Crazy how road race entrance fees have increased!

Yeah, but I bet the finisher medals were crap.

Ha! Only finisher medal was the marathon. I never saw a finisher medal for anything under a marathon distance until the 2000s.

Late 70s you could run a lot of marathons for $5 entry.

Good runners don’t pay entey fees

In 1979 you could run the San Francisco Marathon for $5 ($7 late entry). You got a t-shirt and refreshments. Of course you had to wait months for the results booklet.

The field was limited to 4000 runners. Converse gave away 71 pairs of their World Class Trainers (running shoes to the top age group runners. Open men 18-29... 20 pairs, sub master men 30-39... 15 pairs, etc. The women who won shoes also received running tops and running shorts from MOVING COMFORT) There were also other merchandise prizes given away at random.

The race was co-sponsored by Converse and the PAMAKIDS , a local running cub. (Pa, Ma and the kids)

I got all this info off an old entry form I kept.

I just noticed on the bottom of the form that PAMAKID RUNNERS was providing housing for out-of-town runners. Space is limited.

If you can find something under $30 these days, you might as well throw a party in celebration.

I will pay more than that if the competition is expected to be good, but considering that most races lack prize money and cost $30+, not worth it the majority of the time.

Greed by all parties involved.

The runners want more for their money (post-race, medals, tech shirts, clocks every mile, chip timing, etc).

Municipalities involved charge an arm and a leg for permit fees and "overtime" police rates. (This means higher cost to the runners...and now you are into the whole "If I pay more, I expect more" mentality of the runners).

More RDs in it for the $ than before.

My wife and I and 4 kids all run. We do very few races because $300 for a good race for 6 people is a bit steep. I also remember $10 being the norm when it was just me.

Running family wrote:

My wife and I and 4 kids all run. We do very few races because $300 for a good race for 6 people is a bit steep. I also remember $10 being the norm when it was just me.

Might as well plan a weekend trip for that price. It would be more fun.

Not only is price going up, but quality is going down. For example, I did a road 5k a few months ago that cost $40 and instead of closing down the road like previous years, they changed up the course to have us run on public trail among the dog walkers and cyclists.

Old Man Runner wrote:

More RDs in it for the $ than before.

This part is almost unavoidable. My club has been putting on races for years and we had to cut down due to all the extra layers of BS that have been added throughout the years. Even our insurance in the last few years has been m ore complicated. For the USATF sanction we have to submit a safety plan for the entire course. This would be all ok if any one of us had time for it.

jamin wrote:

Not only is price going up, but quality is going down. For example, I did a road 5k a few months ago that cost $40 and instead of closing down the road like previous years, they changed up the course to have us run on public trail among the dog walkers and cyclists.

This is increasingly common and part of is that residents do a lot of moaning about closing down roads for a race and cities might encourage taking the race off the roads. I did a race last year and, as the race leader, I had a motorcycle escort down a walk/bike path and people were understandably alarmed. It was hilarious.

And you used to able to see a picture show and get a burger and shake for a nickel, I tell ya!

Entry fees are higher. Amenities are greater. Is the value changing? Do runners get what they pay for? Is there less participation because of higher entry fees? Where is the trend going?

I know this sounds like a research project.

Tom

Yep, the good old times.

I would not pay $80-250 for a Half Marathon. I just don't.

Prices got ridiculous expensive but the aid stations are not better at all.

I get that a lot of traffic control has to be paid these days and that probably does not come cheap. Besides that I could live without all the T-Shirts, Medals, cups ....you name it.

But there are bargains out there. The running club in Memphis for example puts out great running series for the price of one Half Marathon. 10 races from 5k to HM (2 each for $90 last year)

Probably some other cities have similar races.

https://rrs.racesonline.com/

Law wrote:

Good runners don’t pay entey fees

Good runners can read and write too.

Runner 223 wrote:

Good runners can read and write too.

False.

These two things have nothing to do with each other. You can be a good runner and have no idea how to read/write.

I agree, it's ridiculous how expensive races have become. I don't want to subsidize other hobby jogger's postrace beer, pizza, and other crap. I would be so happy if races provided an a la carte option.

For example, if you want to just pay for the race entry, then that should be an option. Add on stupid finishers medals, t-shirts, and all that other crap on your own. Don't force everyone to pay for it because most of the serious runners don't give a flying fvck about that nonsense.

You haven't even mentioned that many races charge late fees as much as 8-9 months before the race, calling it "super early registration." Some races have 4-6 different deadlines. Of course these same races have a no refund/no transfers policy.