Running an Expensive or Inexpensive Sport?

> Now I know that is not how everyone does it. I worked for a running shoe store for a while and man oh man did people love to consume.

So true. My mother signed up for a 10K training plan with a local Fleet Feet. I was angered by just how much they tried to nickle and dime the unwary runners.

Before their first practice, she was told she'd need:

* New watch

* New socks

* New shoes

* New tights

* Hydration belt

* New sports bra

Luckily she only got the shoes. So, though it's "as expensive as you want to make it," many running wear purveyors will milk as much as they can from you.

Then there is the price of races. $1200 early bird special to register a team for Ragnar Relay. Won by hours, and we only get a t-shirt and a single pizza. $1200 value? Yet, if you fancy running, you've got to pay, or just go run unofficial time trials in your back yard. Don't get me started on the $30 I have to pay USATF once a year to enter a race.

Running is really cheap, those complaining probably buy gear and shoes too often. I ran in college and still run for fun now running around 40mpw. Majority of my running clothes are 5 years or older. I only buy an item when it wears out, I don't buy just to buy. Anyone saying this is expensive probably hasn't played other sports. Tips to starting out look for a good deal on shoes or set a budget of $100 for shoes. Keep track of your mileage on the shoes so you get the most out of them. You only need 2 or 3 pair of shorts and if you are really broke run in t-shirts. If you like to do races pick races with give tech ts away. All but one of my running shirts are from races. If you live in the south as I do then it is even cheaper b/c I don't really need any crazy winter gear.

What makes running "expensive" is the time requirement. Yes, shoes and shorts have gotten pretty high, but you can shop and make all that work. Being able to "afford" the leisure time it takes to run consistently is what makes this such a yuppie sport.

I realize that you're not griping about the cost, but it seems to me that a lot of your costs are unnecessary. $125 for a watch? $30 for a shirt? $11 for socks? A headband? I wear my $70 Nikes (that I've had for over a year - never had foot problems even with over 2000 miles on some shoes), a white undershirt that was about $10 for a 3-pack, some Hanes socks that were about a dollar a pair, and shorts that cost somewhere between $10 and $30. No headband, no watch - and all my running clothes are stuff I wear around anyway. I'm far from being a miser (I usually treat myself to multiple overseas trips per year), but I've never found running gear to really incur such costs.

My daughter just switched to running this year after 4 years of club soccer. Walking through the local running specialty store I felt comfortable letting her buy whatever she wanted. Because it is cheap.

You guys are griping about a couple hundred dollars? And OMG, it costs 35.00 to enter a race? You have no clue. Try 14 MRL games, ODP camps, 6-8 showcase tournaments in LV, Disney, Raleigh...

Minimum of 6000.00 a year for a kid to kick a ball. You think running is a rich man's sport?

Imagine if it had been hockey.

I run about 50 miles a week. Let's see:

Ancient pair of size 10 Asics Nimbus that I plan on running on until they're falling off of my feet: $85 on sale at MC Sports two years ago. This is the only pair of running shoes I own.

Pearl Izumi shorts I bought at the outlet mall five years ago: $25

REI running shirt I bought a few of several years ago: $22

Fifteen pack of Adidas no-show socks from Costco: $12, this is easily enough for a couple of years.

Nexus 5 "Ionic" armband for phone (I run Strava): $6 with free Prime shipping.

Yeah, this whole "running is expensive" idea isn't really proving true here. I'll bet if you add up all of the running gear I own (and I own a lot as it rarely wears out and I've been running for decades) it would still be literally fractions of a penny a mile.

Golf, skiing, tennis, motorsports, equestrian. Those are expensive. Running: not expensive.

Looking at amortized cost, today on my trail run.

Shoes $42. Figure 40 runs before retirement, so $1.00/run.

Shorts: $30. Had them for 5 years. I alternate several pair, so figure $0.10/run

Shirt $15 five years ago. Figure $.10/run

Socks $1 four years ago. Figure $.01/run

Garmin FR60: $70 three years ago. Figure $.05/run.

Coaches tape for ankle: $.30/run

Gatorade on finish: $1

Total: $2.56/run.

CWG wrote:

Fine and dandy if you are close enough. This is about those who live far away from a gym and experience winter.

Suck it up and run outside.

Running is cheap.

EZ10Miler wrote:

What makes running "expensive" is the time requirement.

^ This.

For me, the main reason that running requires so much time is because of the need to prevent injuries. If I could just head out the door and do a workout on the pavement every day without worrying about stress fractures, then I would be spending only 30-60 minutes in total every day on running, and be progressing fast. Instead, there is all this extra garbage I have to do to stay uninjured while making slow forward progress:

* Cross-training to try and strengthen bones, correct muscle imbalances, etc.

* Cross-training to burn extra calories to stay trim. Since I'm naturally bulky, I have to spend more time and effort on weight maintenance than most runners do.

* Running on soft surfaces such as the treadmill and track. This requires time spent driving to the gym or track.

* When I feel a twinge, I spend hours of research on the internet in an attempt to diagnose it.

* Stretching, ice baths, etc.

genuine random a hole wrote:

CWG wrote:

Fine and dandy if you are close enough. This is about those who live far away from a gym and experience winter.

Suck it up and run outside.

Running is cheap.

I have never ran on a treadmill.

Not everyone is tough therefore it can be expensive for them.

I wear shoes until they are practically falling apart, and shorts and shirts (when I need them) until they get ratty, but there are some major expenses with running.

1. Driving to the trails every day. Its great if you live in Boulder and perfect places to run are right outside your door, but for a large portion of people, running around their suburb or city is an awful experience. I typically drive 35 miles both ways, 6 days a week for running.

2. Race entry fees. Way too high. Now 5ks are about $40 in my area and half marathons are 70-100.

3. Travel. If I actually want to run a marathon, or maybe just face solid competition, I'm looking at driving a few hours away and probably getting a hotel room for a night.

4. Eating healthy. As others have said, you can just combat increased need for fun from high mileage with more pasta. But at some point after you get out of college and have been doing that for over 4 years, you get sick of it.

5. Shoes. I probably go through a half dozen pairs a year, if I'm lucky last year's discontinued models will be on sale, but more often than not even if they are, my size is usually about the first to sale out. You guys saying how you can always find cheap discontinued shoes must have size 6 or 14 feet or something.

6. Gym membership. In my area they do not clear the roads of ice in the winter. This means running outside is an impossibility unless you're some sort of machoist trail runner using yaktrax to go 9 minute miles. Even paying a monthly fee for just january and february, or paying per visit isn't cheap. A lot of gyms make you pay for a year up front too and if they are the only game in town, thats what you have to do. I never realized how good I had it when I had free access to an indoor track and campus was always plowed in college.

Now this is all cheaper than triathlon, golf, cycling, and some other sports. Running is one of the few sports where it is practical to compete as an adult. When is the last time you saw an open swim meet for adults or a competitive adult basketball league?

it's really pretty simple:

running is very inexpensive

doing races can get very expensive

Running is expensive? Ha, that's funny. If y'all really think that I can only guess you've never done another sport seriously. I don't think it's appropriate to factor in travel and diet, or PT sessions, as those are mostly up to each athlete and can be astronomical in any sport if people go crazy.

CYCLING: $6000 - $11000/year

(The figures below are very much middle of the road. Figure that'll go down to about $6000 per year once that initial bike is bought and selling it can be rolled into partially offset any new bike cost.)

$3000 - Bike

$1000 - Powermeter

$1000 - Race Wheels

$0300 - Shoes

$1000 - 5 Kits (jersey/bibs)

$0500 - Tools and a bike stand

$0200 - Cheap stationary trainer

$0200 - Helmet

$0200 - Recurring Monthly Cost (bike/gear maintenance)

$0100 - Race entry fees (3 per month)

$0200 - Physical Therapy tools used by self

$XXXX - About 25 hours per week time investment

Running: $3000/year

$0600 - New training shoes every other month

$0200 - Two pair of race shoes per year

$0400 - 13 pairs of running shorts (double M-S, single Sun)

$0300 - 13 sleeveless tech shirts/singlets

$0100 - 1 year supply of super thin running socks

$0100 - Race entry fees (3 per month)

$0200 - Physical Therapy tools used by self

$XXXX - About 15 hours per week time investment

Running is exceptionally inexpensive compared to any other sport out there. Every other sport uses what runners use for equipment just to start with. The exception being swimming maybe since they aren't using shoes, but that sport is also more expensive than running.

Hank Kerr wrote:

My daughter just switched to running this year after 4 years of club soccer. Walking through the local running specialty store I felt comfortable letting her buy whatever she wanted. Because it is cheap.

You guys are griping about a couple hundred dollars? And OMG, it costs 35.00 to enter a race? You have no clue. Try 14 MRL games, ODP camps, 6-8 showcase tournaments in LV, Disney, Raleigh...

Minimum of 6000.00 a year for a kid to kick a ball. You think running is a rich man's sport?

Imagine if it had been hockey.

Hockey is going through the exact same issue as we are discussing right now, but to a much larger degree. It is also showing in the sense that the talent level in the NHL is not as good as it was 20 years ago.

From what used to be a middle-class sport where even the lower class could still hone their skills on the ponds (and only played organized if they were good enough) to now being an upper middle class sport where the lower class can't even afford a full set of equipment (and even the middle class is struggling with the costs of ice time).

Add in culture change (preferring state of the art facilities) and climate change (southern Ontario hit hard by this) and outdoor hockey, in particular pond hockey, is starting to look like a thing of the past.

Now back to this discussion:

The driving factor of increased cost in running is definitely in the demographic. Before (as you guys are describing all over the forums), runners would run to compete and wouldn't consider entering if they would be in good contention for DFL. Now, the balance has shifted to the everyone's a winner mentality where everyone gets a medal, but now overall winning prizes have been downgraded or taken away. These are the same people who will pay premium prices for state of the art gear just so that they can finish a race.

doo doo wrote:

Personally I get all my shoes from friends who are shoe company reps or else professionals my same size who have too many shoes (though my best source lost his contract).

I wear about 8 pairs of shorts I have been given or taken from high school and college uniforms. I have 3 pairs I bought.

I wear free cotton t-shirts.

Now I know that is not how everyone does it. I worked for a running shoe store for a while and man oh man did people love to consume. Particularly women. Women think you need a lot of expensive stuff and stay up to date on fashion.

I find it interesting how women are supposed to be the bastion of empathy and yet consume all this bogus that requires lots of resources and gas, damning this earth and fueling wars.

That got out of hand.

lol that post escalated quickly. From being a smart and frugal runner to women damning humanity.

I'm just thinking that many working poor and working class people are in jobs that make going for the daily run very difficult. If you are doing hard, manual labor, or you have a weird split ship schedule, few weekends off, you work and sleep at odd hours... the chance you getting in the consistency needed is just going to be rare.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's going to less common than the professionals or 9-5 types.

Running is a cheap sport. As has been pointed out ad nauseum you can get by and be really fast on about $500 in total costs throughout the year. Maybe a little more if you like expensive races out of town. This is probably less than you spend on cable TV...

I think the problem is that most hardcore "runners" are cheap. They are the kind of people who save all their twist ties on bread bags in a drawer. They want to spend as little money as possible and will wear everything into the ground. These are the kind of people who instead of buying a sandwich at subway, drive to the grocery store and buy stuff to make PB&J in the parking lot.

You average recreational "runner" is not cheap and is willing to spend lots of money on high quality equipment they probably don't need. I've heard that runnersworld magazine has one of the richest readerships in the country. The industry needs all kinds and the money they provide.

Running is one of the few sports where individuals from third world countries have a legitimate shot at an olympic medal. So it is pretty safe to say that it is an inexpensive sport (relative to all of the others). We make it expensive in this country by paying too much for shoes and traveling more than is necessary.

EZ10Miler wrote:

I'm just thinking that many working poor and working class people are in jobs that make going for the daily run very difficult. If you are doing hard, manual labor, or you have a weird split ship schedule, few weekends off, you work and sleep at odd hours... the chance you getting in the consistency needed is just going to be rare.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's going to less common than the professionals or 9-5 types.

I did hard manual labor and was very poor and ran my best during that period.

Saying you can't do it is a cop out.