Outlaws. Who and why are racing for free?
Running without registration, bib number and chip, without a place in the overall ranking and therefore without a medal looks strange but still existent. About 1–5%* of participants in big races run without being registered. Why?
Event organizers point of view: it is not okay!
Event organizers don’t like these participants: they enjoy for free most of the benefits that organizers provide to the paid (registerer) participants. It’s not only volunteers, medical and security personell, food and drinks along the way, but also valuable intangibles like electric atmosphere of big running event.
Is running race a public good?
Many consider running a public good — one can run for free in parks or streets without preventing others from free running. But when it comes to racing the case is changing. In economics, a public good is a good that is both non-excludable and non-rivalrous. Use by one person neither prevents access by other people, nor does it reduce availability to others. Mass racing event is limited in many ways and firstly in number of participants. Mostly because it is limited by physical capacity of blocked streets, amount of food and drinks in aid stations along the way, number of chips, medals and amount of technical equipement to track the results. Even more important is the number of volunteers, medical and security personell that takes care of different organizational and support aspects of the race. So running races is more like fishing in the ocean. If too many fish were harvested, the stocks would deplete, limiting the access of fish for others.
Free-rider problem.
The free-rider problem is nothing special and exist everywhere when people try to use goods and services without paying for it — like riding a bus or trian or parking cars. Who has no experinece of trying to ride a bus without paying?
Money — the #1 reason of racing for free.
- High-flying registration fees. Racing in big marathons or Ironman races is becoming way too expensive. Racing is now more of a social status act then just a race. For those who don’t care about social aspects but want just to run a race “like in 1987” racing without registration is an option.
- Additional hidden costs. In most cases participants must pay for extra services to be able to race. These are runcards or one-day licenses and payment processing fees. All together they make racing 25%-30% more expensive.
- Bureaucracy and monetization: event shedules often includes such things as mandatory expo visits, race briefings, bib pick-ups 1–2 days prior to the race. It means additional 1–2 days of accomodation costs wich can make a financial model of official participating in any race needlessly expensive.
Outlaw ethics.
We don’t encourage anyine to particiapte without registration. But still if one decides to race without registering, there are important rules to follow.
- Do not interfere with registered participants.
- Avoid using infrastructure and take care of yourself . No food and drinks at the aid stations.
- If you are running as a friendly pacer to your friend, help those who you are leading — pass water or food at the right moment.
- Withdraw early. Don’t cross the finish line and don’t claim a finisher’s medal.
What are other options of free racing?
If you’re pondering and tempting yourself with free racing the better alternative to unregistered particiapting in mass events could be:
- Free competitve runs such as Parkrun.
- Group training and racing within running clubs.
- Organizing competitions with friends.
Make the most of running, respect others, have fun and enjoy the company of friends.
*empirical data