To Race Directors:

No one? Any one? Something?

.

You're in your 40's or 50's and you can't afford a few hundred bucks a year to enter races? What are you, homeless?

yessir wrote:

At the very least, consider future races offering complimentary entry for runners who meet qualifying times.

Um, sorry, but 3rd overall at the 14th Annual West Bumblef**k 5k does not entitle you to anything special. Go bitch somewhere else.

welcome to jeff galloway's world of 5 hour marathons.

your "races" are now charity walks for the obese.

Young pee ants!!! Your time is near and you will be singing a different toon.

mzx wrote:

You're in your 40's or 50's and you can't afford a few hundred bucks a year to enter races? What are you, homeless?

No. Not homeless. Own my own home.

Who do you live with babyman? Mommy?

yessir wrote:

a different toon.

A cartoon?

Sure. If that's what you're looking for babyman.

Not looking for the "Pee Ant Perspective"

Any supporting views?

Quit whining you pussy. Do you mean to tell me winning a $20 gift certificate for 3rd place in the cowfart 5k/healthwalk masters division is going to make some great difference in your life?

Go over to runnersworld you loser, you'll be a regular oracle over there.

Notice my posting "PIZ ANT". LOOKING FOR RACE DIRECTORS.

So far the narrow minded views are representative of the races I've been running. LACKING.

Get a life PIZ ANT!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have the biggest loser of the year right here on the boards this weekend.

Not only is he a zero, but he has to come back to post again and again to try to make his point.

Yessir, you have no clue. Races cost money to put on. There are many more costs than you most likely realize. On top of this, you have the gaul to complain about missing out on a raffle drawing!

Please go take up another sport.

As a coach I really have to wonder why "top runners" would consider racing every weekend of the year anyways. I don't see how "limiting" the races they run is a bad idea.

As a race director, I'll say that the cost of putting on a QUALITY event has risen dramatically, as we have to careful consider and manage risk, deal with security and safety, as well as keep the actual nuts and bolts of the race in decent condition, OR risk losing people because the event is sub-par or just "looks shoddy"

People are much more aware of QUALITY as opposed to VALUE when it comes to certain things. And, obviously, there is a line that can be crossed, but that line is thin and grey.

Every year I put on a race for a local charity, it raises about $3000-3500 for it, and I'm totally unsurprised that people keep showing up to run 5 Kilometers and pay $25 for it. We put on a quality event with unique and coveted prizes, free food, and decent competition. It ends up being a small event, with only about 140 people in the race, but the crowd is fiercly loyal to the event.

I guess, I don't understand your overall dissatisfaction... Is someone holding a gun to your head and telling you to race here and there? Do you not have a choice in what you do with your weekends?

Frankly, I think your point of view is similar to many aging Americans, yearning for a nostalgic idea that hasn't ever REALLY existed, but you see it as happening. We're no longer enjoying Bill Rodgers Running Revolution, but people expect to show up to a road race and be told something other than, "here's a shirt, there's a cone one and half miles from here, head out, turn and come back" Maybe that was raw, like some sort of fight club, but it's not acceptable to average-joe road-racer.

What is interesting is that cycling races offer prize money, but running races rarely do.

3rd place? time? race? level of competition? I'm guessing your not a "top runner" as you claim to be

yessir wrote:

I notice many sponsors on the back of my race shirt and hope races will again start recognizing the benefits of top competitive runners and once again start giving

back to the runners who are the backbone of their event.

competitive runners are the backbone of the sport, not the event.

ive organized a couple of races, annually, and i can say the competitive runners, who often get comped entries and snap up the prizes, are not the backbone. the backbone is made up of the masses who pay the entry fees. 5, 10, 20, or 30 competitive runners wont make a dent in revenues for a large race.

while it's nice to cater to competitive runners, which i do, from a business standpoint, they dont matter.

Of course it takes a lot of money to put on a first class event, feed everyone, make a lot of money for charity, and protect yourself from getting sued.

There aren't many races anymore that you pay a few bucks, get a couple hundred competitive runners, run out in the country where you need minimal services, pick up your gift certificate to the local running store, and go home.

This will never happen again because nobody wants to take the time to just do something because they enjoy it. The best races were usually put on by the runners who often ran the race too. After a few years, they got tired of doing it and nobody else stepped up to take over. If the races survived, they got taken over by the hobbyjoggers.

There are still some great races around. You just have to look a little harder.

Big money awards don't always make for a good race. We had a great Half Marathon years ago in Fairfield Ct. The top guys would run 1:04 on a hot day in the Summer. The great thing about it was there were plenty of local runners running between 1:06 and 1:20. Now it is a van full of Ethiopian runners 1:03 - 1:06 and then a huge gap (with exception to the two or three Africans that fell off the pace) until 1:16.

So what happened? I don't know. But it had little to do with prize money.