Comments on: If 10,000 signed up for Human Race 10K, why did only 7,877 finish?

By: renuka

renuka — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:59:00 +0000

In response to vivian’s comment, I think that’s a great idea. It would cut down costs a lot too!

Just did the Burnie 10k in Tasmania, which bills itself as ‘Australia’s premiere 10k race’. No t-shirt, no goodie-bag, the race-expo was a little mobile truck on the day itself. The entry fee was something like $25 I think.

City 2 Surf was similar, (and in fact has no prize money, just a trip to another race). More expensive race fees, but the road closures in a major city and shuttle buses from the finish (14ks away from the start) may account for that.

Both these races still attract top class talent. First female in Burnie 10k ran 32:55, top 7 men just over 30min, a “slowish” race for them with the 2nd half into a massive headwind.

By: Les

Les — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:17:49 +0000

@vivian: Yeah. That would be a good idea. This free t shirt business – I mean, how many t shirts do people want? Like their cupboard isn’t already full of race tees they will probably never wear again, right?

@hapychineseboy – giving out AFTER the race is a good idea. At least people commit to doing the race although it still won’t stop people from showing up, not running, then collecting their tshirt.

The SHAPE Run suffers from the same problem – people are attracted by the goodie bag. Whether they run is another matter altogether.

Talking about tees, someone just told me that the marathon finisher tee was available for sale at some adidas warehouse sale. Now how silly is that? After sweating and earning that t shirt, somebody can come along and buy it at some warehouse sale. Insult to runners.

For last year’s (2008) FULL marathon, about 15,000 signed up but only 11,7xx? finished.

By: nameless

nameless — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:04:42 +0000

I think that while the completion rate is important, we should not forget the most important element is any sports event, which is safety.

Perhaps there can be a count at the start of the race, to see how many actually made the attempt but could not complete because their body is not really or they push themselves too hard at the start etc.

Shouldn’t be a big issue given the number of people that need to go through security gates at the major events.

By: happychineseboy

happychineseboy — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:37:16 +0000

maybe next time they should just give out the t shirts AFTER the race like aviva 70.3, so people would get medals and the t-shirt at the same time. would be interesting to find out the ‘absentee’ rates for other big races in SG like stanchart and OSIM tri.

By: vivian

vivian — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:14:47 +0000

hi les, i am sure alot of people sign up just to get the “goodie” bag. We should organised a race and have no goodie bag ( a no frills run). We will then know the REAL reason why people sign up for a race!

By: Les

Les — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:08:57 +0000

@renuka: In 2008, 15,000 signed up to do the full marathon but only 11700 finished. So perhaps it is not surprising. Have to cut through the PR hype to see how people actually showed up sometimes. I think taking 20% off the top is a good indication of actual numbers on the ground.

By: renuka

renuka — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:04:24 +0000

I wonder if this is a consistent thing across big races?
I ran Sydney’s City 2 Surf this year, and there was all this hype in the leadup that 76,254 people entered, making it the largest race in the world.
There were only 62,754 finishers though, so not quite the biggest in the end!

By: Sleeper

Sleeper — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:43:05 +0000

Could have been 7,878 finishers… But alarm clock failed me..

By: happychineseboy

happychineseboy — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:15:46 +0000

I’m sorry but if people actually signed up just for the t shirt then thats just stupid. you’re taking spots away from people who actually want to RUN. Absolutely ridiculous.

By: Les

Les — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:39:45 +0000

@The Rhino: Thanks for filling in the blanks, Rhino. : ) You’re helping to satisfy my curiosity because I’ve noticed a trend of signups not matching finisher numbers and the difference is large.

By: The Rhino

The Rhino — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:16:16 +0000

none of the above

reason: Was given a free entry as I’d bought the Nike+ Sportband. However as I was overseas for the run and none of my friends wanted to use my free entry so I signed up and collected the free t-shirt, otherwise I would have ran if i was in SG.