Race fees

Ever since I went through having a stress fracture last year, I have a thing about registering early for races. In 2009, I registered in January to run a marathon in October. I got hurt in June and couldn't complete the training. Fortunately, I was able to still run the half marathon so I didn't throw all of that money out the window. I did lose the difference between the two registration prices, but I could live with that. However, that did teach me a lesson and now I do not register for anything until I absolutely have to.

Which brings me to my gripe...race fees. They are getting outrageous. My specific gripe is about the Freihofer's Run which is less than 2 weeks away. You can usually save yourself a bit of money by mailing in the entry fee & registration the old fashioned way..using regular mail. Normally, when you register online you have to pay a few dollars extra in processing fees.

Not that a few dollars is a big deal, but for races that you are registering the whole family for (like I did last year for the Winterfest& Turkey Trot), those fees really add up. I think it cost my family of 4 well over $80 to register for a 5K. I just can't justify doing that anymore.

Back to my Freihofer's gripe...I went to the website and I see that the mail in registration is now more expensive than the online registration no matter when you mail it in. Apparently, they want to get away from the mail in's? So, right now if I register online before June 1, it will cost me $33.50 ($30 plus $3.50 "processing fee") oh..double that because I'm signing my daughter up so make that $67 total.

To their defense, if I had registered earlier online (by 2/28) it would've cost $20 plus the $3.50 processing fee, but there is no way I ever would sign up that early.

The race fees are just getting out of hand. I hate not to do the races because the kids love it, but I'm gonna have to start drawing the line eventually. It's getting ridiculous!