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Comment by Ntrails | Hacker News Reader

Marathons wind me up something chronic, charities dump hundreds/thousands of pounds buying places to "sell" to runners at a profit. The runners fund this by convincing people to give them money towards it, and asserting the money goes to charity.

Well, some of it does, but a massive chunk goes on paying for the slot they're running in. Because they want to do it for fun/validation/other.

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I don't think you are correct about this at all, and since you said "pounds" I assume you're talking about the London Marathon (though most others are similar).

With the London Marathon, charities buy their spots for £300 each[1] and get well over £1000 (sometimes much more) in return for each spot. Marathons are very expensive to organize, so it is not unreasonable for the organizer to charge for the entires. In addition, many spots that charities get are given out totally free of charge.

In all, millions of dollars and pounds are raised through these programs.

https://www.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/en-gb/news-media/m...

Of course not all of these events are bad, but there is a very real problem in many of them where often none or very little of the large entry fee goes to charity at all - only additional donations do. The organisers of charity sporting events rarely make this distinction clear.

The problem was especially acute when cycling exploded in the UK following Bradley Wiggin's and the British Team Sky's huge successes at the Tour de France. Charity cycling events called "sportives" sprang up all over the country, many of them badly organised and poorly run, with often very little of the funds raised going to charity. Basically a bunch of people saw an opportunity to make serous cash, given entry fees where often over 100 quid per person depending on the "package" you selected. It all kinda tied into the "cycling is the new golf" scene that gripped a lot of business people. The kinds of people vain enough to drop 15 grand on a full Sky Team issue Pinarello bike often like to pay for fancy events to show off their exspsensive habit. The guardian did some good coverage of the phenomenon a couple of years ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2012/jun/2...

I know next to nothing about the biking world, so this is interesting to me. But the comment I was replying to was specifically calling out Marathons which, for the most part (at least the majors), tend to raise a lot of money for charity. But thanks for the info on biking I will definitely read up on it.

Having spoken to people running charities which pay for the slots, and who then have to chase people to match their commitments in terms of fund raising (and more recently the introduction of personal liability if they don't raise enough) - I think it's absurd to claim this isn't the case.

Of course millions are raised. Millions are raised by the investment funds into which charities pour their excess capital, and the adverts they make, and the people they employ to stand on the street.

Charities are fund raising businesses which put profits into causes. If you're fine with donating £10 so someone can run a marathon and £20 to charity - good on you. I am not

In the US, marathon fundraising usually works pretty differently, in that the fundraising efforts are separate from the event itself. Anyone can enter the Chicago Marathon for $195 and can then choose to participate in whatever fundraising they like (e.g. Team in Training to support Lymphoma research). I'd be curious to see an event that works the way you describe. Do you have a link?

Boston Marathon: you can qualify by time or by raising money for a charity.

Qualifying by time is out of reach for most recreational runners, and there are only a few thousand charity spots, so people regularly raise 5 figures in order to run.

http://www.baa.org/utilities/charities/official-charity-prog...

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