ENTRY FEES and the OLDER ATHLETE
My competitive life in athletics has covered a span of 42 years.
It began when I was eleven years old and now, approaching 63 years of age, the urge to compete remains strong.
But this is now reaching its closing stages. I’m on the last leg of the relay. I’m clearing the final hurdle; taking my final throw.
And why? It is not through physical or mental fatigue. It is not because of old age. Neither is it through serious injury or crippling disease.
The cause is money. Clubs wanting too much of it and my not having enough of it.
I have entered a 5k fun run race rather than its big-brother 10k main event because the entry fee is half; in September, I am not entering a local half-marathon I’ve entered 21 times before - because it will cost me £14.
From October onwards, after my summer season ends, I shall pass on a large number of events. I have maintained a day-by-day training log that covers 9000 days and logs all my races. They average around 35-40 a year.
Only a few years ago, it seems, I could enter 40 races for about £150. Travel would add the same amount. The cost in 2007, with travel, is nearer £500. I’m no astrologer and neither can I read tea-leaves, but I forecast 2008 will see still greater hikes by money-grasping by Clubs greedy to feed on the status quo.
My wife is a competitive athlete, too, and I have always made a point of paying her entry fees. This was no problem until a couple of years ago because ….
…. I retired. I do have several hours paid part-time work and this generates my ‘pocket money’. Now, after paying an oft-exorbitant amount to enter a race I sometimes have little change for a Mars bar … and though a Mars bar ‘helps me work, rest and play’ it does not help me work, rest and pay.
A government that claims to encourage sport and healthy activities for older people does nothing to put its words into action.
Those over, say, 60 years of age should be allowed free entry to low-cost sporting events such as local running races around the lanes of rural villages and the like. I would not advocate free entry to a Himalayan marathon race or a Cross Sahara Desert race because the organisers may have specific heavy administrative events to bear.
By offering these free entries, local event organisers would lose little but gain much. They might lose a few pounds but they might not … they would not miss the income from older people who might otherwise have had no intention of ‘having a go’. What Clubs would allow them to gain, however, would be the new-found joy, health benefits and sense of purpose that sport can bring to them.
In the absence of a government initiative, Clubs can take a bold lead – or risk losing the race support of an older, dedicated athletic fraternity. I urge you all to act now – from the next race you promote.
We’re not just super-vets, we’re super-duper vets, too, so don’t lose us.
Many of us are retired and on low incomes.
Runners vote with their feet but run with their hearts.
My competitive life in athletics has covered a span of 42 years.
It began when I was eleven years old and now, approaching 63 years of age, the urge to compete remains strong.
But this is now reaching its closing stages. I’m on the last leg of the relay. I’m clearing the final hurdle; taking my final throw.
And why? It is not through physical or mental fatigue. It is not because of old age. Neither is it through serious injury or crippling disease.
The cause is money. Clubs wanting too much of it and my not having enough of it.
I have entered a 5k fun run race rather than its big-brother 10k main event because the entry fee is half; in September, I am not entering a local half-marathon I’ve entered 21 times before - because it will cost me £14.
From October onwards, after my summer season ends, I shall pass on a large number of events. I have maintained a day-by-day training log that covers 9000 days and logs all my races. They average around 35-40 a year.
Only a few years ago, it seems, I could enter 40 races for about £150. Travel would add the same amount. The cost in 2007, with travel, is nearer £500. I’m no astrologer and neither can I read tea-leaves, but I forecast 2008 will see still greater hikes by money-grasping by Clubs greedy to feed on the status quo.
My wife is a competitive athlete, too, and I have always made a point of paying her entry fees. This was no problem until a couple of years ago because ….
…. I retired. I do have several hours paid part-time work and this generates my ‘pocket money’. Now, after paying an oft-exorbitant amount to enter a race I sometimes have little change for a Mars bar … and though a Mars bar ‘helps me work, rest and play’ it does not help me work, rest and pay.
A government that claims to encourage sport and healthy activities for older people does nothing to put its words into action.
Those over, say, 60 years of age should be allowed free entry to low-cost sporting events such as local running races around the lanes of rural villages and the like. I would not advocate free entry to a Himalayan marathon race or a Cross Sahara Desert race because the organisers may have specific heavy administrative events to bear.
By offering these free entries, local event organisers would lose little but gain much. They might lose a few pounds but they might not … they would not miss the income from older people who might otherwise have had no intention of ‘having a go’. What Clubs would allow them to gain, however, would be the new-found joy, health benefits and sense of purpose that sport can bring to them.
In the absence of a government initiative, Clubs can take a bold lead – or risk losing the race support of an older, dedicated athletic fraternity. I urge you all to act now – from the next race you promote.
We’re not just super-vets, we’re super-duper vets, too, so don’t lose us.
Many of us are retired and on low incomes.
Runners vote with their feet but run with their hearts.
