Racing without cars

If you have a car already, then using it is quite likely to be cheaper than paying for train fare, especially if there is more than one person travelling in your car.

And it's just so, so, so much easier than schlepping to the station, finding the train's late or cancelled, having to get from the other station to the start, and then reversing the process afterwards.

Wow, there have never been this many responses to a thread I started before... yay

I do appreciate that lots of places have rubbish public transport- I live in London now (under protest) but I'm from the back of beyond originally, so I know it's not always possible to leave the car at home. And I'm not saying that everyone should *have* to get to races without a car- just that for those of us who have to / choose to, it would be nice if it was easier!

Personally I've travelled to some quite far-flung places without a car, an example being the South Devon marathon in Feb. This involved 3 trains, a 3 mile walk, then camping overnight and reversing the process after the race. But I really wanted to do it, and despite asking around was unable to find a lift down there.

Good points re. volunteers staffing races, and the difficulty of organising yet another thing. I think especially for larger races, it would be reasonably easy to check how many runners are in each car, because there are usually marshalls at the entrance to the carpark to direct people. And certainly somewhere to keep bags is not hard, as a lot of races prove.

 I guess it will be interesting to see, if I can ever afford a car, whether I still care about this!  Hope so...

Tris with out cars would be fun.

Aye you can cycle to the race but with kit more than a few miles it gets right pain in the neck and arse.

Fair point!

 Maybe races should have 2 sets of prizes- one set for elites who get there in top condition, having driven, and one for tired people who got there under their own steam...

I sympathise.  I don't drive and it's difficult to get to a lot of races in the South-West (which would be local) so I end up doing quite a few races in London or near Reading (i.e. near to where I have family/friends that I can stay with and the public transport is better). 

I'm not expecting buses to be put on especially, but checking when the first train/bus arrives locally and fixing the race start time accordingly would be nice.  Yes, I know trains don't always run at weekends, etc., but the effort would be appreciated.  Until then, I'll continue with my long warm ups, running from train stations!

Surprised to hear no bag storage - that's extremely rare in my experience.