Once upon a time you could run a big city marathon for under $100 for the race entry.
Of course those days are long gone.
The most recent example of this trend is the New York City Marathon which recently announced that it was increase the race entry by 39 percent from $169 to $255.
According to the New York Times:
"Members of New York Road Runners must pay $216 this year to enter the marathon, compared with $156 last year. For United States residents who are not club members, the fee increased to $255, from $196. International applicants, if accepted, will pay $347, up from $281."
Why?
The NYC marathon organizers say that the local police are charging them more for traffic cost and other expenses.
The New York Road Runners began accepting applications for the Marathon's Lottery on Monday and they received almost 17,500 applications in the first 5 hours which means applicants have about a 1 in 10 chance of being able to run the marathon through a lottery slot.
It seems that just like an Ironman triathlon the rules of supply and demand mean that the cost of running a big city marathon will continue to increase as long as demand way outstrips supply.
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