Not a 1-900 number spam post
I'm one of those athletes that has really lost interest in Tri's in the last few years. It's definitely multi-factorial but certainly cost of races is one of those factors. One of my friends (maybe Snackchair?) put out this formula for race value...$1 per 1 minute spent racing. obviously there will be some variation between FOP/BOP but in general, sprints should be around $60 or less, Olympics $120 or less, Half <$250 and IM $5-600 or so. Any way, a lot of races are starting to shift way beyond these ranges, combined with absurd active.com fees. I'm seeing much better value in other types of events. Gravel races, Trail runs, and cycling in general are a much better value and quite frankly, more fun. Cyclocross right now is $30-40 for a 45 minute race and usually $10 for a second race that day....what a deal! in our local gravel races, you get to ride side by side with the pros (if you can keep up) and usually get you 3+ hours of racing + food for $100, also a great deal.
Don't get me started on Active.com, the worst company ever. all RD's should check out Trireg.com which has reasonable fees, allows you to look at who's signed up before the race, and is done by the same folks as bikereg.com (associated with crossresults.com and roadresults.com which are scary accurate and really cool)
I'm one of those athletes that has really lost interest in Tri's in the last few years. It's definitely multi-factorial but certainly cost of races is one of those factors. One of my friends (maybe Snackchair?) put out this formula for race value...$1 per 1 minute spent racing. obviously there will be some variation between FOP/BOP but in general, sprints should be around $60 or less, Olympics $120 or less, Half <$250 and IM $5-600 or so. Any way, a lot of races are starting to shift way beyond these ranges, combined with absurd active.com fees. I'm seeing much better value in other types of events. Gravel races, Trail runs, and cycling in general are a much better value and quite frankly, more fun. Cyclocross right now is $30-40 for a 45 minute race and usually $10 for a second race that day....what a deal! in our local gravel races, you get to ride side by side with the pros (if you can keep up) and usually get you 3+ hours of racing + food for $100, also a great deal.
Don't get me started on Active.com, the worst company ever. all RD's should check out Trireg.com which has reasonable fees, allows you to look at who's signed up before the race, and is done by the same folks as bikereg.com (associated with crossresults.com and roadresults.com which are scary accurate and really cool)