The number of road running races on our event calendar is actually becoming a problem detrimental to the sport , and a complete rethink of the way we do things may be called for .

In Africa , and South Africa in particular , the picture is different , as the economic situation has a major impact on available funds , and that has forced even dedicated club runners to review how often they enter events . There has still been a growth of awareness of both health and socialising , but this is countered for many people by limited funds . There are several knock-on impacts from this , which requires participation sports like running to start looking wider at what the offering is . It is evident that unless we rethink what we are offering , the sport at club level will be compromised , even though it can probably survive at provincial and national level .

The increase in numbers interested in health and fitness is seen not simply in the mass numbers who will run a 5km parkrun each week , but also by the increased number of social running groups ( or clubs ). A challenge with this is that there are more smaller groups , and fewer bigger clubs capable of effectively presenting a race . However , each group still needs finance to survive , whether it is for an awards night , clubs socials , or assistance to runners with potential but limited resources or finances . This has resulted in an over-subscribed fixture list that features over 550 road races in a year , and this in a country where we basically have only five primary cities , and a dozen or so reasonably large populations .

The Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series offers fun 10km events that attracts far larger fields than most other races in those provinces

Predictable Participation

A rule of thumb indicates that 10 % of an urban population will be interested in health activities , and 10 % of that will be interested in recreational ( health ) running , while a further 10 % of that will be more serious runners . This means that a city of two million people may have 200,000 people involved in health activities , of which 20,000 will be interested in running and jogging , and of those , around 2000 are potential runners in clubs .

This is just a guide , but what it means is that an established club race in such a city would do well to get around 2000 entrants , while a mass event , such as an Absa RUN YOUR CITY 10K or Totalsports Women ’ s 10km could recruit between 10,000 to 14,000 of the estimated 20,000 recreational runners , joggers and walkers . Smaller club events in this city can be expected to attract 1000 to 1300 , runners , depending how many distances they offer , and whether their longer distances ( marathons ) are well placed on the calendar for sought after qualification periods for the big ultras . These are all important considerations that impact on the financial viability of an event .

With a run-of-the-mill club event in a city like Durban now costing around R300,000 to R450,000 to host , it becomes clear that there is massive pressure on the hosts to break even , while trying not to push entry fees beyond the reach of the running public . But this is only one aspect of the challenge . With the increasing number of running club and groups , there are also more races , but limited funds each month that runners can spend on racing , which results in reduced numbers in each event , which then increases the pressure to increase the entry fee to balance the budget .

Sponsorships are therefore vital , but I think the years of companies sponsoring events just for brand awareness are over . Now , there must be some tangible increase in sales , or sign-ups , to make a sponsorship viable as a marketing tool . Meanwhile , fewer runners ( and spectators ) reduces the benefits for sponsors . A key question is therefore , why would a sponsor support a race with only 1500 runners , when they can reach and interact directly with more potential clients on social media for probably 15 % of the sponsorship amount . So , unless we can bring useful numbers of participants ( and their families ) to a race , it will not be viable for sponsors to get involved in a club race of average size . Although perhaps oversimplified , the reality is we are killing our own sport by increasing the number of races each year .