I remember when I first got into running and I thought what a great, inclusive, and inexpensive sport it was. Because I can be hilariously fucking naive at times.
I actually still remember saying to someone on one of my early runs “oh wow, everyone is just so nice” and them replying “oh, you just don’t know everyone very well yet” and being quite surprised about that.
I’m slightly less surprised these days.
I mean, as a general rule runners are pretty great because as I’ve often said, I guess most of the toxic negative people are too busy sitting at home on the couch being toxic and negative and the real shitheads are off, too busy being shitheads to go for a run.
Although sometimes I wonder which category I fall into these days. Possibly a foot in both camps?
And then there’s the cost.
All you need is a pair of shoes and off you go.
I promise I have now donated most of these shoes to charity.
“All you need is a pair of shoes and off you go” I seem to recall myself saying many times. Fuck I’m funny.
A few hundred pairs of road shoes (nike, asics, brooks, mizuno, new balance), another few hundred pairs of trail shoes (nike, adidas, inov8, salomon, brooks), 1,000 pairs of fancy socks (long, short, ankle, lightfeet, drymax, ioMerino, steigen, injinji, icebreaker, thorlo), a few hydration vests (camelback, salomon, osprey, inov8), a few GPS watches (Garmin 405, 310, fenix3, fenix 6), a fuel belt and hand held water bottle or two, and a pair of arm warmers and calf sleeves later, I’m probably slightly less of that opinion. Not to mention the shorts, tees, tops, jackets, buffs, caps and gloves.
Then there’s event entry fees. And bugger me, is there some ‘spirited discussion’ about this topic right now. Some of which I’ve contributed to. Because… me and my big mouth.
And because I know you guys basically hang on my every word, here’s my take on it:
I’ve run free events and I’ve run ‘expensive’ events – however you might qualify that. Maybe you’d say $300+ to run a 100km race is ‘expensive’ – pretty sure that’s about how much I paid to run The North face 100 (Now UTA) back in 2012. Or perhaps USD$1000+ to run the Manaslu 200km stage race in Nepal is what you’d call ‘expensive’. And that didn’t include the $5,000 bill to get rescued by a helicopter. (Thank fuck for travel insurance!). Or maybe you’re one of the people who think $100 to run a half marathon is ‘expensive’. Then there’s travel and accommodation to get to some of these races.
That time I flew to New Zealand to save $50.
I actually recall saving a few dollars when I ran Tarawera 100 because Six Foot Track had been cancelled at the last minute due to flooding, so Paul over at Tarawera ingeniously offered runners a few bucks off if we wanted to come run his race instead. So I bought flights and accommodation to New Zealand to save a few dollars on the registration, even though I chose not to get a refund on my Six Foot Track entry fee so it could still be donated to the firies. (If you can follow that logic you’ll realise I really should not be commenting on anything that involves money and/or common sense.)
I guess ‘value’ is all kind of subjective.
So let’s dig a little deeper on this, shall we?
First of all, I personally don’t give a flying fuck how much an event costs to put on. I don’t care what expenses a club or organisation has, how much they pay for traffic control or insurance or wages or how much profit they make. I mean, why the fuck would I?
I just look at the event and decide if it looks like it might be a great event to run or not. Then I look at the price and decide if I’m happy to pay the price. And if I do and I am, I go and run the fucking thing.
Let me tell you what I don’t do.
When I’m huffing and puffing my way along, I don’t wonder how much profit someone’s making. And you know why? Cause it’s none of my fucking business. It has literally nothing to do with me.
Same thing applies when I’m at a cafe paying $8 for my smoothie. I don’t sit there and try and calculate how much almond milk and how many strawberries are in there, what the ingredients would have cost, how much electricity they would have used to turn on the blender and how much time it took in wages, work cover and superannuation to make it. Aside from the fact I’m way too dumb to work any of that out, it’s just not relevant to me.
I just decide whether I’m happy to cough up the $8, I smash the smoothie down, and then, usually, I make some sort of judgement about whether or not I’d have another one next time or not.
It’s worth noting, if I think a smoothie is fucking shithouse, it doesn’t mean it is fucking shithouse. What it actually means is, I didn’t personally like it. The next guy might think it tastes like unicorn piss for all I know – and both of us are right. He’d buy it again. I wouldn’t. And if enough people agree with him the cafe keeps selling them. And if they don’t, they don’t. Welcome to life on planet earth.
Why Mt Misery is the worst value race in South Australia. For me.
Now back to races. I fucking hate Mt Misery and refuse to run it as a race. Not because it’s shit, but because I’m shit. It’s too steep for me and I’d end up walking 93.6% of it. And that’s not my idea of a good race so I don’t run it. It doesn’t really matter to me whether it’s $35 or $135 or 35cents, I ain’t running that motherfucker of a course.
By contrast, there’s races I’d probably pay a little more to run. I’ve done the Orroroo Half the last few years, paid my $30 or whatever it’s been, and probably would have been happy to pay $50. Don’t get me wrong, it’s probably a shit race. But I love it. Small crowd, main road, out and back. But there’s something about it I really like so I’ve run it a few times and will probably go and run it again. (Although this year it clashes with Adventurethon in Murray Bridge and why the fuck do they do that?!?!)
Now the bit you really want to read.
A few days ago The Great Southern Half posted a price comparison of the cost of half marathons in South Australia and wow did some people get their rundies in a twist. Weirdly, I didn’t see any negativity from the folks out at Orroroo. Or Salisbury. Or Murray Bridge. No, it was the people who are associated with events that cost twice as much or more. Defensive much?
And look, we get it. Different races have different dynamics so they cost different amounts. Most of us, myself included, don’t give a shit, but that doesn’t mean we don’t understand it. Of course it costs more to have half of South Australia’s police force block off Anzac Highway for a morning than it does to run through Aldinga Scrub. We’re not stupid, we get it.
OK, that last bit isn’t quite true. Some of us are stupid. Or at least ignorant. For example, I personally have no idea how much it costs to get insurance and traffic control or water stations without water or how you get people to volunteer for a private business. (If anyone ever wants to volunteer for my business, please sing out, that’d be ace.) And not only do I have no idea, I just really don’t care.
How billionaires get people to volunteer.
Some people put on events because they’re a club that puts on events and they’re a not for profit they just love runners and running, some put them on to promote a specific region, and some put them on because they’re a private business who wants to make money and who fucking cares? A year or two back ‘Ironman’ (the triathlon people, not Robery Downey Jnr) bought Ultra Trail Australia and Ironman is owned by World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) who are owned by Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group and the founder of that company is worth $25billion and they are still getting volunteers to help and what the actual fuck. But hey, that’s runners logic for you. And the event still sells out within days because… runners.
I’ve run most of the races on the list that was published, and they’ve all been worth it. I honestly can’t think of the last time I did a race and got to the end, thought about how much water I drank, how good or bad the medal was, how short or long the course was, and thought I was owed a bit of a refund. I might decide I didn’t like the course, or it was poorly organised or the bling was a bit shit. But I’ve never asked for, or expected, any sort of refund.
I may even have vowed to never run it again, and then gone and run it again anyway. Value schmalue.
Value is about more than price. It’s why Nike are still in business and we’re not all just running in Dunlop Volleys or KT26s and shopping at Kmart. (By the way, if you haven’t checked out Volley’s Pride range, you totally should!) And it’s why some people run in Orroroo and some people run the Melbourne Half. And why some people might pay $100 to run around The Bend and fuck me is that picture on their website real and did they really get that many people to pay $100 to run around a closed off race track and if you’re one of those people please tell me why you’d do that because I’ve never not run a race because of the price but don’t the Shanins have enough money already and couldn’t they just make it cheaper and… a hundred fucking bucks to run around a race track makes no sense!
What would I know? Although I do know value isn’t universal, we all have different ideas about what makes something good value, and it includes all sorts of things. It’s not just how much you pay but how much you get.
So if someone wants to come out and do a price comparison, let’s not get too worked up, yeah? I did it in my article a few years back and no one was all that fussed because I don’t put on races so there was no self interest. If Great Southern Half wants to highlight the price difference between races, so fucking what?
Their race is insanely good value so why the fuck wouldn’t they brag about it? If they can do it for that price, get a great crowd, deliver a great course, do novel stuff like make sure there’s water at the drink stations, and the course is the correct distance, then good for them. And us. Booya!
And the idea of charging extra for bling is genius, right? The idea that almost every other race in South Australia makes buying bling mandatory whether you want it or not is, when you stop and think about it, normal, but a bit ridiculous. The idea of making it something you pay extra for so you can run cheaper if you want to, should absolutely be the norm rather than the exception. Bravo.
Are they guilty of being good value? And smart?
As far as I’m concerned, the only thing the Great Southern Half is guilty of, is being smart. Smart event. Smart price. Smart idea to make bling an optional extra. Smart marketing.
And regardless of the price, it won’t in the slightest discourage me from running any or all of the other events. Because sometimes I’m happy to run locally, and sometimes I’m happy to drive five hours to run two. And sometimes I want a smoothie and sometimes I want a red bull. Mostly I want a red bull though.
For the record, I’ve run the Orroroo Half, Salisbury Half, Clare Half, Great Southern Half, Adelaide Half (or maybe just the full a few times?), Tower Half, Pichi Richi (Full not half), Greenbelt, City to Bay Half and the Murray Bridge Half – literally every race on there except The Bend – and they’re all awesome. Highly recommend each and every one of these races.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I have personal and professional relationships with almost all of the clubs/associations/RDs on that list. No one asked me to write this article and the opinions are 100% my own. As if you’d ever doubt otherwise.
