not so many participants, 100-200 for the races with 40-60 years history. But the competition is tough. 34 minutes is not sufficient for podium at the 10k race taking place at high altitude.
I would also pay an EXTRA $5 for the course to be accurate. I always had to laugh at races where the t-shirts were perfect, the medals were perfect, but the course was random 3.38 miles. Just buy a dang wheel and measure it! Buy some spray paint and mark it.
I dispute the accuracy of that. A wheel traces out a squiggly line which is significantly overdistance compared to a straight line.
If that Dave course measurer shows up with his measuring bike, I dispute him too. Bikes also trace out a squiggly line, and tire circumference isn't measured with reliable precision.
In this age of high tech lasers, straight lines between each tangent can be measured to probably +/- 1cm easily.
I would also pay an EXTRA $5 for the course to be accurate. I always had to laugh at races where the t-shirts were perfect, the medals were perfect, but the course was random 3.38 miles. Just buy a dang wheel and measure it! Buy some spray paint and mark it.
And I've noticed people care less and less about this. The Jones Counter to certify courses was "invented"/developed in my home town and most people who run 5k's now don't even know that courses get certified.
When they do, they believe their GPS over the course.
I live in Mexico and we have a lot of such races. 10$ entry fee, and you can register 2 hours before the race. No T-Shirt, no chip timing. Maybe a bottle of water and banana at the finish. Cash awards like 150-100-50$ for Top-3 guys. Guess what? Not so many participants, 100-200 for the races with 40-60 years history. But the competition is tough. 34 minutes is not sufficient for podium at the 10k race taking place at high altitude.
Is it the kind of races that Juan José Martínez (JuanJoseMartinez42K on YT) posts videos of? I do like his content. Is he a former athlete, a coach or just a running enthusiast?
I'm on a road race committee, 5K race raises a significant amount of money for the non-profit. Many of the required costs have soared in the last 2-3 years - porta-potties, required police detail, even timing chips. We do make shirts optional. Ideas for age group awards? Right now we have (very nice) medals. Cash prizes for top runners. It's the 25th year of the race.
I got roped into acting as RD for a local race to raise money for the local middle school band. This is an inner city school and their instruments were very old blah blah blah.. We did make a lot of money, BUT the majority of it went to the police. We had to block off so many roads and the police are the ones that determine how many police are needed.
The experience was eye opening, and I doubt I would ever act as RD for more than a freebie run in a park. It was a huge time commitment, very stressful, and ultimately didn't raise as much money as needed due to the very high overhead costs. Also we received NO help from the school that we were raising the money for. Not one parent showed up to help, neither the school principal nor band director bothered to even show up, much less help. I think we received a thank you email.
Act as an RD just once and you will be much more forgiving at the next event. I promise you.
I'm on a road race committee, 5K race raises a significant amount of money for the non-profit. Many of the required costs have soared in the last 2-3 years - porta-potties, required police detail, even timing chips. We do make shirts optional. Ideas for age group awards? Right now we have (very nice) medals. Cash prizes for top runners. It's the 25th year of the race.
I got roped into acting as RD for a local race to raise money for the local middle school band. This is an inner city school and their instruments were very old blah blah blah.. We did make a lot of money, BUT the majority of it went to the police. We had to block off so many roads and the police are the ones that determine how many police are needed.
The experience was eye opening, and I doubt I would ever act as RD for more than a freebie run in a park. It was a huge time commitment, very stressful, and ultimately didn't raise as much money as needed due to the very high overhead costs. Also we received NO help from the school that we were raising the money for. Not one parent showed up to help, neither the school principal nor band director bothered to even show up, much less help. I think we received a thank you email.
Act as an RD just once and you will be much more forgiving at the next event. I promise you.
Absolutely! I was an RD a couple times and helped others a few times. People don't realize what they go through and then when the weather is bad and some volunteers don't show up it could be a nightmare.
Sometimes I miss the days when they would paint a line across the road and we'd race.
The swag was the popsicle stick the gave you with your place on it.
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