Running road races, or competing in triathlons or bike races, can get to be pretty expensive. I have participated in races from a wide range between being free and costing me over $100. The average cost of a 5k or 10k race these days seems to be about $20. The marathons I run tend to cost around $70 on average, with the large ones like Boston or New York City costing upwards of $100
These race fees can add up fast, and really need to be budgeted for. You can often save a few dollars by pre-registering for a race, but then you risk the loss of your entry fee if you can not compete for one reason or another. It is certainly worth it to the race to give the discount for early registrations, as they can much better plan ahead for the race if they know approximately how many people are going to arrive for the starting line. Some races close registration in advance of the race, such as the Beach to Beacon and most of the larger marathons. The race gets many more people attempting to register than the race course can support, so registration can close months in advance of the race.
Many races give away free t-shirts to people that pre-register as an incentive. Other races give away free t-shirts no matter when you pay for the race. Sometimes the early registrations can get other goodies in their bags along with their race numbers and chips.
Proceeds from race registrations usually go towards a charity. Costs that are eaten up by the registrations include the timing chips and computer equipment to run them, licenses and fees from where the races are being held, any food or water that is not donated by sponsors, and fees for local police departments to provide support along the course.
In the past year, I have spent over $550 on race registrations. I race on average once or twice a month, and about half of that was for the Vermont City Marathon and for the New York City Marathon that I am running this Autumn. About how much do you spend each year on races?
I easily spend about $300 running local races (average 1 per month) and $500 on an out-of-town marathon (between transportation, hotel and cost of the race itself). I guess I like to justify it as giving to charity since, as you say, most of these donate at least a portion of proceeds to good causes. But I’m also starting to wonder about some of these skyward costs. And the early cut-offs for races like the Chicago Marathon and the lottery approach for NYC (which now makes you pay just to enter your name in the “drawing”) — it’s all getting a little out of control, if you ask me. As I mentioned earlier on my blog, it’s a condition of this distances’ mass appeal. But I miss the days when you could train and wait until a month before (a reasonable pre-reg deadline for a marathon) to sign up for a big-time marathon. I fear those days are long gone.
Yeah, I spend more than $500 once you figure in transportation and shelter for the marathons that aren’t next door. My figure was based on direct race fees.
I can understand some races closing registration early when there are so many more people that want to run it than they can support. Maybe they need to open registration a little later if that is the case, since they can count on the numbers to be there and probably do not care quite as much about who the individuals are…
I think that’s a great idea for the big marathons. Open registration two or three months prior. It’ll fill quickly (as in hours), but at least it’ll also prevent cases like mine, where I’ve already spent $1000 between outrageous entry fees, a prepaid hotel and nonrefundable plane ticket for a marathon I can no longer do. I’ll never make that mistake again.