It's really variable for me. If it's a great venue and a well run/supported race I'll pony up.

I don't have a specific line drawn in the sand for race costs. It would be somewhat according to the race. If it's a charity race and I really buy-in to the cause, I certainly would have a higher threshold. Same with a race I may somewhat covet; like a particular marathon venue or something like that. That said, I've been more selective in my races and tend to do less of them now as a way to save costs rather than more (more less expensive) races.

Or if my wife gives me a stern look... that means the cost is too high.

I like to look at the "value" of participating in an event, and value isn't always cheap. For me, I seem to spend about $150/hr of racing. I try to stretch the value by adding a little family fun to any trips. If it is a local race, about $25+$15/hr.

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Oui, mais pas de femme toute de suite (yes, but I am not ready for a woman straight away) -Stephen Roche's reply when asked whether he was okay after collapsing at the finish in the La Plagne stage of the 1987 Tour

Great question! As a race organizer I always have to ask this question to determine what people are willing to take on/what sort of revenue we can drive to really put on the event we would like to do. It's amazing just how many people sign up right before prices go up $10, when you realize just how small that $10 is in the entire weekend's expense. Psychological is a HUGE factor!

I'm going to add another question to this... What's your threshold on travel radius to drive/fly to an event? My personal one used to be not to drive longer than the race took to complete, but depending on the draw and event can lead me outside the radius.

Travel radius for me would depend on the race. Basically, I'm not going to secure a hotel for anything less that a marathon or 1/2 IM (unless it was part of a regular family vacation). I'm not going to fly if it means transporting a bike. I have driven 5 hours to race a 1/2 and then drove 5 hours back. That was a pain and merely was due to hectic schedules.

Less than wtc

I'm probably an outlier (but certainly not alone) since I've flown from Florida to Europe/Africa for 10 races so far. Typically, I will not drive more than 1 day for a long course event, and probably no more than 3 hrs for a short course. If I'm paying for air travel then it has to be a destination event with more on tap for my family and I than just the race.

I used to pay $10 for the local 5K 30+ years go [I'd split it as $1.60/mile + $5 for the cotton t-shirt]



Philly's Broad Street Run 10M is still a decent bargain [$50 = $5/mile, includes t-shirt & finisher medal]

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I think my travel threshold, for the most part, is less than 10 drive hours and that has to be a bigger even like HIM or IM. St. George is a bucket list HIM for me so I would have to fly to that but for the most part I like to stick to less than 10 hours for big races (hopefully closer), and everything else I try to find stuff within a couple of hours if not closer. There are enough local triathlons to keep me occupied.

same for me. it's also a yearly budget thing. I'm not paying for 3 wtc events in a year. I did 2 wtc HIMs in one year and that was plenty of money. Would rather maybe do 0-1 wtc event then try to find local races throughout the year.

Flown pretty far for 100-200m races in swimming :)

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2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

Me too. If you build it, they will come. :)

If you have to come up with various strategies, fancier finisher medals, etc. to try to attract people, then chances are you have a venue/race that folks simply aren't interested in. .02

I pay to get beaten.
Here are some calculations:

1) Kona is a good base line event.
I will pay approximately $1800 total to get beaten by 200 people.

That is $9.00 person that beats me.

2) Olympic Distance worlds is a good value- I only paid approximately $900 to finish 250 (counting pros who raced slightly different course)

That was is only $3.60 per person that beats me.

3) Bad values:
a) Tucson triathlon- the year I won, I
paid a total $200 and got beaten by nobody.
That's $infinity per person that beat me.
b) IM Louisville- last year I paid approximately $1,300 and I only got beaten by 12 people.
That's $108 per person that beat me.

Good values:
1) I Raced a local bike race cat 5. I paid $80.00 but won $300 worth of swag.
But since I was cat 5, you could say that 300+ people still beat me.
That calculates out to me getting paid
$ 0.73 per person that beat me.
2) Raced local 10k finished 2nd. I got a prize for my AG, a prize for being first masters and a prize for being second.
Total prize value $300. Cost $60.
I got paid $240 / per person that beat me.

Seriously.........
Competition is what I pay for.
Competition is what makes an event a "race".

There are many ways that one might pay for a race: hotels, travel, entrance fees, equipment.
But the most important way that I pay is through opportunity cost. (Especially for the time spent training).

A race with little competition and little cost is not necessarily a good value for me. (Especially if there is high opportunity cost).
A race with good competition and high cost might be a better value.

By that calculation, large expensive marathons are an insane value

The largest race I ever did was last years Broad Street

35,000 runners and I got beaten by 10,000 of them

With entry of only $50, that's half a cent per

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

$0 to $Everything, depends on the race.

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

They are good values especially the majors.
You get a lot of competition for your dollars.

That said, my idea about paying for competition on a dollar per person basis doesn't quite work.


Competition is more than just about people who beat you. There has to be some chance that you could have won.
Competition is also about people you beat who might have beaten you (given different circumstances).

The thing that makes marathons like Boston less interesting than you would think is that genetics seem to play a larger role. A good 80% of the people that beat me at the Boston marathon (for example) are doing so simply because they are "more talented runners."

At Kona, a much higher percentage of those beating me are doing so because they trained harder or raced smarter.

My point- that Kona might provide better competition even if the number of people beating me is less.

I think this was discussed before and I still maintain that it's not cost but value that makes people show up at races. With just a limited response thus far, there are already many versions of "value". There is also a difference between "casual" athletes and the type-A personalities you see on this forum (including me). In my experience, races for casual runners are generally about 1-2hr drive time unless it's on their bucket list (e.g. Disney Dopey Run) then all bets are off.

For me, if it is a B/C race that coincides with my training program, I will generally drive no more than 3hrs because I don't need another race shirt that badly. For an A race, I will be willing to fly but, again, probably no more than 3hrs flight time. Finally, if it's a "run-cation" where my wife and I will spend the weekend , I will sign up races that I wouldn't' normally do (e.g. the Washington DC Cherry Blossom 10-miler).

Now, if it's a big A race (e.g. 1/2 Ironman or Ironman), I will pretty much pony up whatever is needed then ask for forgiveness from the wife later (or bribe her with a run-cation race)

The theme from above is the value I gain from it.

Sprints and Olympic I try to be pretty frugal on just because I try not to travel more than an hour and half for those. Sadly in the upper midwest there aren't a ton of those around. When I lived in FL there were all over the place. I picked races based on swag and how well the race was run. sadly, this knocked a ton of races out even though they were cheap, but then again thats probably why they were cheap!

HIM: I am driving 4hours for one this year. I can't say I would go much more than that considering there are a good handful others that are closer and probably just as well run. Price wise they aren't WTC so I will be saving a ton of money.

IM: It all depends on what is available to my family in the race venue city. I am going to be doing Chattanooga next year rather then others that are closer because its just a "short" 2hr drive from my wife sisters. We will head over there for a couple of days after the race and see family then head home. I am willing to pay a premium at the this level of a race for a couple of different reasons. 1. competition, I would hope that there is going to be a nigher number of quality athletes than at a local tri.
2. It is more than just me "racing" my wife and kids need to be able to have a good time as well. I am busy the entire time i am racing, if they aren't engaged or enjoying themselves why would I go back to that venue, they support my racing I can support them having fun while I try and kill myself. 3. I am putting in a lot of training for this type of race and better be getting more than just the race and a t-shirt out of it.

Quality > quantity is sorta my golden rule

Not really a threshold but race costs do keep me from doing some races. Nationals and ITU Standard Worlds exceed my comfort level by a wide margin... but they're great competitive races that are run reasonably well.

Since I compete in mostly Sprints and Olys... I like Sprints in the $50-$80 range and Olys in the $100-$150 range.

Things that are important to me are well run races... t-shirts, finisher medals, etc. are nice but I've got them coming out of my ears.

I typically wont spend more than I would want my wife to spend on a weekend for herself.

For me, how far I will travel is like how much I would spend--it really depends on the race. I know that I have never spent more than $100 on a running race, and it would have to be a very special race for me to consider it. The most I have ever spent on a race was an IM, and I did not think it was worth the money.

It is rare that I will travel more than three hours for a race. Every year, I travel across the country to see my parents and do a trail race in my home town. Does that count as travelling for a race?

honestly I don't really consider price to be an issue...

if you sign up for a $200 race and you're really training for it, are you then less likely to go out to applebees leading into the weekend to lean up a bit? What is that worth? $75?

Invest in your health - races, equipment, etc. Whatever gets you out there.

I realize this a worthless thread without a lot of supporting context. The longer you go, the lower the cost per mile is obviously. So unless you only do one distance of race, this thread provides no worthwhile info. Sorry I wasted everyone's time lol

By the way, by almost any measure, the Barkley Marathons has to be one of the best values on the planet ...... $0.016 to $0.012 per mile, depending on what you think the max distance is.

I try and shoot for one "nice" race a year and the rest are local and as cheap as possible. That way I don't have to worry about it as much.

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I still lapped everyone on the couch!