Who are you running for?

Interesting article in The Guardian - Should you run for charity, or just for yourself?

Personally, I run for myself and I'd rather not have the added pressure of trying to raise money too. I'm happy to sponsor other people*, so long as they don't ask too often.

* people I know, not you

I run for myself.

The only time I've ever raised money was when I was running the London marathon, and people kept offering me sponsorship, so I took it and passed it on to a charity.

I'm running my first half for Charity.

If I ever build up the guts to run a full one, I'll do the same first time round for that too.

But after that I'm not going to. The first time is a challenge, the times after that, meh, its just normal, and I don;t want to hassle people for money everytime I choose to run one.

I hear this question a lot too. I'm thinking of telling people to donate to a charity of their own choice when i do my upcoming marathon, if they're keen on making a charitable donation because of my running.

I occassionally ask others if they're collecting sponsorship money for their hobbies.

I run for myself and feel just as Millsy says.

 I'll never forget my first ever marathon though back in 2000 - was London - standing in the start pen and questioned by fellow runners "so who are you running for then?" and the telling look and comments about how that's what the whole point of running a marathon was for, and the refusal to accept I just wanted to run it to see if I could

 ... never have asked for money ... will happily donate myself if I want to, but NOT ask others to pay me to partake in my hobby/therapy!

It wouldnt be so bad if Charities werent so blatantly greedy, expecting you to cough up the best part of £2k .......... fine well how about instead of the £400 or £500 I could have raised, you'll get nothing instead ...... how does that sound?

except they didnt get nothing, they got £2000 since the list of people willing to do it is as long as the list of places available for them to do so. they dont need you, or me or anyone else, 

The amount they want raising for a place these days is ridiculous, but people can and do do it and queue up for the places, so it wont change.

Oh, good idea AgentGinger - just got guilt-tripped at pilates class for not doing VLM for charity and almost succumbed to the argument that 'you might as well just have a fundraising page and if anyone donates the charity will have more money than none'. Next week I'll tell the (very lovely) lady to just donate to her favourite charity on my behalf.

I don't think non runners ask the question because they EXPECT you to run for charity, but rather because they're incredulous that anyone would do it for fun, unless they were professional, hence the other question, where did you come, did you win?

cragchick wrote (see)

I run for myself and feel just as Millsy says.

 I'll never forget my first ever marathon though back in 2000 - was London - standing in the start pen and questioned by fellow runners "so who are you running for then?" and the telling look and comments about how that's what the whole point of running a marathon was for, and the refusal to accept I just wanted to run it to see if I could

 ... never have asked for money ... will happily donate myself if I want to, but NOT ask others to pay me to partake in my hobby/therapy!

No need to go that far....surely.

I just mean I happily to donate to charities that 'hit the spot' for me, but tend not to get caught up in sponsor forms etc; equally if people DO want to use it to fundraise, all good ... I have a few friends who have sick kids and that is a big motivator for them, and I quite understand that too.

LOL at the incredulity that you would do it for fun though

I run for the sheer joy of it!

Yes, I guess I'm a runner who runs for oneself-  but I have entered this years Race For Life in Leicester, so I'm also hoping to raise a bit of cash along the way.

I run occassionally for charity. Has to be something very special (this year is North Pole) and not every year - donator 'fatigue'. I understand the charity arguements for the VLM and given the vast amount raised by this event, hard to complain. I have run the VLM, but not for charity - no-one took this the wrong way either.

I'm also not sure of these charity events where the charity funds your airfare / accommodation etc. - seems to me that you are getting friends to pay (indirectly) for your holiday!

I read that as plodder suggesting that CC didn't need to go as far as donating herself....ie her own person rather than money!

I've done a few RFL in memory of my dad but always chose to make a small donation instead of raise sponsorship.

I have never run for charity and never will. I have had the 'who are you running for' 'I didn't know you could run London without raising money for charity' 'aren't you wasting a place by not running for charity' comments.

Funny thing is, with other runners when I'm out running the question is 'What race are you training for?' Like somehow I can't just go out and run for fun and fitness.

I run for myself, did the charity thing once and raised some cash, the only response I got from the Charity was asking when my next run would be and what would I commit to raising, I do the odd charity event where my money goes to charity but for me that was the end of charity running.

My first, hopefully many more to come, I'll be splitting it between two charities - A club that i play wheelchair basketball for, and a charity that the oncology team at a local hospital set up to help treat children in malawi with cancer. 

Done alot of other things raising money for uk charities, but wanted to give something back directly to the team i've seen over the last 7 year in a personal/direct way.

Not to bothered if i dont hit my targets. Mainly doing it to stick myself.. Just makes it hard working 40 hours per week, training for basketball 3-4 hours per week then "running" another 6-8 hours per week covering around 20-30 mile 

I run for myself, not charity, though I'm willing to take sponsorship money from people who ask me about it. The idea of going around asking people for sponsorship just doesn't sit well with me.