Could Small Running Races be Making a Comeback?

This year marks my tenth year as co-directing the Hogsback Half Marathon, a road race held in the rural, quiet northwestern corner of Connecticut. Of the four productions that Kelly and I have put on together over the last decade, it is the one that we’ve poured most of our energy into. That’s in part due to the sheer logistics of a half marathon versus the distances of the other races, but it’s also because it was the one we did together first. (She’s been doing it well before me.)

Hogsback is the race we first produced a few weeks after my son, Owen, died. It was a race we produced when our daughter, Ivy, was four weeks old. When we moved to New Hampshire six years ago, it was always the race we were going to keep. And we’ve seen a lot over that time period: shrinking from 550 registrants to a low of 270 or so in our rebound from COVID, inflation impacting our ability to make charitable donations post-event, and different demands from athletes.

Still, despite all that, there are glimmers of hope beneath the surface that could show the racing community is truly rebounding post-COVID.

The Economic Realities and Runner Acceptance of Them

Everything, and I mean everything, is more expensive when it comes to race production.

Let’s start with the bare bones basics. You need race directors. Kelly and I do not take a penny from the race; we get reimbursed for any expenses we personally pay related to the race but otherwise, as race directors we get paid the handsome sum of $0. We also do not have to pay any fees for permitting from either our race host location, or from the state of Connecticut for using state roads on our race route. We do, however, pay $500 for traffic control.

But you also need bibs and timing. And that’s not free. Based upon our total number of registered athletes, this cost $11.51 per runner. Depending on when you registered for the race, that represents anywhere from 12.5% to 28% of your total entry fee paid. But we have also never had issues with results from the company we use. It’s a fee we gladly pay.

Then there’s port-o-johns. You need those. (We probably could have used Dan to help command the lines at the end, but that’s another story.) We ordered five rentals this year, along with one existing one at our race location. It shakes out to roughly one port-o-john per 40 runners, based on those who actually showed up on race day. The cost of those rentals is up roughly 20% over pre-COVID times. We also procured some additional toilet paper at BJ’s pre-race, just in case.

Lastly, under the necessary column, are aid station items. We provide water and electrolyte drink mix (Gatorade this year) across six aid stations, and then gels (Gu) at two of those aid stations. You also have trash bags and paper cups for these. Lastly, each runner is given a bottle of water at the finish line, which they can refill as needed with either water or electrolyte mix provided at the end. Water alone is up about 30% for both refills at aid stations (six gallon jugs) and for the individual bottles at the finish line. Gatorade powder is 20% more than last year, whereas gels stayed mostly the same.

When you combine all of those figures together, it works out to almost $25 per runner for your absolute basics. Then there’s the nice-to-haves that help make a race feel more like an event: t-shirts that are included in the registration fee; shirts and items for our volunteers; medals; post-race food; awards for both overall and age group champions; a rental van to help transport everything to and from the race site; gas to power that van; and more.

So it’s clear: costs have gone up. Which means prices to runners go up, too. And I suppose the good news out of this is that runners are understanding of this economic reality, particularly for races that serve to donate all monies collected above expenses to a charitable partner. Despite higher pricing, runner registration and turnout on race day were highest since COVID. The donation to our charity partner was also the largest since 2021 at more than $5,000. It certainly feels less dire than it did even twelve months ago.

Challenges That Still Exist

It’s still not a perfectly rosy picture out there. For example, if Kelly and I actually charged the race even minimum wage for the number of hours we put into the event, the entirety of that profit would have been wiped out. We’d need to roughly double the number of runners registered if we took money in order to then provide a similar donation level, assuming economies of scale.

Race calendars also remain oversaturated, spreading a running population thin across dozens of events that might be taking place on the same weekend. Just within the state of Connecticut, there were more than 40 running events taking place on the week before, the same weekend, or the week after our half marathon. It’s too many events for too few total runners, which simply results in event cannibalization. I would expect to see some of those events evaporate due to low participation volume — which ultimately is brutal for the communities those events take place in, but is ultimately what will need to happen for a sustainable race calendar to exist.

And ultimately cost remains the ultimate question. We raised our prices for the third year in a row, with a maximum price after registration platform fees of almost $90 for a half marathon. Will runners still support a smaller event if that dollar amount sneaks out north of $100? That feels like a price point third rail. Then again, so did $200 for a pair of running shoes, and nearly every pair of carbon-plated racers is above that price point (and seem to be selling well).

There are ways as runners to reduce that cost, of course. Earlier registration grants access to lower price points. More runners registering earlier also generally brings costs down due to lead times for key items. Despite that, though, runner behavior tends towards registering later and later. This year, almost a quarter of the race-day field registered in the final 25 days before the race, with 70% of that paying the highest price to register for the race. It’s likely a response to race cancellations during COVID. Thankfully, we’re pretty well versed in this, and can plan for it — but it does add some additional stress as a race director.

Ultimately, though, we’re glad to have another successful event behind us. And now the planning for 2025 begins.

Photos: Kelly Burns Gallagher / Hogsback Half Marathon

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