Kilometric entry fee, or the marathon anomaly
By Julien on Tuesday, March 13 2012, 21:07 - Thoughts - Permalink
Following my participation in the Cambridge Boundary Run marathon for an entry fee of a mere £8, I have decided to calculate the kilometric cost, ie. the entry fee per kilometre, of some of the races I completed in the past. All entries fees are for 2012, unless not available yet for late autumn races, in which case 2011 fees are used. EUR to GBP rate: 0.835.
Early bird rate (cheapest entry fee available)
Late entry fee (most expensive entry fee)
It therefore appears that I ran successively my most expensive and cheapest (kilometric-wise) races one after each other :) It also seems that the UTMB and the PTL are not so expensive after all...
But what really dominates these tables is no news: "big city marathons" are expensive, as illustrated in this graph by the anomaly at 42.195km. A result of marathons being fashionable, and market laws doing the rest?

It would be interesting to see what are the statistics on a wider scale, though. For example if runnersworld would be keen on opening up their database...
Ultra fee
Early bird rate (cheapest entry fee available)
Race | Distance | Entry Fee | Fee/distance |
(km) | (£) | (£/km) | |
Cambridge Boundary Run | 42.2 | 8.0 | 0.19 |
Hardmoors 110 | 177.1 | 40.0 | 0.23 |
Hardmoors 55 | 88.6 | 25.0 | 0.28 |
Hardmoors 60 | 96.6 | 30.0 | 0.31 |
Three Forts Marathon | 43.5 | 20.0 | 0.46 |
PTL (3 runners) | 290.0 | 148.8 | 0.51 |
UfDance half-marathon | 21.1 | 16.0 | 0.76 |
PTL (2 runners) | 290.0 | 223.2 | 0.77 |
UTMB | 166.0 | 129.4 | 0.78 |
Belfast Marathon | 42.2 | 33.0 | 0.78 |
Marathon des Alpes-Maritimes | 42.2 | 37.6 | 0.89 |
Hyde Park Relays (internal) | 5.3 | 5.0 | 0.94 |
Watford Half-Marathon | 21.1 | 20.0 | 0.95 |
Paris Marathon | 42.2 | 54.2 | 1.29 |
Paris-Versailles | 16.0 | 21.7 | 1.36 |
Dublin Marathon | 42.2 | 58.4 | 1.38 |
Copenhagen Marathon | 42.2 | 67.4 | 1.60 |
Athens Marathon | 42.2 | 75.1 | 1.78 |
Late entry fee (most expensive entry fee)
Race | Distance | Entry Fee | Fee/distance |
(km) | (£) | (£/km) | |
Cambridge Boundary Run | 42.2 | 12.0 | 0.28 |
Hardmoors 55 | 88.6 | 30.0 | 0.34 |
Hardmoors 60 | 96.6 | 35.0 | 0.36 |
Hardmoors 110 | 177.1 | 70.0 | 0.40 |
PTL (3 runners) | 290.0 | 148.8 | 0.51 |
Three Forts Marathon | 43.5 | 25.0 | 0.58 |
PTL (2 runners) | 290.0 | 223.2 | 0.77 |
UTMB | 166.0 | 129.4 | 0.78 |
Belfast Marathon | 42.2 | 33.0 | 0.78 |
Hyde Park Relays (internal) | 5.3 | 5.0 | 0.94 |
UfDance half-marathon | 21.1 | 20.0 | 0.95 |
Watford Half-Marathon | 21.1 | 20.0 | 0.95 |
Marathon des Alpes-Maritimes | 42.2 | 62.6 | 1.48 |
Copenhagen Marathon | 42.2 | 73.1 | 1.73 |
Paris-Versailles | 16.0 | 28.4 | 1.77 |
Dublin Marathon | 42.2 | 75.1 | 1.78 |
Athens Marathon | 42.2 | 75.1 | 1.78 |
Paris Marathon | 42.2 | 79.3 | 1.88 |
It therefore appears that I ran successively my most expensive and cheapest (kilometric-wise) races one after each other :) It also seems that the UTMB and the PTL are not so expensive after all...
But what really dominates these tables is no news: "big city marathons" are expensive, as illustrated in this graph by the anomaly at 42.195km. A result of marathons being fashionable, and market laws doing the rest?

It would be interesting to see what are the statistics on a wider scale, though. For example if runnersworld would be keen on opening up their database...
Ultra fee
Comments
Dear Julien, we are a small group of friends who recently started in their spare time to run a blog about "challenges" in general (physical, mental, serious or even frivolous ones).
We would like to do a short interview with an ultra-runner covering the physical and psychological preparation aspect of the challenge. Would you be interested? Or do you perhaps know someone who would be? Even runners who are preparing for their first one would be great!
In any case, many thanks for your attention!
Pablo