The Running Thread - 2016

[opusone]

QOTD: What is your max price for runDisney races you'd pay before you said no thanks? Does that price vary for other races of equal distance?

I'm pretty price-insensitive when it comes to race fees. If I find a race I want to do, I register for it regardless of the cost. That being said, I'm sure there is a limit: I've just never found a race that was above whatever my limit might be.

 

[roxymama]

ATTQOTD:
The current challenge prices make me wince hard. It's not that I can't afford them as my husband and I make a comfortable living...it's just the notion of paying THAT much for a race seems so overly inflated especially if we times it by two people. Especially when we are used to not paying that much even in the Chicago market. The big event Chicago races give out fancy embroidered jackets and tons of swag and big heavy metals, etc. and for less than what Disney is asking.
HOWEVER! Those races are not at Disney. For us our Disney vacation is only once a year or every two years. If I was a local in Orlando I'd be peeved by the high prices, but if I work it into my vacation plans it just means I will cut out something elsewhere. One less princess breakfast or one less fireworks dessert party, etc.
I do think that I'd much rather run a challenge if I'm spending the dough...go big or go home. When I ran the 5k by itself I felt a little sad that I only got a cotton t-shirt and a plastic medal...but still was my favorite race I've ever ran.

And to answer the actual question. Over $300 for a challenge (10k + half) is annoying but I'd probably do it if I had to. But at those prices, definitely not multiple times a year. I'd much rather pay between $100-$200. I also WOULD pay for my packet to be waiting for me at the front desk in a heartbeat even if it cost like 20-30 per person if I was on a family vacation. If I go solo or just with the husband we'd go to the expo BUT with my family...they HATED that we had to go to the expo.

 

[rteetz]

QOTD: What is your max price for runDisney races you'd pay before you said no thanks? Does that price vary for other races of equal distance?

Considering I am doing dopey this coming year I am not really sure what that max number would be. Maybe $600 not including fees for something like that. For a single race I'm not sure either. I think it depends on where the race is. I'd pay more to run a Disney race than a local race. I can't see myself paying $200 for a marathon in my hometown.

 

[Mimsy Borogove]

QOTD: What is your max price for runDisney races you'd pay before you said no thanks? Does that price vary for other races of equal distance?

Well, since I've done Dopey as a one-and-done bucket list item, I'd say $550 for all four marathon weekend races. I'm pretty frugal when it comes to money, but I pay the premium runDisney race prices because I really, really enjoy them. I'm fortunate that I'm semi-local to WDW so that I don't have the huge travel costs and have the ability to do 3 of the 4 WDW race weekends this year. However, that being said, I think I've hit my saturation point; if they creep up much more, I'll definitely be more discerning in what weekends I participate in.

For non-Disney races, I max out at $100 for half marathons (Space Coast Half came really close but it's a fantastic course with awesome bling), probably $50 for a 10K, and $30 for a 5K unless I have a vested interest in the charity beneficiary (like Girls on the Run or sea turtle non-profits).

 

[dmross]

QOTD: What is your max price for runDisney races you'd pay before you said no thanks? Does that price vary for other races of equal distance?

Todays QOTD was a suggestion from another poster on the board. Thanks for the suggestion and keep them coming!

ATTQOTD: At this time I haven't found a marathon that I wouldn't run because of registration fees. I am fine with the price Disney charges for its races, but I should add I have only run the marathon there. Without looking up the 5k, 10k, ect I am ok with it. The most expensive race I have run (Registration fees only) has been Boston at a fee of ~$300. Worth every penny and wouldn't hesitate to pay it again. Now I think for a 5k, about $35 is my cut off, $50 for 10k, and the half and full just really depend on where its at.

The race fees going up has affected our OVERALL Disney travel plans. When I did the marathon in 2016, it was a long weekend... no park tickets, volunteered one day, ran the race, ate out a couple of times, and drove home. When I add a race registration to a family trip with park tickets, character dinners, increased hotel costs, etc. it doesn't fit well with my Disney budget. The higher fees mean that I'll be traveling solo or with another adult. We're grateful that we can vacation 2 times a year, and one of those is Disney. But I'm finding it hard to add a second Disney trip per year just for me... hence my halfway serious earlier post about justifying a long weekend trip. runDisney is getting close to the NOT WORTH IT point for me with a $200 half marathon. But if I really wanted to do a particular Disney race I would register at that price.

 

[Miranda]

ATTQOTD: I, too, consider the Disney race fees just part of the vacation, so it's hard for me to compare what I'd pay there vs. a regular race. I don't really consider prices when registering for other races, although I might think twice if it seemed out of the ordinary high. Prices are usually $25-30 for all the shorter ones (5K, 10K and 5M). They've ranged from $50 for a 10M, $63 for two halfs (registered somewhere between early bird and late), $75 for a last minute week-of half, all the way $90 for a last minute week-of half. I'm sure the $75 and $90 ones were cheaper and had discounts at one point, but I made the decision to run the $75 one a couple days before the race as a training run for W&D last fall (it was in my town and I was going to be running a lot of the route the race was on) and then the $90 one was the weekend after W&D. I signed up a couple days before it after I got home to do it as a make up run.

The only one that bothered me was the $50 price tag on the 10M... it was kind of poorly organized. The shirt sizes were not guaranteed (although a shirt was) and they ran out of all but women's small an hour before the race and I had to take a men's shirt, there were no photographers on the course, no portapotties on the course and the lines were very long for the pre-race ones (I don't think they had enough), and they could have used 1-2 more water stops.

I don't really think too much about race fees, though. We don't have kids, and we make decent money, so like Sparkle Skirts, it's just one of my little regular spending habits.

 

[camaker]

QOTD: What is your max price for runDisney races you'd pay before you said no thanks? Does that price vary for other races of equal distance?

That's actually a tough question for me. I'm willing to pay current prices and probably a bit more for the novelty of running at Disney World and Disneyland, but that willingness is most likely going to wane as the novelty wears off. If they keep things fresh and have new reasons to come to the events, I'll keep paying, but the trend lately seems to be more towards stagnation/reduction in perks coupled with increasing prices.

 

[dis_or_dat]

ATTQOTD: I'll echo what a lot of others are saying. I don't have a lot of experience with races, but I find the rundisney races ridiculously expensive. I think at most I'll do just one a year. That may be why a lot of the rD races are slower to sell out if at at all. However, the crowd support was amazing at the Tink half compared to the RnR half, but that's actually supporters vs castmembers. But I'm definitely price-sensitive when it comes to races, since I can run for free!

After making a mistake with a color fun run 5k a few years ago (I was under the impression that all races were for charity), I really like to research before taking the plunge: price, location, atmosphere, charity, course, time, date ...

 

[cburnett11]

QOTD: What is your max price for runDisney races you'd pay before you said no thanks? Does that price vary for other races of equal distance?

For Disney, the marathon price is relatively a bargain. It's the only Disney race I've run so far. It's in line with Chicago and Boston and is quite a bit cheaper than New York. While it isn't a World Marathon, it is Disney and everything there is priced at a premium... and the race is put on very well. So the marathon itself, doesn't feel expensive to me. I know there are plenty of good cheaper marathons out there, but it is a destination race and I think the entry fee is pretty fair.

I'd probably be fine paying the entry fees for their other races as they stand and maybe another 20-25% on them. If I ever get the desire to run Dopey, I guess I'll see then what I'm willing to pay for these other races. If I'm traveling to Disney, I have enough other costs that the entry fees just sorta get lost in the overall expense of the trip. The 10k fee for marathon weekend seems the most out of line to me.

 

[Barca33Runner]

QOTD: What is your max price for runDisney races you'd pay before you said no thanks? Does that price vary for other races of equal distance?

I run the Dopey Challenge each year as my only rD race and the most expensive race that I consider. I am pretty price insensitive on that particular registration. I factor in the race registration as part of a vacation and rather than considering individual race registration costs for the rest of the year, I just don't sign up for a bunch of other races. I guess I view it as a quality over quantity situation. If I had more disposable income I would probably sign up for more races rather than running for free at home most weekends, but I'd probably do a lot of things differently if I had more disposable income.

 

[roxymama]

Hmm... interesting question. I'm interested to hear what others say. I haven't really thought about it before but off the top of my head, I would say my limit for a 5k would be $40 and $60 for a 10k. The most I've paid for a half is at Disney but other than Disney, I think I would pay up to $150? I've never done a full so don't know what my limit would be there. RnR races have a really reasonable registration fee if you sign up for next year's race right after the current year race is complete. I got the 2017 RnR DC half for $60.

Good point about registering early for things to save $. I love doing that and I also signed up for this years RnR races at last years expo too.
I guess we all get the early bird discount at Disney races since they sell out in hours or less.

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

I've only participated in one runDisney weekend so far (princess half), and for me it's just part of the cost of vacation. I would participate in more if my husband was on board, but I understand his desire to experience other destinations and do other things with our vacation money. So we do Disney every 1 1/2 - 2 years, and I'm sure I will always attach a runDisney event to our vacations now.

I don't worry about non runDisney race fees too much. To be honest, I get more worried when the race price seems low, because it makes me wonder how well it will be organized.

I'm not sure what my limit would be.

 

[PrincessV]

ATTQOTD: I don't think I have a hard number - it's more a matter of race cost relative to current income and current expenses. I run very few non-rD races because, well... I hate to race, lol! (I don't race rD races.) So that frees up dollars for rD's ever-escalating costs.

 

[LSUlakes]

I also WOULD pay for my packet to be waiting for me at the front desk in a heartbeat even if it cost like 20-30 per person if I was on a family vacation. If I go solo or just with the husband we'd go to the expo BUT with my family...they HATED that we had to go to the expo.

Packet pick-up/expo has a few purposes. One is sale Disney and/or other running products. The other is they have people there to verify your identity when picking up a bib. The importance of that is for reasons like security, theft of your bib, and for BQ's. The BQ part probably isn't that high up on the list as it would only effect marathon runners. I have also noticed that at most races, the volunteers are very relaxed during this process. So, the main reason is for retailors to make $. That's my attempt of explaining why you couldn't just pick up you bib at check-in at the resort you are staying at.

 

[michigandergirl]

I've only ran one RunDisney race (marathon 2016) and the race fee was probably the cheapest part of the trip!

I don't have a limit yet. If I lived within reasonable driving distance of Disney I would probably run at least two races a year. The total cost of any Disney trip is not something I can do every year. Now my family wants to come along for Dopey 2018 - not sure if I can afford that, but my kids were royally pissed that I didn't take them with me this year, so I'd better start saving!

 

[Keels]

QOTD: What is your max price for runDisney races you'd pay before you said no thanks? Does that price vary for other races of equal distance?

I'm like @opusone - I'm pretty price insensitive when it comes to things like this. It's more of "do I want to do this?" and scheduling that are the major factors. Frankly, I can't remember a time yet when overall cost was like a "Whoa!" point.

That said, I'm done with the 5Ks (outside of Dopey), especially on the West Coast, unless they make a couple of changes to make it worth my while to get out of bed that early and take away part of a park day. $90 is ridiculous for a rubber medal and unisex shirt when I could sleep in and have more fun in the parks for less than that.

Our local half/full can get up to $140 for registration, so it's not far off from a Disney race. You get more swag but way less entertainment (but more booze on the course).

 

[ebradley23]

@Keels Have you ever done the Fort Worth marathon? I have a friend in Shreveport that I'm trying to peer pressure into running her first full. I looked at Fort Worth Marathon, since it's the same weekend as Richmond. I figure we can train together virtually. I don't want her first full to be a dud race though. I would hope it's fun and well supported.

 

[Kathymford]

ATTQOTD: So, my introduction to races is RunDisney, so my price points are probably skewed. I am local to DL and when I started running, we only had 2 races and I only ran 10ks then. So every time DL got a race, I wanted to sign up because there were so few. Then a couple of things happened: 1. DL now has 4 races, 2. Now I'm running half marathon's and (yikes) my first challenge (we'll see if I keep doing that), 3. We started doing WDW races too (the plan was one per year), and 4. I have started wanting to do other races besides Disney. So paying for all of this along with just living (HA) has gotten a tad difficult, so now we pick and choose. 1-2 DL races per year. For 2017 so far, as an example, I chose to do just the 10k for Light Side and will probably do the DLH Half or challenge and that will be it for RD races for 2017.

With that said, for races that are NOT Disney, I am really cheap. I feel like there all too high when a half is more than $100. HA. And it's really hard for me to pluck down that money when the run in more than a year away. I have a hard enough time doing that at the 9 month window for Disney races.

In running news, I am slightly injured. By the end of my run on Sunday, my hip flexor was hurting, but by Monday morning I was fine. On my run yesterday, the minute I started running it was hurting. As I figured out my pace, it was fine ... until I started walking. It hurts more to walk than to run. That seems weird no? It seems to be sore from the hip flexor all the way through to the inside of my knee. That seems not normal.I'm still limping a bit this morning. I used my stick roller thing (not sure what it's called; looks like little marshmallows with handles ha) on it this morning and that seemed to help but only temporarily. I guessing rest and stretching?

 

[Kathymford]

Oh, and I think RD's prices for the 5k are ridiculous right now even before the dreaded Active fees!

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

ATTQOTD:
I also WOULD pay for my packet to be waiting for me at the front desk in a heartbeat even if it cost like 20-30 per person if I was on a family vacation. If I go solo or just with the husband we'd go to the expo BUT with my family...they HATED that we had to go to the expo.

Packet pick-up/expo has a few purposes. One is sale Disney and/or other running products. The other is they have people there to verify your identity when picking up a bib. The importance of that is for reasons like security, theft of your bib, and for BQ's. The BQ part probably isn't that high up on the list as it would only effect marathon runners. I have also noticed that at most races, the volunteers are very relaxed during this process. So, the main reason is for retailors to make $. That's my attempt of explaining why you couldn't just pick up you bib at check-in at the resort you are staying at.

At Darkside they allowed a limited number of runners to pay to have their bib waiting at the front desk of their Disney hotel or at the start of the race. I think it was $35 for the front desk and maybe a little more at the race. I have not heard if they are going to start doing it for every race.