Are races unnecessarily expensive nowadays?
The answer is no.
We know this because we put on our own sprint triathlon.
From 2019 when we first did our race, to the races that we’ve organized for this year, our costs have gone up by like 300%.
The amount that it costs you to put on an event and the hoops that you have to jump through to get a permit to do it just cost so much money.
To put on the sprint triathlon in Crowle, we need to have barriers to secure the transition.
Between the summer event and the autumn event last year, it went up by 75% just in that period of time.
You need a medical team, below 150 competitors, your medical team can be station rate, but once you get above 150, you have to then have a supplementary medical team out on the course including an ambulance.
That all costs money as well.
That’s before you factored in having a timing company where most of them went bust in the pandemic or stopped doing it anymore.
There are fewer of them, which means that they’ve put all their prices up because that’s market economics.
It is a really, really tough environment for people trying to put on a race.
When we first started in triathlon in 2012, Sprint triathlon races were £30/£35.
We are really having to cut it when we are charging ours at £50, and that is to make sure that we’re covering all our costs and not much else, to be honest.
If you have got a local race that is near you, please go and support it.
Regardless of whether it’s our race or whether it’s anybody else’s race.
If triathletes don’t support our local races, then they just won’t be any next year.
Fewer and fewer will keep turning up on the calendar.
Please support our local race.
