Friday, March 5, 2010

For the love of the sport? or for the $$$?...


WARNING: If you are a NYRR fanatic, you may get pissed by reading this. LOL Oh well.. 


As you all know, I like controversial topics. Why? they are fun, and they are a great way to also learn about a topic, and YES it is a lot of fun to see people's reactions and comments. 


A while back, I was talking to  two co-workers who also run, we were talking about upcoming races. One said; "I am dying to run the NYC Marathon and will pay any amount to run it". The other said; "hey, give me a map and I'll run the course for free, any day of the week" I share his idea too.. Sure you will not be able to run over the Verrazano bridge, but is it worth $200 to cross it on foot?, when you can do it in your car for $11 and even cheaper if you have EZ-Pass. Is it the attention you'll get while running it, that drives you to pay that much?. This is easily solved.. "Try running over the Verrazano bridge and see how much attention you'll get".. with in 2 minutes or less you will be surrounded by men and women, but what you think are fireworks, are gunshots to the air followed by "Drop to the floor and don't move" lol The headlines will say "I had the wrong date for the Marathon", and a picture of you with surprised face. How is that for attention? 


It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, we all like to be rewarded or get something back for our $$. After all, almost all of us work hard for it. I was crushed on my very first Half Marathon. I read that all finishers would receive a shirt, finisher's medal and other goodies. When I crossed the line I was looking for the person holding the medals. I was so excited about getting one that I probably looked like I had just being dumped when I found out that there were no medals that day.. I had a printout of the page showing that, but when I got back home that day I checked the website again and the medal part had been removed. Oh well, I got one the next half I did in CA. 

My favorite club right now is the Long Island Road Runners Club. It is not as big as the New York Road Runners, but it's nice. Why do I like them? They are all about the runners and promoting the sport. They are not out there trying to get rich at the expense of other runners. To compare:



1-The NYRR membership: $40/yr. Long Island's? $20 for individuals and $25 for a family of 4. (as of Sept 2012) 
2-The cost for each race: NYRR $30-$200+ (not kidding). LIRRC $10 and $5 for members period. 


No, I am not promoting LIRRC, simply comparing the clubs. It seems like Hosting races has become a big business. Has me thinking of doing that myself so I can finally drive a Mercedes. I still don't understand why some organizations charge so much, and claim that their goal is to promote the sport and a healthy life. I understand that getting the medals cost money, making the shirt cost money, getting the bibs and chips cost money, but how much does all of that really cost? where does all of that money go to.. They can't say, they have to pay all the people that worked at the event... would be funny, because 80% of the people working at the events are volunteers, and some if not all (in some cases) the goodies are donated by companies promoting their products. It seems that our fees are paying for the CEO's trip to the Caribbean, their head quarter's mortgage, the prize money for the winners.. sorry, but I hardly doubt the guys at NYRR will pull that $$ out of their pockets out of kindness. anyway..

The other day, they had a 1 mile race in the city, who? NYRR who else.. lol.. 1 mile, the fee? over $30, you can do a half marathon for that price. What amazes me, is the fact that those organizations get away with those charges, because they know people will pay the money even though they know its outrageous, and if you are doing a marathon, to simply say "Hey, I ran NYC, BOSTON, etc etc". What happened to the love for the sport? I can see it from the runners who some times go to the extreme to do a race, but not from the organization(s). I understand that a lot of work and time goes into organizing an event, but come on.. In the case of a marathon, they should charge at least $50 to the none Elite runners, which entitles them to a shirt, chip and medal, and charge whatever they want to the Elites since there is money involved for winning the marathon (depending on the marathon). The marathon I am doing in May is in Long Island, NY. The fee is $50 and I am getting a medal and a shirt.. same thing I would be getting at NYC, just $150 less. After all, that is all you really need.. something to remind you of that experience.  Goodness, even to get a picture of you at the race will cost you an arm and a leg, unless you don't mind having the watermark on your picture. 




I was talking to  two co-workers who also run, about upcoming races. One said that he is dying to run the NYC Marathon and will pay any amount to run it. The other said. "hey, give me a map and I'll run the course for free, any day of the week" I share his idea too.. Sure you will not be able to run over the Verrazano bridge, but is it worth $200 to cross it on foot?, when you can do it in your car for $11 and even cheaper if you have EZ-Pass. lol, is it the attention you'll get while running it? easily solved.. you try running over the Verrazano bridge and see how much attention you'll get.. with in 2 minutes or less you will be surrounded by man and woman, but what you think are fireworks, are gunshots to the air followed by "Drop to the floor and don't move" lol The headlines will say "I had the wrong date for the Marathon, and a picture of you with surprised face".


In my opinion, I think it is crazy to pay that much for a run/race. With this said, I do have great respect for those who do it and achieve the goal of crossing the finish line, specially on the marathons. A marathon is not something some one can just get up in the morning and say "hmmm I feel like running a marathon today" and go on about it.. But I am sure some random runners actually do that.. I would love to meet one of them one day, and get his/her inside on that. I would not buy the book they wrote to find out time he got up or how many times they snooze the alarm clock before they go out for a run. 


Do I think some organizations take full advantage of runners who love the sport? Oh Yeah, many, not all do. Should we boycott the NYC, Boston, Chicago, etc etc Marathons? HAHA! could be fun to see what would happen if people actually do something like this. But can that be done? Possibly.. Will you see me marching at one of them with a sign? probably not. But I do believe that there should be a regulation on the costs for this events, after all, don't they all claim that they are all about the sport, and not the money?... 



3 comments:

  1. Israel, sorry I clogged up your page on dailymile but couldn't help it. This is a topic that pisses me off nowadays. I agree with you totally! I would like to still run in USATF events but with the higher costs of races and their membership fees climbing in the last three years, I said enough is enough!

    I belong to a club similar to LIRR called the Dolphin South End Runners. It has a lot of similarities and am glad that there are at least a couple of clubs are thinking of the runners. Like you, I'm not against NYRR, BAA or other organizations....just the high price of events. I'd love to run NYC again but it's hard to pay $190+ for a medal and a nice t-shirt.

    I'm sure that you'll get some pissed off people. I'd like to hear from them as well. After years of paying high entry fees, poor race quality and more, enough is enough! Have a good weekend my friend. Keep the marathon training going! - Wayne

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  2. I agree, but guess what, NYRR doesn't need you, or me, or any one of us individuals. There are more than 6000 people willing to pay for almost each race (the cap for many races is 5000, but they accept many more as they know many will not run). In fact, the cap creates 'scarcity' of entries, which only drives up demand.

    That is why I am running fewer, and hope to try out LIRR if I can get myself out there some time.

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  3. Wayne: don't sweat it... By all means, feel free to express yourself here... Like I said, this is a good way to learn even more about a topic, and I welcome all anf every ones comment.

    430: yes, I completely agree with you.. I am sure they wouldn't miss our seed.. Lol like I said, they know that people will pay the $$ to run it. They wouldn't be what they are now, if it wasn't for us, the runners.

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