Is road racing outpricing the ordinary person?

Years ago it was possible to look through the racing calender & enter races regularly but now i'm finding it's become a luxury & can no longer afford more than a handfull a year. It's getting hard to find a half marathon under 30 pounds & there was even a 10k back in the summer that wanted 50 pounds! Disposable income is at it's lowest for years but the price of road races as rocketed & surely there are a lot of people who have been outpriced, we're being asked to part with money months in advance & pay on the day is becoming a thing of the past.Admittedly it's very expensive to put on a race but surely there's way's of making it more accesible for everyone to enjoy.

My favourite distances are half/full marathon so 5k park runs are of little interest to me.With a family & mortgage there is no way can i afford 45 pounds to run 13 miles on a regular basis, i used to run at least one a month without busting the bank but now it's turned into a luxury,as for loads of cheap races,they certainly don't exist in Cardiff.

there'll be bluebirds over....,, wrote (see)

 It's getting hard to find a half marathon under 30 pounds & there was even a 10k back in the summer that wanted 50 pounds! accesible for everyone to enjoy.

6/1/13 Central Lancs HM £12
20/1/13 Inskip HM £14
10/2/13 Liversedge HM £13
17/2/13 Wrexham HM £12
24/2/13 Gt NW HM £18
3/3/13 Haweswater HM £14
10/3/13 Newton fraction's HM £18

It cant be that hard as these are the first 7 I came across.

But to answer your question, if you're averaging more than £10 entry fees across a year for your races then you're looking in the wrong places.

All our local (non commercial) races are cheap, £8 for a 10k.

cougie wrote (see)

Cheaper house or sell a kid or two ? Sorted.

Never sell your kids, you'll need them in old age. Best just hire them out as child labour and keep the long term investment.

Parkfunrun, the nearest race on that list to me is about a 300 mile round trip so i don't think i'd be saving much. Pity because the central Lancs half sounds appealing.Oh well, maybe i'll mark out a route in the local forestry, get the kids at the drinks station, two sticks in the ground with a ribbon attached at the finish & the missus clapping me home, make my own crappy goody bag with thing's i'll never use & use a old cheap medal so i can chuck in the drawer the next day & save myself 30 quid, happy day's

Seems to be the higher the entry cost, the larger the entry field you get. If a particular race with a £30 plus entry fee reaches entry limit then it does send out the message that that is what people are prepared to pay.

What works for me is to mix and match the races -parkrun or Halewood 5k which are free Saturday races, mid week 5k, 5 milers and 10k club organised races in the summer which are less than £10 or even less than £5. Then throw in a dozen or so of the longer Sunday races steering away from the commercial ones unless one is particularly appealing.

You do get to race regularly though not all at your preferred distance. This year I reckon 65 races will have cost me £200.

Sticking to local races tends to keep the prices more reasonable. If you want value, try the Mortimer Forest 10 hill race at £5 for 10 miles next Sunday. (A couple of hours away from you, near Ludlow). For real, consitent value, try some of the fell races, there are some crackers in the Beacons and elsewhere in south Wales.

Use the RW events finder...shed loads in SWales and across the border in Gloucester/Hereford and Worcester relatively cheap. £45 for a half...where's that and what sort of goodies came at that tag?

Run to the beat was 46 quid with the Bath not far behind, Brighton was astronomical as was the GNR, London is about the only quality race that is value for money.Not really interested in events being organised by the local pig farmer running knee deep in pig shit, just affordable quality road races.I just think that road racing is ending up for the well off & people on lower income can no longer afford to compete in mass events due to the astronomical costs, there's even been a competition on here recently where people who were successful  were asked to travel to Birmingham for a boot camp, ruling out those who could'nt afford it.When i first started running the beauty of it was it was accessible to everyone & there was some excellent value for money events but they now seem as rare as Yeti shit.

Relaxing Sunday trading laws killed road racing, at least in urban areas.

Traffic all over the place off to Homebase and the sofa shop.

Police insisting that they must be in attendance. Oh that's £10,000 please. If you don't pay we'll site a public order offence being committed etc, and put the block on it.

Extorsion. A criminal offence I thought.

I look at races you quote and these are the premier league big field races.  Things may well have changed but that is the market.  I remember doing the great south run when only 15000 people entered!  Now it's monstrous and expensive.  There are still good VFM events out there though just not the big ticket ones.  I think you pay for what you get to some degree although Edinburgh marathon was stupidly expensive and not worth the outlay.
Cheaper than triathlon and IM though (£400!)

I know what you mean. In the South of the UK - if you're not affiliated to a club -it's hard to find decent/cheap races. 

I used RW race finder and googling: half marathon surrey/hampshire. For me it's not feasible to pay 12 GBP to enter a race in Wrexham as it'll cost me 40quid in petrol just to get there and back.