Is the running boom over?

Runner 223 wrote:

It would be great if they would actually run the Marathon. But I don't see that with finishers beyond the 6 hour mark. And no, these are not 80 year olds, they finished a lot earlier already. We are talking about 30-50 year olds.

I thought those over 6 hours were generally DNF or DQ'd? Yes they get a medal but are not technically an official finisher. In Chicago it is 6:30:00. You don't get in the paper or book.

Luv2Run wrote:

The RRCA has stats on race participation. IIRC, there has been a slight downturn in people racing traditional events. Based on a small sample size it seems the non-traditional races have also dwindled. By non-traditional I mean mud runs, color runs, Spartan runs, etc.

It would not be surprising if it has.

The mud runs, color runs and spartan runs were the worst. Clogged up my Facebook and Insta for years. Tons of people bought into that scam and thought they "accomplished" something. They accomplished proving themselves as fools. A fool and their money are soon parted.

Good riddance!

OP: "Running" and "race participation numbers" aren't synonymous.

It's booming exponentially in China, Philippines, Thailand, India, Malaysia, and even in Latin America. The running boom in Asia really started taking off around 2015-2017, and now it's absolutely huge. Some marathons can be ridiculously difficult to get a spot in. Some close within an hour of opening.

In the US and Europe, it's stagnating because the boom already happened decades ago.

run vs race wrote:

OP: "Running" and "race participation numbers" aren't synonymous.

How true that is. I started running in high school when I went out for the XC team my junior year back in 1975 wearing my brand new Nike Cortez leather running shoes. (I know you all are envious of those shoes!) Ran all through high school and then in college on a D1 team. Ran after that and participated in a lot of road races. Last race was in October 2000. I haven't raced since then or joined any running club or anything running related. Therefore I am a silent participant in the sport but wouldn't be counted in their statistics.

FlyingFast wrote:

It's booming exponentially in China, Philippines, Thailand, India, Malaysia, and even in Latin America. The running boom in Asia really started taking off around 2015-2017, and now it's absolutely huge. Some marathons can be ridiculously difficult to get a spot in. Some close within an hour of opening.

In the US and Europe, it's stagnating because the boom already happened decades ago.

I'd bet one of the things driving the boom in other parts of the world is buy-in from government officials which helps keep the costs down to the runners. From what I can tell, most foreign races seem to be a lot cheaper than American ones (I may be wrong here). I'm wondering if this is simply due to the fact that Americans want all this crap (medal, tech shirt, timing, etc) and/or everyone has their hand out looking to profit (this includes police, city officials, RDs) more than they are in it "for the good of the sport".

How much is a typical 5k these days? $25 and up? Unless you really care about the charity, you probably aren't paying that. Myself? I'm not paying that or $50 for a 10k. I realize most everyone on LetsRun gets elite entries and doesn't have to pay race entry fees ;)

Runner's World certainly isn't helping. They've ruined the magazine. It's now a People magazine, with a slight slant towards running. Not good. Sad!

I won't speak for all of the countries but in Thailand the running boom took off in the mid to late 90's. Their swag bag has a lot of stuff in it too, probably more than in the USA. It's great when you enter a race put on by a beer company like Singha as they would give you a token for a beer when you finished.

Thailand is now seeing a second, even bigger running boom, or shall we say, hobby jogging boom.

10.5k races costing around $12-$15 are popping up all over the country, and they're called mini-marathons. It's become the latest craze in Thailand. 5k's accompanying the 10.5k main runs are always called fun runs and don't have trophies, awards or times.

Are Park Runs still a thing in the UK? They are free if I recall correctly. If participation is dropping off there that would be very telling.

Thai runs wrote:

Thailand is now seeing a second, even bigger running boom, or shall we say, hobby jogging boom.

10.5k races costing around $12-$15 are popping up all over the country, and they're called mini-marathons. It's become the latest craze in Thailand. 5k's accompanying the 10.5k main runs are always called fun runs and don't have trophies, awards or times.

Ah yes, the mini-marathon. Anything to associate the word 'marathon' with a lesser race to attract narcissistic hobby joggers!

Philip Exeter CC wrote:

Fentrekker wrote:

I remember 1987 when the first time the running boom ended.

What did that look like? How does it compare to today?

I speak from the perspective of organizing races in the mid-Atlantic and Washington, DC area, and as a participant. It was about the time that The Runner, a very good magazine, merged with Runner's World, which had become a disappointing magazine. (Runner's World would later improve only to descend yet again, in my opinion.) This also coincided at the time with a slackening in participation level of regional races, the aging of some of the serious amateurs (sub-3 marathoners), and the sudden decline in American pro distance running. It just felt like wind slackened on the whole movement. But was only a slackening--one side of a cycle. I think the major marathons were a bit like beacons at this time and eventually, by the late 90s, our regional races began to see participation levels rise again.

Thai runs wrote:

Thailand is now seeing a second, even bigger running boom, or shall we say, hobby jogging boom.

10.5k races costing around $12-$15 are popping up all over the country, and they're called mini-marathons. It's become the latest craze in Thailand. 5k's accompanying the 10.5k main runs are always called fun runs and don't have trophies, awards or times.

That's a big increase in the race fee! Do they still have the UN Day run in October and the Vertical Marathon at the Banyan Tree?

Flying Faster wrote:

Thai runs wrote:

Thailand is now seeing a second, even bigger running boom, or shall we say, hobby jogging boom.

10.5k races costing around $12-$15 are popping up all over the country, and they're called mini-marathons. It's become the latest craze in Thailand. 5k's accompanying the 10.5k main runs are always called fun runs and don't have trophies, awards or times.

That's a big increase in the race fee! Do they still have the UN Day run in October and the Vertical Marathon at the Banyan Tree?

When were you in Thailand? I don't know what you're talking about. $12-$15 is now easily affordable by the Thai middle class. At these prices, tickets sell out fast.

Here's what the running scene now looks like in Thailand.

Mini Marathons are a sham wrote:

Thai runs wrote:

Thailand is now seeing a second, even bigger running boom, or shall we say, hobby jogging boom.

10.5k races costing around $12-$15 are popping up all over the country, and they're called mini-marathons. It's become the latest craze in Thailand. 5k's accompanying the 10.5k main runs are always called fun runs and don't have trophies, awards or times.

Ah yes, the mini-marathon. Anything to associate the word 'marathon' with a lesser race to attract narcissistic hobby joggers!

Thailand has a very unique hobby jogging scene. Every 10.5k mini-marathon event is saturated with photographers who post photos of joggers smiling and posing. They post their photos on Facebook and will sell hi-res photos without watermarks if you pay several dollars. It's amazing how hardly anyone looks serious in the photos, even if the weather is brutally hot and humid. I guess it's part of their happy-go-lucky culture. It's also a cooperative, collective kind of culture where people don't really want to compete against each other very much or try really hard. Thus you can see how Thai culture is perfectly suited to having these hobby jogging mass participant runs.

Even in the brutally hot, humid weather with dew points that are regularly in the 73-77 range, everyone shows to run at those events. Start time is almost always at 6 am, although there are a few night runs too. It's also incredible how many of the joggers hardly even break a sweat in such conditions. Looks like smaller Southeast Asian bodies just deal with the heat and humidity a lot better.

Full marathons start at 3 am, sometimes even 2 am. Half marathons usually start at 4 am. This is because at 8 am, the sun starts heat up everything, and at 9 am it gets brutally hot. At 10 am, you are basically dead.

* Even in the brutally hot, humid weather with dew points that are regularly in the 73-77 range, plenty of people still show to run at those events

I'll start a new thread about the Thai running scene. It's really quite interesting and is not well known to the Western world.

You clearly aren’t on instagram with the instarunner era...I can’t even stand another post about how many miles these chics did today and how amazing they are. They aim to “inspire” but it’s more a “look at me” thing imo. To be honest I don’t believe half of the runs are true. I mean they’re all running over 100miles a week and not fast or really all that in shape so I beg to differ.

The boom is over because I was 10 when the first boom took off in my town, and I'm in my 50s now. A great deal of the adults who were in on that boom are dead.

But overall, it's been addressed here already.

Marathons or nothing, since nobody cares that you ran 5 hours, you did it.

All road races cost more that I used to spend in a month, and I raced 6-8 times back then.

Why do a road race when I can do a Spartan race or whatever (which I did one of, and finished 7th with zero prep, so they suck just as much as marathons but are at least different).

I think this is a lot of the reason for the ultramarathon movement. it's all about one-upping and doing something bigger and better than the last person. Quite frankly ultra-running is no longer running it's just endurance for the sake of endurance.