Paying for Pain

 

I’m struggling with a running question that I’m hoping someone who reads this can answer for me.    When did the competition to enter a marathon race become so competitive that people will sign up a year in advance and pay hundreds of dollars just to get to the starting line?    Seriously….can someone explain to me what happened that took running a marathon from something that a few thousand elite athletes or a handful of crazies would do to something that is now the venue of hundreds of thousands of couch potatoes, soccer moms, and weekend warriors every year.  

In a few days Walt Disney World will host the runDisney Marathon.  20 years ago, if someone had suggested that running a marathon is something you would do when you went on vacation to an amusement park, they would have been a candidate for a padded cell.    I can just imagine the initial proposal sounded like from some runner in the Disney marketing department….We hold a marathon that runs throughout the parks, charge hundreds of dollars to enter, make them buy a park pass for the day (over $100 today) and limit the number of entrants to 20,000 so people are fighting to get in.    After several days in the parks with the kids, some parents would pay to run a marathon rather than face another day of lines and rides.   And why limit it to the parents, let’s get the kids involved.  We can have shorter runs..a 5K, a 10K, and a half marathon and make it a family affair.   Oh, and for the real Disney diehards we can have a special “Dopey” medal for a runner who does all 4 runs over 4 days (it will only cost $600).

Last year there were 1,100 marathon races in the US with over 500,000 people participating.  Allowing for international runners and people running multiple marathons, that’s about 1% of the US population (actually more since I didn’t rule out children under 16).   Crazy as it may sound, about half of the entrants in the bigger races continue to be first time marathoners.   Who are all these people paying big bucks to torture themselves?

Clearly the demand is there as the races continue to raise prices and many have limits on the number of entrants.   It’s the classic case of supply and demand…make it harder to get in and more people are willing to pay more to run it.  The NYC Marathon (the largest in the US) had 50,000 finishers last year with an entry fee is $295.  According to my Texas Instruments calculator that’s almost $15 million.  Not bad for a weekend event.  

The Boston Marathon is even harder to get into.  If you manage to run a qualifying time or are lucky enough to get one of the limited charity numbers, you have the privilege of paying a $375 entry fee.   A privilege I will have this year.  Yup…I’m headed back to Boston to attempt one more Boston Marathon and to raise funds to help families facing pediatric cancer.  It will be the first time since my stem cell transplant and Parkinson’s diagnosis that I’ve attempted anything longer than a half marathon but having turned 70 this year I’d like to give it go one more time.     

So, I invite you to come along with me on what is bound to be an interesting ride.  As always, it’s your encouragement and financial support of pediatric cancer families through Help in the Nick of Time that fuel my efforts.

Happy New Year….it should be an interesting one!