Are charity & mass participation events killing the club scene?
The Great North Run received extensive TV coverage last weekend. A couple of weekends ago, there was the first ever Great North Swim (a one mile mass participation swim in one of the Lake District waters).
These events are hard to get in (despite being expensive) so the “guaranteed” route is via a charity place. Pick a charity – pledge to raise say £250 and you are in. (Of course, for this, you get an “exclusive” website where celebrities tell you their training “secrets”.)
People taking these places often train specifically for that event alone. This is the COMPLETE rather than COMPETE mentality (not competing to win, but against others in your age group, from your club etc).
Obviously raising money for charity and having a good time with family is good TV stuff. Running with a club and getting the intangible camaraderie that all club athletes feel is not good TV stuff.
I was talking to a lady runner who had recently joined a club. The social scene and mutual respect that abounded took her completely by surprise.
Up to that point, her “training” consisted of treadmill running in a spare bedroom 4 nights a week. Step into a charity place in the local half marathon for 1 day in September and back on the treadmill the day after.
Maybe clubs aren’t proactive enough? But maybe the big corporations have just taken over big races?
I agree with you. I noticed it recently when I ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon in London. At least 70% of the T-shirts I passed were for some charity or another. When I entered, two months before the race, the only way you could get in was run for charity. Perhaps that is a requirement for big city races where they need to shut off roads, but there is a bit of a feeling of ‘selling out’.
Now, don’t get me wrong – I think running for charity isn’t a bad thing, but it has gone to an extreme now. I don’t need to mention the £2000 minimum amount for a golden bond place for the London Marathon! To me, the charity emphasis has taken away some of the pleasure of running for your club or even running because you love it. In many cases, I prefer the smaller events, simply because this emphasis isn’t there. I run London to raise money (even with my ballot places) but for the rest of the races I do each year (and I probably do 10 – 15 more) I am proud to wear my club colours.
Nancy Williams’s last blog post..Olympic Inspiration for the Average Runner