THE GREAT DEBATE
Debate
Do you think races should do away with tees and medals in favour of lowering entry costs?
FOR: Bruce King
Bruce King, race director on Jeppe Marathon for the last 18 years, a 17 time Comrades Marathon finisher, Bruce not only has an understanding of what it takes to organise an event, but also what a runner is really looking for when it comes to an event.
1.) Why is a T-shirt and medal so important for runners? Is it something every race should provide?
Bruce: Firstly let me say that to host a road running event in South Africa has many challenges and requirements that most runners never see, and all of these add additional costs to the event. I am merely going to mention a couple of the most expensive items in the budget.
Things like the traffic department are not free, in actual fact, they are one of the most expensive line items on the budget upwards of R80K. Often the traffic department is not reliable and races are required to bring in additional traffic management at a cost.
The medical response that you have at your event can be the difference between a runner living or dying, the better, more costly races have Advance Life Support( ALS) on-site and at the venue, qualified paramedics, and a race doctor at the venue. The cheaper races tend to rely on calling an ALS ambulance should something happen.
As we all know in South Africa, security is a line item that every household has to budget for, and so too at any good race. Security at the venue inside and out, we all want to know that while we are enjoying our sport our goods at the venue are safe and so too are our cars. This security isn’ t cheap.
The water and coke that we all enjoy on route and at the finish is not sponsored, this must be purchased and therefore adds a cost. A race cannot under order on these as this would be disastrous, unfortunately, though much water is wasted as runners are not considerate of those behind them and are happy to grab handfuls of water sachets and only use one or two, and the rest are discarded on the ground.
Electronic Timing and online entry have become the norm at races, this type of technology has improved our sport and made it better but it comes at a cost
2.) Do you think eliminating T-shirts and medals would change the costs that races have to pay, would it even make a difference to the entry fee? Bruce: We have to consider that medals are another line item that has a huge cost to any race. Some may say they don’ t want a medal but many runners do. T-shirt costs are largely dependent on the quantity and quality offered by an event. This can be the single biggest expense for a race. Runners all say we should reduce the cost of entry to races but then complain when there is no T-shirt, goodie bag, medal, and other spot prizes and giveaways.
3.) What is your opinion on races that offer limited tees now to a certain number of participants? Is this a happy medium? Bruce: Inevitably runners need to decide what they want from a road race, are they looking for quantity or quality? What I mean by this is that we can have races every day of the weekend, every weekend of the year, but there are only so many runners running and if they don’ t all go to every race then the better quality races that cost more to host will fall away and runners will need to accept this and stop complaining that they get nothing for their entry fee.
4.) What is your suggestion other than doing away with tees and medals to help lower costs for entrants on races. Bruce: I have been the Race Director for the Jeppe Marathon for the past 18 years, have completed 17 Comrades, and run many different races over this time. I have been on the receiving end of well-organised races as well as those that I now refuse to run due to absolute incompetence on the organisers side. I will only pay money for an event that I feel gives me, the runner, value. I am often looking beyond the superficial niceties and really look for a quality event. Runners need to start talking with their money and stop re-entering races year in and year out that are badly organised, and don’ t offer the runner anything. Only then do I think things will change.
40 ISSUE 177 | www. modernathlete. co. za
Images: Tobias Ginsberg