With the 2011 Virgin London Marathon soon approaching I decided to sign up for my regular spring training races. Whilst they are races in themselves I like to use them as long training runs over progressively longer distances in preparation for the marathon with a final half marathon two weeks before as a psychological boost to see how well my training has gone.

I only do one long race a month as with longer distances there are higher costs, not only through petrol costs in travelling to the race, (20mile races aren’t held as frequently and locally as 10km ones) but also through race entry fees. I expect that within reason longer races have higher costs, they have more roads that need to be closed, policed, sign posted, marshalled and equipped with toilets, water stations and first aid support. However, apart from a few races, such as Ashby 20 where you receive a hoodie style sweatshirt for your effort or races where you start and end at different locations, many of the other running costs are the same as those of a local 10k. You need the same facilities for changing and parking, the same finishing T shirt or goodie bag and the same timing system so the actual price per mile you pay is around the same. Here are examples of the costs of races I am planning to run this Spring.

Last year I also entered the world’s first Kilomathon running from Nottingham to Derby. Metric marathons (26.2km) are nothing new but the organisers were clever enough to coin the term ‘Kilomathon’ and so promote it as the world’s first and a perfect pre London training race. As it was the first ever event it encountered a few teething issues, getting to the start corals was a bit stressful, the course wasn’t very inspiring the T-shirt wasn’t even specific for that race, and leaving the finish area and finding public transport back to Nottingham was difficult if you hadn’t pre booked the expensive, yet sold out, official transport. But you got a quality medal at the finish and as I mentioned before long distance events aren’t that common so I like to support the local races.

But this year I won’t be entering. Last year had 4186 official finishers and organisers are aiming to have thousands of more runners for the 2011 race which will be held 4 weeks before the 2011 Virgin London Marathon, and is promoted as an ideal marathon training run.

However this year they have changed the pricing and entry system for the 2011 Kilomathons. They claim that new entry system is much more beneficial to charities and also gives runners the option to enter a fantastic road race for just £5. But to enter at that price you need to raise a credit crunching £260. I fully accept that Hope for Children and Rainbows Children’s Trust are worthy charities to fundraise for but may people who are running the London Marathon, which remember the Kilomathon promotes its self as a training race for, are already raising for their favourite charity. A lot of people are also running through Gold or Silver bonds and having to raise between £1,500 to £3,000. It seems to me that it’s a bit difficult to return to your generous friends and colleagues who are already sponsoring you for the marathon to sponsor you again for a Kilomathon 4 weeks earlier so I expect many will end up paying the £45 entry fee themselves.

In addition GSi Events apply a £2 debit card, £3 cheque or a £2.75 credit card fee to process your entry.

Looking at the entry costs through my price per mile calculations, only when you raise a whopping £220 for a Silver entry does the price/mile lower to under £1.

Some events are held for the benefits of runners, Virgin London Marathon although difficult to be accepted through the ballot, costs only £28 (£1.07/mile) and the Silverstone half marathon £13 (£1/mile). Races such as the Experian Festival of Running in Nottingham cost £33 for a full marathon or £15 for the unemployed, with options on the entry form to make a donation to a local hospice or national charity or receive a fundraising pack. Cancer Research UK’s Race For Life series cost £14.99 for 5 or 10km, but are clearly fundraising events and to encourage camaraderie between the female participants and are not trying disguise themselves as an elite sporting event. Then for just £10 you could enter a race such as the 26mile Spires and Steeples Challenge in Lincolnshire which still manages to provide a finishers T shirt, drinks stations, marshals and free post-race massage and soup for a bargain 38p/mile.

Kilomathon organiser GSi Events’ own website admits that they ‘specialise in organising events that provide a fundraising platform for charities. Creating events that uniquely promote charities and companies at the same time.’ Suggesting that rather than providing a service for runners and encouraging people to become active they aim to produce a fundraising event. I’m concerned that with the popularity of the general public participating in challenging sporting events and the reduction of people giving to charities that companies are seeing runners as a an easy target. Just 5 years ago I would enter a local 5mile or 10km race held by a local charity, running club, or village every weekend, but now the frequency of these events are reducing and I’m worried that soon the only events I’ll be able to enter will be those organised by big organisations who see runners and their races as a cash cow. Whilst I wish that Hope for Children and Rainbows Children’s Trust raise a lot of money through the Kilomathon, as a runner I do hope that fellow runners resist entering races with such a pricing structure else I fear this will become the norm and eventually price us out of participating in the sporting events we love.

What do you think is an acceptable price for a race? With the current economic climate are entry fees discouraging you from racing as much as you like? Or are you involved in a charity and think that sporting events are the best way for you to fundraise no matter what the entry fee? Leave your comments below to let us know what you think.

I’ve never been a fan of Golden Bond places. Rather than the ballot entry fee of £30 the charities have to pay around £350 for a golden bond place which they have to recoup from the money you raise. If you feel passionate about raising money for a given charity, there are many big city marathons run around the same time as London you could enter for £30 or less, with more of your hard earned sponsorship money given to the charity directly.

If you desperately want to run London, there is no need to get your friends and family to pay for your impatience by thinking they are donating to charity, when really they are mainly just contributing towards your entry fee.  You will get a guaranteed place if you have been rejected 5 times and there is probably a good chance you would have got in through the ballot by that time. You could train harder and get a good for age time for next year. Or if you train extra hard and get a championship time by January 2010 you will still be able to race in April 2010

If you are a member of a running club, they have club places available. The regular competitive club runners will probably have their own places through either full or half marathon times, so if you want to run London for the first time, joining and becoming active in a club will probably lead to a club place offered to you next year.

If you have been lucky to get your own place in the 2010 VLM and want to fund raise for a charity then Virgin are now providing a more cost effective way to collect money. In the past most of us have had a JustGiving.com page for fund raising and it does have it’s benefits. Adding a link to your facebook page or sending out an email to friends you don’t see personally, is an easy way to encourage sponsorship and they collect gift aid for you. But they do this for a charge. A £10 donation can also reclaim £2.82 from the government as gift aid, yet JustGiving take 5% as a transaction fee (64p) plus VAT at 15% (10p) along with the credit card fee of 15p resulting in a whopping cost to the charity of 89p. Over 10 years £526m has been raised through JustGiving. Transaction fees of 5% would have earned them £26.3 million, that’s paying for some impressive overhead costs.

But with Virgin sponsoring the London marathon now they have set up Virgin Money Giving as a non profit making company to help you raise more money by only charging 2% as a transaction fee (card fees are the same) so the total cost to the charity is only 35p from a £10 donation.

Obviously the most effective way would be to get post dated cheques from your sponsors that you promise to cash only if you finish the race, ensure you get their permission to claim gift aid and then the charity gets to keep all 128% of your donated money. But if you are planning on a fund raising event and want on online sponsorship page for any event (it’s not limited only to VLM runners) then Virgin Money Giving (virginmoneygiving.com) could be the most effective way to collect your donations.