When did registering for races get so annoying?

I run one race a year - a marathon. That's it. I simply can't afford $45 for a lame 10k. There are cheaper races out there, but they're pretty low-key. You can even register for them day of.

However, the biggest rip off of them all is Wasatch Back. $130 a person. Your team has to find volunteers who'll pull an all-nighter watching runners shuffle by on a long stretch of highway in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. No awards. Oh, they do have a pasta dinner...but it's not covered in your $130 entrance fee.

To Seb and Crit

The races you put on are exactly what we are talking about. The longtime runners who like to race a lot certainly don't want to fill their closet up with gear from a single race. We don't want to run through the Vegas strip every race. We don't want enough money thrown at the 3rd place guy you have to camera the finish. We don't want half of our entry to go to a charity we care nothing about.

I can still find a few "old-style" races and I do those but the other weeks that I would have normally raced I just go do something else.

The real loser in this whole new trend in prices is the father trying to make a family activity out of it for his kids. Where three race numbers and no forced tshirts may have cost me 21 bucks 15 years ago now that's up to a whopping 90 bucks if I am lucky

the charity thing has gotten out of hand, along with the other beefs mentioned -- cost, gear you don't want, email harassment. i'll decide which charity i want to give to, not you because i signed up for a road race.

kind of like health insurance and work in a way. why should health insurance be linked with work? why not groceries or haircuts? and when did charity become so intertwined with running? charity is great--although many organizations are scams or half-scams--but just let me run the damn race!

nyrr is very guilty of these things. exorbitant fees, email harassment, and team charity running. i don't know, it's sad because runners who actually love to run are being shutout, as illustrated by responses to this thread.

Ironic that the ad I see at the bottom of the page for this thread is a run where you can crawl through the mud for $60 (non-competitive) or $80 (competitive). That pretty much says it all.

Anyway, a big thing I don't like about it is young people just getting started or just coming out of college (i.e. broke) just can't afford it. So the races have become middle age middle/middle-upper class events for the semi-serious. Our sport is losing the new blood and the best, most competitive runners.

One solution: Put on a local race yourself. I started one 20 years ago and runners have really come to appreciate and enjoy it. Pick a date...make up a flyer and make a bunch of copies...find a local park with a trail or bike path and borrow a wheel to carefully measure out a course as accurately as you can...mark it with cones or whatever or have friends/family direct people if need be (just sending people around a loop is easiest)...hand out popsicle sticks at the end and have people write down their name/age and time as they hear you read it off when they cross the finish line...collect the popsicle sticks, and you're good with results.

For the price of what I would pay for a single race elsewhere, I put on this race an maybe even buy a few bananas/apples/bagels, and/or get a few local establishments kick in a gift certificate or two. Keep it SIMPLE.

I don't charge anything, but I'm sure if you even just charged $5 or whatever to defray your costs, people would appreciate it. Heck, if 25 people around an area each did one race, you could have races like this every other weekend.

Just an idea that has worked for me and a few others in our area. Give it a try...

When iliterate scoundrels like you decided forums will lead to commentary that is is insightful and smart and cool. Seriously you are stupid.

borrow a wheel to carefully measure out a course as accurately as you can...

Or, you can just use one of the existing certified courses in your area:

I guess if there is enough demand, they can have high prices and small windows to enter.

That means running is popular. Good, right?

For those in the Baltimore area, there's a small 5K in Odenton for $12.

Here:

Must have hit post by mistake.

Odenton, MD - Seven Oaks 5K

http://www.thehomepage.biz/SOES.html

$12

May 10

Register by April 18 to get the shirt

Don't expect anything great.

12 bucks to line up and have fun with a little tempo run.

Lawyers and suburban housewives....

Also 70 plus. Hate the early registration. Ran a trail run last weekend. Great trail and volunteers. Was told no 70 age group. After race found out there was a 70 age group. I won but haven't seen my name listed in the age group results yet. I did email the director. Was told I would be sent my age group award. Would rather see my name in the results. Living on an adequate fixed income and yearn for less entry fees.

trailrunner70 wrote:

Ditto to many here about all these 5k's. They charge $ 35, $ 40, and up, to run a crummy 3+ miles. And yes, at age 70 there is vitually no competition out there and I've won many age group awards, but it is phony ego gratification due to the small number of competitors. Plus with all those little $ 10 merchandise coupons I now have too many socks !

Bottom line, I now run virtually no road races and stick to trail races. They are also a lot more fun.

I refuse to sign up for a race online or pay unreasonable amounts of money to run a race. There's plenty of races out there that are reasonable and allow for a printable application to mail in. The only way to stop the process is to boycott the process.

Balian wrote:

The first time I entered a race

My first road race was a weekly club event. They charged two bucks. There were no numbers and no prizes. No charitable causes. No free bottles of water. I ran about 17 flat for 10th.

In UK at least there are more options

Our club runs in local xc league. Cost £1 individual entry or paid by club.

Parkruns 5km are everywhere and free. When I was younger the only 5km races where called fun runs. So you would get a 10km race and a fun run which I would never do despite being my better event

Check this for a race going back 25 years. £5 entry (prob less can't remember). I finished about 15th and still got a load of beers. The race was midday but they gave out the prizes in a nightclub. After the prizes where given out they put some music on which only old timers will recognise.da da daa da da da daaa. I though no, it can't be but on came a stripper

Tell me now is better!

Red Hook Crit is sweet, and nothing like the $50 5Ks people are complaining about.

For people that don't know, the Crit has a smallish (few hundred) fast field (14:xx winner?) and is on a cool spectator-friendly course (repeated loop, aka criterium). It's connected to an awesome bike race that goes off afterward on the same course and is huge fun to watch. These cycling guys know how to do an event that is great for real athletes, decent weekenders and spectators alike. A must-see for every RD or fan who wants road running races to be as badash as they could be.

Go do it in Brooklyn or just watch the videos online.

$35 5k is too much for me wrote:

To Seb and Crit

The races you put on are exactly what we are talking about. The longtime runners who like to race a lot certainly don't want to fill their closet up with gear from a single race. We don't want to run through the Vegas strip every race. We don't want enough money thrown at the 3rd place guy you have to camera the finish. We don't want half of our entry to go to a charity we care nothing about.

I can still find a few "old-style" races and I do those but the other weeks that I would have normally raced I just go do something else.

In the case of the Red Hook Crit, you're missing out.

Go watch it if you're in the area, or catch a cycling criterium race in your city. This is exactly what running races should have turned into, and not what you should be fighting. I say this as someone who happened to watch the race on vacation, and have no stake in it at all.

Generally all I want in an event is an accurate course, maybe with milemarkers and hopefully with someone to race. But the Crit is a true RACE event, not a participation event. Pretty cool thing for a 15:xx guy to do. WAY better value than paying the same money to race in the park you train in every day.

I'd assume they mostly need the cameras for the cycling photofinish btw.

GLIACho wrote:

When iliterate scoundrels like you decided forums will lead to commentary that is is insightful and smart and cool. Seriously you are stupid.

I'm your long lost cousin, GLIOCho. Everyone in the family has always known that you are a subie. Do you know what that means?

You guys posting about "the good ol days of $5 races" are missing the entire point of this thread. Races can't cost $5 any more, that's a stupid and ridiculous thing to harp about.

Too me the real concern is the quality of the event and availability. Having to register for an event 6-8 mo. in advance isn't a good thing, paying to enter a race and the course is short (or long), it's poorly marked, there's no chip timing, the awards are screwed up, the overall & age group awards are terrible, and it takes hours to get the results... THESE are things RDs need to worry about.

If to run a race properly coast $45+ then that's the cost of our sport. Golfers don't get to golf for free, runners shouldn't expect 1981 prices for a 2014 event.

Crit fan wrote:

In the case of the Red Hook Crit, you're missing out.

Go watch it if you're in the area, or catch a cycling criterium race in your city. This is exactly what running races should have turned into, and not what you should be fighting. I say this as someone who happened to watch the race on vacation, and have no stake in it at all.

Generally all I want in an event is an accurate course, maybe with milemarkers and hopefully with someone to race. But the Crit is a true RACE event, not a participation event. Pretty cool thing for a 15:xx guy to do. WAY better value than paying the same money to race in the park you train in every day.

I'd assume they mostly need the cameras for the cycling photofinish btw.

I've always wanted running to go the cycling route: huge, mass participation events for the novices and semi-serious (like century rides) with small, focused events for those who are competitive (like crits).

I've always wanted to start a low-key Saturday morning race series. I want to set it up like a crit where we take over the parking lot of some office park, map out a loop course, and race. Try to keep the overhead as small as possible.