I have only been to NYC once, in 2006, and I loved it, such a great place. I had heard about the marathon and thought it would be a good one to aim for.
I am doing my first marathon in April this year. I picked the UK's Manchester Marathon because I am a Mancunian and although, for now, I have moved away, Manchester will always be home to me.
The entrance fee was extremely reasonable at £48, which is just slightly over half of what they are asking for the London Marathon.
Anyway, back to my original point. When I heard that the NYC Marathon was opening registration I decided to sign up.
I went on the the registration page and was informed that I would be charged a $11 admin fee for registering, which I thought was reasonable, but before I went through the process I decided to look at the entry fee if I was to be successful. Now, there are 3 separate prices and I completely agree with the slight discount for those who actually live in the city, I think that is a nice gesture. What blew me away however, is that if you are not a US Citizen, you have to pay an extra $100?! This I find quite offensive, why do I have to pay more? Am I going to drink more water, use more portaloo's and need a bigger medal?! Therefore on principle I will not be entering and I may look at doing Paris in 2016 instead.
This all led me to think about entrance fees in general and how expensive things are becoming in the world of running. I do appreciate that there needs to be a cost, especially with a marathon due to roads etc. being closed, but some of them are ridiculous. When will it reach a point where people start to say, 'actually no, I am not prepared to pay that!'
I apologise if today's post is a little ranty, but I love running, I love entering things and being with other runners. It's just getting to a point where I have to think carefully about what I enter as these days it has to be worth it to me and paying an unjustified fee for being a foreigner is not something worth doing.
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