Life is an ultramarathon

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)

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