What's the deciding factor for you?

  • Is the course distance actually what it says it was? I prefer certified courses, but if their course map shows a distance then I map it out online on a few sites and it comes out to the same distance, that's ok too.
  • Competition: I'll do small easy-win local races as a way to gauge my fitness, but it's not fun to sign up for a race and run alone the whole fucking time. I'd rather come in 5th in a stacked road 5k than come in first by a minute. Also, races that draw good competition tend to be very well-organized (and certified).
  • Price, for races that I'm paying for myself. My race team generally foots the bill, but every once in a while I pay for my own race, and I'm not likely to pay more than $25. Beyond that, most of those fees are just going towards things I don't really want anyway (like 3 water stations in a 5k, tons of awards, etc.; in some races like the Rock N Roll series, all that money really just goes towards advertising anyway).

When I run a 10k, all I really want is a real 10k with people to race against. That's it. I've run one really massive 8k (20,000+ people) multiple times that's a blast and is a bit more expensive ($35 I think) but it's also some of the best road competition I've had in my entire life, it really supports local elite runners with some big cash prizes (note: I'll never place in this race, as it's routinely won by pros), it's a major community event, and it's insanely well-organized. It has 52 starting corrals, starting at sub-29 pace all the way up to slow walking pace.

So I'm willing to fit the bill a bit more for an event like that. But frankly, if that race didn't do such a good job ensuring that it's a good competition for somewhat faster runners, I wouldn't run it.

/r/running Thread