Great North Run

[AlMorr]

I got a invitation to enter the Great North Run HM ballot, £64, no way at that price

[Doris8]

Could you go enter by sponsoring without paying entry?

[AlMorr Half Marathon in reply to Doris8]

Hi Doris8, I hope you are enjoying your running and walks, no I won't be taking part in the Great North Run, it is possible that on the same day, as in recent years my local 10K might be taking place, in recent years I have been a spectator at that event cheering the runners on, if it takes place this year I am considering entering it.

[Doris8 in reply to AlMorr]

That’s good. Yes enjoying walks and twice a week doing run3 min/walk. 2 min 30 mins.

[AlMorr Half Marathon in reply to Doris8]

👍 🏃🏾 🚶

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to Doris8]

Do you mean a charity place Doris8 ? If so, remember that runners still have to pay the charity a registration fee, probably £30 or more, and commit to raising a minimum amount of sponsorship, usually several hundred pounds. Personally I think that requires way more commitment than shelling out £64, though the latter certainly seems pricey to me.

[Doris8 in reply to Cmoi]

yes that’s what I mean. I knew you had to raise but never knew you had to pay a registration fee. Yes I see where u coming from, better paying the money., but still pricey.

[MissUnderstanding Half Marathon in reply to Doris8]

I would think of my registration fee as a donation to the charity.

A lot of people use that route as a way to get into a race they wouldn’t otherwise be able to run because of unsuccessful ballot entry. Apparently less than half of people in the GNR ballot get a place. This is just my personal view but I would feel pretty uncomfortable asking people to sponsor me so I could have a cheaper race entry fee. Plus it’s a usually a large amount of money to raise.

I’ve just looked and a charity I’ve worked with before (who are brilliant and this isn’t a criticism at all) expect you to pay £65 entry to the GNR and raise £500 in sponsorship.

[Doris8 in reply to MissUnderstanding]

personally I agree with you , I hate asking people to sponsor me , in my lifetime I wouldn’t be doing any kind of marathon with my bone status , just do small run walk for me now and again or stick to walking.

[ArthurJG Half Marathon in reply to Doris8]

A charity place involves other people part funding your entry when they think they’re giving to charity (and to be fair most of it does go to charity that’s why the target is so high). I’m doing the Paris half for SCIAF but I’ve paid the entry fee and other costs myself - a standard entry not a charity entry - which means neither I nor my friends and family are under pressure to raise a partner amount. I see charity places for the London marathon where the target is well into four figures and I think it’s actually discriminatory as not everyone is well enough connected to be able to ask that kind of money from family and friends.

[AlMorr Half Marathon in reply to ArthurJG]

Update, I have just noticed that the Monklands Half Marathon is only £15 to enter, that compares to the recent Falkirk Half Marathon which was £45 and The Great North Run HM which is £60, The Great Scottish HM run is £39.

[MissUnderstanding Half Marathon in reply to AlMorr]

Bargain! Are you tempted? I think the one I’m doing in April is cheaper than the 10k I’ve entered in June! I’m not sure how much rhyme or reason there is to it.

[AlMorr Half Marathon in reply to MissUnderstanding]

It is amazing that some HM's are cheaper than 10K runs, no I won't be running in that £15 Monklands Half Marathon.

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to Doris8]

I personally wouldn't apply for a charity place unless I was committed to both the charity and the event. Certainly wouldn't be doing it in an attempt to pay a reduced entry fee!

I suspect people often forget that races are there to make money. Big races mean complex organisation and big budgets. Commercial race organisation companies are just that, doing it to make money for their business. Charities, for whom race organisation isn't their core business, just piggy-back on the events to fundraise. Even small clubs organising local races don't want to lose money: at the very least they'll look to break even, or ideally make a bit of profit for themselves, the local community or a good cause.

£64 for a HM feels like a huge chunk of money to me, though ironically if I were forced to run a UK road race, I'd choose the Great North Run!

[Teresa1632 Marathon]

That is pricey, more like a marathon price - and even then, it would be costly. There are plenty of other great events, with the same buzz. Support local, save money and enjoy yourself!Half marathon is my favourite distance, typical cost £25-30 which includes bling, technical kit and post run food. So I tend to search out lower profile events that are supporting a charity.

Happy searching & running 🏃‍♂️ 🏃‍♀️

[ArthurJG Half Marathon]

I’ve entered the Paris half marathon which you’d expect to be an expensive one and that was under 50 euro. Well actually it was almost double that because I bought a lot of extras, thinking it’ll be a long time if ever before I get to do something like that again. But the base price is a lot less than £64.

But the cost apart I wouldn’t touch GNR as soon as you mention a ballot. Who needs the hassle? There are lots of wonderful races that confirm your place as soon as you submit the form and pay so why put your running life on hold waiting to see if you can get a place. I got a place at Paris by return (though you do then need to send a medical certificate to race in France which is a bit of a pain). Nearer home and on a smaller scale, the Inverness half gets a great reputation though I haven’t done it myself.

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to ArthurJG]

I don't do events ArthurJG , but generally speaking French ones seem to be cheaper than in the UK. Though the trail marathon event I did shot up in price once UTMB got their hands on it...

Hopefully the Paris HM organisers have pointed you in the direction of where to get the medical certificate, but if you need any help, feel free to pm me.

[ArthurJG Half Marathon in reply to Cmoi]

oh it was easy enough, there’s a form on their website which I emailed to my GP who charged £20 for completing it. It’s safely uploaded to the race website already. It is ridiculous though and has caused parkrun to suspend French events because (a) they can’t possibly check every parkrunner’s medical certificate every week (b) they’re against it in principle anyway because it’s a barrier to exercise, both in convenience and in financial cost, and the whole point of parkrun is to remove such barriers not to be part of the bureaucracy enforcing them.

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to ArthurJG]

I've lived and worked in France for almost 17 years, and now have dual nationality, so have considerable experience of French bureaucracy.

While I agree that having to have a medical certificate for sporting activities is a nuisance, that's how French law works. It applies across the board, including activities and tiny little events run by local clubs and communities, and they don't seem to have any problem at all checking certificates. Mine was issued free, on the spot, by my GP. In any case, parkun has barcodes. Those need checking every week, whereas medical certificates are valid for a yea

I can't see any reason whatsoever why parkrun should be an exception to French national law. To me it comes over as "Hey we're Brits, so we don't see why your rules should apply to us" and I find that infuriating. Not least because parkrun wouldn't let someone's result count without a barcode, so why should people be allowed to take part without a medical certificate?

[ArthurJG Half Marathon in reply to Cmoi]

parkrun barcodes are valid for life and based on self-declaration: they don’t need to be re validated every year by an external professional and then checked by the organiser. And no they don’t get ‘checked’ every week they just get scanned- it’s taken entirely on trust that the barcode is your own. Frankly it’s clear you don’t understand how parkrun works or you’d understand how it’s impossible to comply with such an overbearing law and just to be clear, it’s FRENCH parkrunners losing out not Brits.

The comparison with little running club events doesn’t stand up because they are not organising free events every week which are open to all without advance booking. To tie a medical certificate to the barcode would mean every parkrunner in the world having to comply with French law just in case they might one day go to France. That’s not going to happen. It’s France that’s the exception here not the UK and the consequence is France cannot have parkrun because it is effectively illegal. You CANNOT operate parkrun that way. You’re basically saying don’t have parkrun, have something entirely different to comply with an idiosyncratic French requirement. Well OK then - get someone else to organise it, not parkrun!

Indeed the argument of French parkrunners is the opposite of yours. They argue precisely that the law does not apply to parkrun because (a) it is not competitive and (b) parkrun is constituted as a health and well-being charity not a sports events organiser. They do NOT argue parkrun should demand medical certificates: they say they should continue to operate outside that regulation and that’s FRENCH people not exceptionalist Brits saying that. They think HQ has let them down by not ignoring the law. However parkrun HQ having operated on exactly that basis for some time for some reason became less confident of those arguments and could not get sufficient reassurance from French lawyers so they suspended parkrun in France due to potential liability issues that could bankrupt the global organisation (which is astonishingly small and operated on a tiny budget).

That is NOT exceptionalism. On the contrary, that is EXACTLY complying with French law. French law makes parkrun impossible. Comparison with club races misses the point: parkrun is a fundamentally different thing. Yes you can have running events under that regime but you can’t have parkrun. By definition you can’t. You’ve made its fundamental principles illegal. You can’t then say it’s pompous Brits throwing their toys out of the pram. The whole point of parkrun is anybody can turn up when they feel like it and take part. Once that’s not allowed, whatever you’re doing it isn’t parkrun. As soon as you put something in place that says you need someone else’s permission to take part it isn’t parkrun. Respecting French law means not operating parkrun. If you were a parkrunner you’d know that.

parkrun operates 100,000 events per year with a permanent staff worldwide of about forty people and an annual budget of around £4 million. A hundred thousand events per year, on a staff and budget smaller than many a primary school. You really think they can verify 8 milllion medical certificates a year with those resources? But even if they could, they shouldn’t, because in principle it’s wrong. And as I say French parkrunners agree with that. They agree they shouldn’t need the government’s permission to exercise. They are not accusing parkrun of exceptionalism. They are accusing them of backing down without a fight. If it was just Brits being difficult someone in France would have set up an alternative by now. But it isn’t so they haven’t, and it’s French people who lose out.

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to ArthurJG]

My original response to you was to agree that French running events are generally cheaper than in Britain, and to offer you help with obtaining a medical certificate if required.

Given your subsequent responses, I think we'd better just agree to disagree.

[ArthurJG Half Marathon in reply to Cmoi]

yes your original response was helpful: that’s not what I was addressing though. I’m pretty passionate about parkrun as are quite a few people on here and if you make unfair statements I’m going to answer them. The requirement for a medical certificate is incompatible with parkrun for the reasons I stated. The false analogy with racing isn’t helpful. France is entitled to pass what laws it wants but if it makes it impossible for parkrun to operate then it won’t operate and there’s no point blaming parkrun for that.

[Kevin41 Half Marathon in reply to ArthurJG]

it’s entirely up to you what and how you post ArthurJG but this comes across a bit shouty and a bit of a rant I’m afraid. Capitals for words have a habit of doing that when written i think. There are no doubt valid points in there but Im afraid I stopped reading.

I’m sure this won’t bother you one jot but I’m glad Cmoi has reminded you that she was trying to help…..

[ArthurJG Half Marathon in reply to Kevin41]

Oh it bothers me, if you’ve seen my posting record on here these past few years I’m not someone who looks for conflict and I think most regulars now that. Sorry if it came across as a rant but the statement about parkrun was neither true nor fair and that was what I was replying to. My post simply explained at length the multiple reasons why the statement that there’s no reason parkrun can’t check medical certificates every week, and that refusing to do so was just a case if British exceptionalism, were well off the mark and based on misunderstandings of the purpose of parkrun and the resources of the small charity that sustains it. If it’s OK to make accusations like that it must be OK to answer them. I note your problem is with tone not content.

[misswobble Marathon]

I like the local ones. Fun at half the price 😀🏃‍♀️

[AlMorr Half Marathon in reply to misswobble]

I agree with you misswobble that the local event runs are better and cheaper than runs such as the London Marathon or the Great North Run. The Great North Run is very good and seems to attract around 60, 000 runners to take part but on the day 40,000 are at the start line, I am not sure what happened to the other 20,000, perhaps they felt that they couldn't run 21.1K on the day of the event, I remember watching TGNR on television a few years ago, the commentator mentioned that 40,000 began the run but as many as around 6.000 dropped out before the 5K distance, I am not sure why that happened.

[ArthurJG Half Marathon in reply to AlMorr]

Most running events budget for around 15% no show I believe. They can be ill, injured, change their minds, be denied time off work, anything. They have to commit so far in advance that things will always turn up, and there’s no incentive to let the organisers know as theirs no refund regardless of why you withdraw.

[misswobble Marathon in reply to AlMorr]

These big events don’t appeal to me. Expensive and often miles away. Nah. I mostly enter races on the basis of whether they do good cake 🍰

[AlMorr Half Marathon in reply to misswobble]

That's the way it should be misswobble, I like to go to parkruns where I will get a piece of cake, usually the parkruns birthday.

[misswobble Marathon in reply to AlMorr]

Parkrun so far has been great on the tea and cake front. Ours is amazing. I first ran it and a chap asked me to join everyone for coffee and cakes afterwards. I only had £2 on me but the guy behind the counter gave me a huge coffee, lump of gateau and brought it to me. What’s not to like. Not that I relied on credit after that. I was sure to take sufficient dosh🙂💰

[AlMorr Half Marathon in reply to misswobble]

👍 🏃🏾 🎂

[AlMorr Half Marathon]

Thanks for that information ArthurJG. I understand that you helped setup West Links Parkrun Arbroath, not been to Drumpellier Parkrun for a while.

[linda9389 Administrator Marathon]

Eek, that is quite the price! I know something that size has enormous costs, but even so ...

[Folkylass]

Hi AlMorr. Yes that does seem a bit steep.I have a 10k race coming up in May and I only paid £16 and that was an early bird entry.

[AlMorr Half Marathon in reply to Folkylass]

I wish you well Folkylass for your £16 10K race in May, that's a reasonable price to pay 👍🏃🏾, for that price you will get a medal, a T Shirt 👚 and probably a goody bag

[Folkylass in reply to AlMorr]

Thank you so much AlMorr .Yes I’ve already got medals ,t-shirts and the goody bags from the previous races I did in Hereford before the pandemic and a couple of virtual ones so I know what to expect. I try and take part in the Hereford running festival every couple of years if I can.👍😀😀

[AlMorr Half Marathon in reply to Folkylass]

👍 🏃🏾 Good to hear that Folkylass 🏃🏾