Running rant # 2 - The price of races

I haven't done a 'Running rant' since the ill fated 'Ultrarunning' post (which didn't go down well at all if you recall). I don't regret that piece, what with freedom of speech, having an opinion and all that malarkey!!! It's just a shame I lost a lot of longterm ultrarunning Twitter followers in the process whom I communicated with and always congratulated them on their achievements even if I didn't agree with the distances they were putting themselves through physically and mentally.

*takes a deep breath*

Anyway......

Hopefully this is a rant everyone will agree on....THE PRICES OF RACES THESE DAYS @!!?**#¥!!!!

*takes another deep breath*

I haven't competed in a race since September 2013 and the Loch Ness marathon, so I decided to look at running a half marathon in the spring/summer. 

The Surrey half, a nice local race in Woking, taking place for its second year.

It's a half marathon remember and the price for entering the London marathon this year, one of the worlds major marathons was a very reasonable £35 for 26.2 miles. 

Now I understand the pricing for street closures, police etc etc, so that's £35 for shutting down the Capital of England. Woking is a Surrey town...the price?...£41...yes 41 flipping sterling pounds for running a half bloody marathon!!!

The Hackney half marathon.......£44!!!.....$$$

Over the last few years there has been the introduction of chip timing, which I'm sure most people agree has been a positive for racing and I can understand that this has had an impact on the race fee, but there's not many races that aren't chip timed anymore, so why still so much variation between the prices of races of the same distance?

Has running become a victim of its own success? The number of people running has continued to rise year after year. More people running, more opportunities for people to make money. 

Here is a selection of races coming up, I've separated them into 'Daylight Robbery' for races around the £30 mark and above and 'Bargain Buys' for £25 and below which I think is a reasonable price.

Thank God for Parkruns.....Running for free and funded by sponsorship.....hang on a minute, don't most races make money out of sponsorship as well as charging us!!!

Daylight Robbery

Surrey Half - £41

Hackney Half £44

North London Half - £42

Brighton Half - £34

Bournemouth Half - £31.57

Robin Hood Half (Nottingham) - £29.75

Northampton Half - £29.40

Llanelli Waterside Half - £30

Bargain Buys

Fleet Half - £23

Stafford Half - £22

Yeovil Half - £22

Chippenham Half - £22

Farnham Pilgrims Half - £25

Roding Valley Half -£22

Running rant #1 - Ultrarunning

When I'm out on a long run, I often think about what to write about next on the blog. I think about lots of running subjects, some of which get me wound up! So I'm now having a section on the blog called 'Running rants' where I can air my frustrations!

It would appear the latest running 'fad' is gaining momentum. Ultra running! Yes these days it appears every mere mortal runner is turning into 'ULTRARUNNER'.

Have cake, will run far!

Everyone' bio on Twitter now seems to contain the 'Ultra' word!

Ultra running takes place predominantly on the trails, and I too love the trails, most of my running is done on the trails, but it seems everything related to trail running these days is all about Ultra races. Magazines,videos, everything it seems trail related means you have to run something over the marathon distance of 26.2 miles!

I'm fresh back from a trail race, one of the most enjoyable races I've run....how far?....10K!

Currently I'm running around 30 miles a week, all on the trails. It's perfect for me physically and mentally, I'm not over tired, it's perfect. The trails are strengthening my body and the volume of mileage is keeping me injury free. 

Was a human being really made to run so far, in one go?

I don't think so, when you read about people's race reports after doing these Ultra runs, 90% are injured after the event and can't run for weeks later until they are fully recovered. If cavemen (which everyone seems to be harping back to) had ran this far, they would have gone pretty hungry waiting to recover!

The philosophy of Ultra racing, I do happen to agree with, running long distances slow is how it should be done. I've learnt that ever since training with my heartrate monitor. According to my program that I follow 80% of my running should be in the lower heartrate zones. Running slow burns fat, which is ultimately a main reason why people run.

I think in the long term the buzz and fad of Ultrarunning will pass and return to its routes where it was very much an underground sport. The likes of athletes such as Dean Karnazes really brought this topic to the public domain with his popular book Ultramarathonman (a book I own and love, I'd like to add). But Karnazes is to Ultrarunning what Christopher McDougall is to barefoot running and bringing these subjects to everyone's awareness, but look at barefoot running now, it's been and gone as a fad and returned to a small community who still invest in the idea.

This next point is personal to me, but when it comes to running I'm a bit of a purist. Running is running, not running and walking and if I have to walk in a race then I feel defeated. I know this is totally the wrong attitude, there's nothing wrong with walking, but unless you're one of the Ultrarunning elite then ultra races mean run/walk and that's not in my running mentality.

All this is just my opinion, I certainly don't want to alienate myself from 'Ultrarunners', some of the nicest runners I've met and have run with are into ultra's and lots of people I communicate with on Social networking are the same but hopefully this stirs up a healthy debate :-)