UKC

I'm considering doing the Hathersage hilly triathlon as a easy/friendly first ever race but I'm sort of being put off by the £38 registration fee.
Although in the grand scheme of things this isn't a massive amount of cash I can't work out exactly what this money goes towards and what the participants get for their money.
For a short race (420m swim in a pool followed by 20km ride and 6 km run) that even with me being well in the realms of punterdom I should be able to do in couple of hours £38 seems a lot. Surely they can't need to employ that many race wardens and officials.

Has anyone done this race before? are there any experienced race goers who can explain where the ~£11,000 of entry fees will go and what you get for your fee?

Thanks,
Gethin.

In reply to gethin_allen:

Unfortunately, the increase in popularity of triathlons over the last few years has made the price rocket upwards.

Part of it, I'm sure, is due to increased cost of hiring facilities and equipment, use of chip timing and increased insurance, but I'm also certain that the organisers are making a tidy profit out of them, too. A lot of the marshals used to be volunteers when the events were run by amateur clubs, but lots of them are now run by professional event crews who will all expect to be paid for their time.

It does pay to pick your event - £30 is at the bottom of the scale at the moment - things like the Windsor tri are in excess of £80, these days, although a lot of that is extra security, as you have to rack your bike the night before and so on.

In reply to gethin_allen: Tris do seem to be expensive. Reasons as I see it:

1. They need to provide/hire a load of stuff like bike racking.
2. They do need quite a lot of marshalls to make sure transition's secure.
3. Hiring a pool for most of a day costs quite a lot.
4. BTA licences are about a fiver a day (which gets you insured)
4. Most of them are organised by "events companies" not clubs so they make a turn. Lots of road races (I'm thinking the City of Manchester 10k I've just entered) that are organised by companies not clubs are relatively expensive.
5. Chip timing, particularly where they have to check 3 legs and transition, costs a few quid.
6. (the biggie, imho) Triathlon's an upper-middle class sport and they charge what they can get away with. Just look at the number of £2k bikes being ridden by biffers and the incidence of private coaches being paid by pretty moderate performers. IronMan Uk is (I think) £300 to enter.

In reply to andy:
"Triathlon's an upper-middle class sport and they charge what they can get away with. Just look at the number of £2k bikes being ridden by biffers and the incidence of private coaches being paid by pretty moderate performers. IronMan Uk is (I think) £300 to enter."
I definitely don't fit in to that group if the criteria is based on bike quality, I would be doing it on a ancient road bike that cost me a massive £50 including new tyres, brake blocks, chain and bar tape. oh ye' and a tin of hammerite to paint of the the dubious 80s paintjob.

In reply to gethin_allen: £38 for a whole days sport don't seem like an awfull outlay for a days sport to me, you could easily do that in a boozer watching a footie match, and remember none of it the following day.....

In reply to andy:

ironman UK cost a fortune (£280 last year and much more in some abroad), but a lot of the cash is because of the need for signicant policing, road closures etc.

In reply to JR:

Oh and you don't care how much it costs when you cross the IM finish line though!

In reply to gethin_allen: its already been answered, sort of, but yes, someones making some coin for organising an "event" of this nature. Same for Road running races. Great North Run is £40 plus. I used to believe, naively, that a large chunk went to charity. I only pay to run in fell races now which are rarely more than £5 to £6 to enter. Having said all that, £38 for a triathlon, with the added complications in organising it seems pretty fair. £80, ie Windsor...that's just having your pants down.

In reply to notts chris:

indeed. and how is it on those £5 fell races, you still get a free pie, t-shirt AND bottle of beer at the end.

In reply to gethin_allen:

That sounds like an awesome bike - and almost the perfect description of my current one! There are plenty of advantges to such a bike though, I love ovetaking people on my squeaky, old, ill-fitting steel framed beast with silver hammerite paint chipping off revealing large rust patches underneath and homemade aerobars (which I don't use, but can't take off, because that's the most convenient place to locate the old, friction selecting downtube shifters) Did I mention I'll be doing it with my €7 Aldi jersey on?

However, I dearly hope that when my shiny new bike arrives in the next couple of weeks, that I can go faster, otherwise embarassment awaits! One definite advantage however, will be brakes that actually work....

Tim

In reply to chad halfwit:
"£38 for a whole days sport don't seem like an awfull outlay"
For a whole day I could understand, but this is only a mini "sprint" triathlon that advertises itself as being novice friendly, is really short and should only take a few hours for the punters like me. Having looked at previous years finishing times the pros are doing it in just over a hour, so £35/hr. Also I just noticed that it was £25 to enter in 2007 so has gone up by 52% in three years.
I think I agree with the others that have said that someone is making a pretty penny on this race.

In reply to gethin_allen:
Road closures and policing are costly and a growing drain on many event funds these days.

In reply to gethin_allen:
Sorry I meant to say in addition that triathlon starts tend to be staggered, so the whole event may take a fair bit longer than the slowest contestant.

In reply to gethin_allen:

dont take this as being overly cynical but: hosting events like these can be good earners.

on top of race costs the short term boost to local businesses can be decent.
mind you, any even including water (triathalons, kayaking etc) can push running costs high.
a good old trail marathon has much better overheads (those mega multiday stage runs in the gobi, brazil etc are nice corporate earners especially)

the company i work for and the town they are in host a couple of marathons, adventure races, triathalons etc a year and its primarily to make money.
not all events im sure, but particularly ones where you are expected to plug into local hotels, restaurants, facilities etc, its not a bad way for a small town in the middle of nowhere to max out for a night or two.

In reply to Removed User:

But I've never done a tri that closes the roads - not done many, but big events like Ripon are run on open roads.

In reply to Removed User:

Again, I could understand that but in this particular one the cycling is on open roads and the running is offroad on public footpaths.

In reply to gethin_allen: Apart from things like the London Triathlon I can't think of any smaller events that close roads anyway.

In reply to andy:
Plenty of small running events cause temporary road closures. Policing costs tend to apply even where there is little or no police presence. I imagine Hathersage takes over the local swimming pool for half the day. I think £30-£40 is about average for a properly organized sprint distance triathlon.

In reply to gethin_allen:

Look for club tri's.

I was at Cleveland Tri yesterday, out of Stokesley. OK, it was a sprint, but at £18 much more sensible money. really good atmosphere and a range of competitors from the £5k Tt heroes to some ricketty old rigid forked mountain bikes.

I agree with some of the others, that Tri's are a middle class sport and as such they are priced accordingly. Skipton Tri has been "requisitioned" by the council. They have twigged how much they can make fom it, and ramped up the price accordingly after denying the previous organisers use of council facilites and thus hijacking the event.

I might see you at the Hilly - keep any eye out for a fat lad on a flash bike with a skinny blonde in a Leeds Braford Tri suit (which looks a lot better on her than me).

p.s. Andy will be the one wearing budgie smugglers

In reply to gethin_allen:
I can't work out exactly what this money goes towards and what the participants get for their money.

The insurance to run a triathlon is also quite a lot, because of the 3 disciplines. The more expensive, longer races are so because of having marshals on the water etc, plus on the bike and run sections.

Just think of how much it costs for a marathon entry etc but add 2 more sports!

In reply to gethin_allen: Prize money?

In reply to mike_uk82:
No chance of that for me but I don't think there is any.

In reply to gethin_allen:

From the one sprint triathlon I did I can only see that a lot goes into the pockets of the organizers.

No timing chips, they decided to not time the splits because it was a non standard distance and they thought we'd prefer marshals on the course - no actually, for the amount we paid I'd have preferred both (no fancy chip timing systems), and the marshals on the course were ten year old kids so I doubt they were getting paid.

In reply to Removed User:

Running events may close the roads for 15 minutes at the start, and indeed the Ribble valley 10k was run on completely closed roads this year (I think entry was £12 including chip timing and a t-shirt) - however I can't think of a small scale tri that closes the roads - yet these are the events that tend to charge £30-40, as they tend to be run by "events management" companies. I'm sure that the fact they can get away with these sorts of prices are why these companies tend to organise triathlons and not road races - Ribble Valley is a club race and is only about 60% of the price of the MMG(?) organised City of Manchester 10k for pretty much the same things.