RDs why are your virtual marathons $115?

LoL. People will actually do these because they need structure and validation in order to gather the energy and right mind set to simply exercise.

RDs can't use the excuse of not making money on races from having to shut down the roads. The no refund stuff is disturbing. Just for people to line their personal bank accounts as always.

Probably more IT support costs.

/s

Now it’s morphed in OYO, on your own. Here’s a map. There’s a public bathroom at the park. I’ll be sitting at the halfway with some bottled water. That’ll be $100 please. I need to jump on this. No need for permits or crowd control. Just buy a couple hundred bottles of water at wal mart for $30. Order some crappy unisex shirt and design a medal that’s shaped like a pine tree. I’d probably make profit after 10 people sign up.

So.....??? Go to it. Report back please. Would love to hear how it went. I surprised myself by signing up for one last year. Much, much less expensive and was put on by my local running club. Allprofits went to a good cause. I never went & picked up the shirt or medal. I imagine I did it partly as a motivator (knowing my time would be broadcast out there on race results) and to let some of my competitors know I hadn't passed away (I don't do Strava or the like).

Higher entry fees result in more money for the charity and more money for the race director. Do you understand math?

Some race directors make more than ever.

Last year a TN race director made probably close to half a Million Dollars with a long virtual race.

Go away rainy day wrote:

Higher entry fees result in more money for the charity and more money for the race director. Do you understand math?

Charity. Hahahhahahhahaha. Yeah right. The Jeff Fahey rode2recovery century cycling challenge raising funds supporting Jeff Fahey as he rides around the country. Sure sure. Those charities? Or how about the guy that had his own website to donate to him running around the world for charity? The charity button on his page went straight to his bank account.

I disagree, very few actually check on what exactly makes it to the charity. 10-15% tops after expenses of the RD. Then how much of that 10-15% makes it past the salaries of the fund raisers for the charity and the salaries of the CEO of the charity. Race director is a very lucrative career and basically goes without scrutiny. Virtual races is a godsend, folks throw money at you for a t-shirt and medal

A virtual run/ride/swim is just a scam. Nothing but a good old American scam. These semi to full on professional RD's are just trying something different to protect their income stream. I wouldn't give them a dime for something I can do myself.

Look, here's what you do. Run/ride/swim whatever it is you want to run/ride/swim. Then select a charity of your choice to donate money to. That way you can cut out the RD virtual scam from siphoning off money to the charity to line their pockets.

RD Scams wrote:

A virtual run/ride/swim is just a scam. Nothing but a good old American scam. These semi to full on professional RD's are just trying something different to protect their income stream. I wouldn't give them a dime for something I can do myself.

Look, here's what you do. Run/ride/swim whatever it is you want to run/ride/swim. Then select a charity of your choice to donate money to. That way you can cut out the RD virtual scam from siphoning off money to the charity to line their pockets.

Yeah RDs need to fess up and admit they are screwing everyone over. Even before virtual races RDs have no business telling everyone they spent all the race entry fees before the race as race expenses, therefore no refunds. All those thousands of dollars they take in on water and cheap shirts, and a few misplaced flags for ultras? No way losers. Gonna start naming names if we don’t get an apology.

It’s not a scam, people know what they are signing up for. It’s a tshirt and a medal and brag about your 1:58 half marathon. Some people truly just need to put something on the calendar for motivation.

I would never sign up for a virtual race, but then again I haven’t signed up for many in person races either in the past several years. I’m not cheap, when I do race, they are destination marathons. I don’t see the point of a local 10K, unless it’s an old school <$50 type race. I can go out and run a fast 6.2 anywhere, and I’m not winning overall and don’t care about age group awards.

Some people love it. They have a shrine for all the finisher medals. More power to them and the RDs that make a living from it.

Why not pay in virtual dollars?

Why was it ever $115 when they did close the roads?

20 bucks, and I get a t-shirt, or forget it.

rrrsolo wrote:

I disagree, very few actually check on what exactly makes it to the charity. 10-15% tops after expenses of the RD. Then how much of that 10-15% makes it past the salaries of the fund raisers for the charity and the salaries of the CEO of the charity. Race director is a very lucrative career and basically goes without scrutiny. Virtual races is a godsend, folks throw money at you for a t-shirt and medal

To that point, I did a local 5k with MADD as the beneficiary. It was a pretty big deal though. Probably 1000 or so participants. Mostly walkers. The RD plastered her face across social media. She did multiple tv/radio interviews leading up to the race.

The kicker was race morning she was sure to have the camera crews follow her around as she posed in front of all the landmarks. She did the long, ridiculous speech after we were corralled. To finish up she delayed the start of the race a few minutes so she couple position herself in front of the runners to get a few more snaps. It was “look at me. I did this. All these people are here because of me. Take a few more pictures as proof of how beautiful I am.”

There are definitely shady RD’s out there and I doubt she did that job out of the kindness of her heart. It’s was a massive production and she should be compensated, but I truly wonder how much went to charity after watching her prance around.

lawnmower man Jeff Fahey wrote:

Now it’s morphed in OYO, on your own. Here’s a map. There’s a public bathroom at the park. I’ll be sitting at the halfway with some bottled water. That’ll be $100 please. I need to jump on this. No need for permits or crowd control. Just buy a couple hundred bottles of water at wal mart for $30. Order some crappy unisex shirt and design a medal that’s shaped like a pine tree. I’d probably make profit after 10 people sign up.

Shamrock Marathon 2021 in a nutshell right here.

$100 for the "experience" of running on open paths and roads and the trails inside a state park. Oh! But you do get chip timing and an official start/finish line and their usually crappy tech shirt, hat and medal.

All of their events (8k, half, full) are "sold out". Shamrock Marathon organizers are probably making 80% profit (minimum) on every runner.

Morons.

To clarify above:

The people signing up for this are the morons.

Good on the organizers for realizing these morons are out there.

Shame on the organizers for charging what I view is way too much, but apparently plenty of people are fine with this amount.

Because people are stupid enough to pay it

Races cost more now than they did before they were virtual. Now they have to ship a medal and tee shirt. The collectors used to all go to one place and pick them up, which eliminated the shipping costs.

Sheep must be sheared regularly.