For a lot of people, walking 5k is a challenge they don't do often. Signing up for an event gives them motivation and enables them to let many others know that they've accomplished the task. Fifty dollars isn't a big deal, and has been mentioned, it usually goes to a good cause.
A lot of these posts have brought up the charity angle, and maybe this is motivation for many people. But doesn't most of the money these days go to the cops and the insurance company?
Raced a local 5K this morning and i think at least half of the over 1000 participants walked it. Why do people spend $50 to wake up at 5am to walk 5K on the road?! I don’t get it.
Gotta start somewhere. My first run was a 5k and I walked a third of the way. Three years later I qualified for Boston at 23 minutes under my BQ time. Besides running Boston every year I still run/walk several 5k's per year. Try running/walking alongside someone's grandmother who has it on her bucket list. Try running/walking alongside one of your grandchildren who's there to enjoy all the excitement. Try running/walking alongside a good friend's sister that has Downs Syndrome. $50 to be part of that excitement? Count me in all day long.
I do exactly this every September to raise money for Celiac disease research
Why not work for a couple of hours and then give the research agency an extra $100? Is this about competing in a race or helping the Celiacs?
No doubt charities have struck on a functional fundraising recipe with walks and races etc... but seriously the value of the labor being spent at the events probably greatly outweighs the monetary value realized by the organizers.
In the US that is blocked by Professional Race Organizers lobby lawyers.
That’s generally not true. The challenge is more that there is not a sufficiently robust strategy for creating thriving parkrun events in the US, with the result that volunteer organizers and landowners are less willing to take the leap. Some US cities do now have thriving parkrun events every week. In other cities they struggle. The parkrun organization in the UK has shown little interest in learning from that variability. If you could reliably start such events in the US that drew 200/week, I think a lot more cities would want to sign on. Obstruction from commercial race organizers or lawyers has rarely been the key barrier.
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