Paying Top Dollar for Punishment, 26 Miles' Worth
The notion of paying hundreds of dollars for the opportunity to run 26.2 miles may not appeal to most people, but some runners are doing just that because demand for marathons has outstripped the number of spots available in the fields.
More than 100,000 runners are training now for the three major fall marathons — Berlin, Chicago and New York City — and many thousands more are preparing for smaller races throughout the country. But many runners were unable to gain entry into the race of their choice, and some of them will turn to prohibited means of getting into the field, like using counterfeit bibs — the paper numbers runners wear on their shirts — or buying bibs at a premium online.
Race organizers say they are frustrated by this unintended consequence of staging popular events, but there is little they can do. Photocopied or otherwise fabricated bibs are needles in a haystack of tens of thousands of runners.
More than 90,000 people entered a lottery for the 50,000 spots awarded for the New York City Marathon, which will be Nov. 5. Considering that thousands of runners do not make it to race day because of injuries and myriad other reasons, organizers expect the field to be about 36,000.
A 26-year-old woman who did not receive a spot in last year's New York City Marathon said she photocopied her mother's bib in order to run.
The woman, who requested anonymity for fear of being barred from future races, said she had looked at the classified ads on the Web site Craigslist.
She said prices online were too high, and one seller backed out of the deal after having second thoughts. A co-worker suggested something that had worked for him five times — creating a homemade bib.
"I never ended up having any problems," she said.
Neither did her co-worker, who also requested anonymity. With the help of a graphic designer, he altered and copied an official bib to make one for himself and five friends. "He'd turn a 3 into an 8 or a 7 into a 1," he said about the designer. "That way we could all run together without getting caught."
He said he was not concerned about being caught. "They're not checking very hard," he said. "It's not like airport security out there."
Organizers of the New York City and Chicago Marathons agreed that photocopying bibs was a problem, but they said that catching people who did that was not their priority.
"When there's demand, you see creativity," said Carey Pinkowski, director of the Chicago Marathon. "That's just how it is, and there's not much you can do about it."
Of more importance, organizers say, is the growing number of people offering bibs for sale, sometimes at five times or more above cost.
A New York City Marathon bib was offered on eBay last month for $750 with a "buy it now" option of $1,000. It went unsold, but two weeks later another sold for more than $450. Among the marathon bibs for sale on eBay yesterday was one for Chicago with a bid of $162. Most bibs for the New York City Marathon are selling for $100 to $200, but one seller on Craigslist was recently asking $775 for his bib for a man in his racing age group. People placing ads looking for bibs were offering up to $300.
The entry fee for the New York City Marathon is $80 for members of the New York Road Runners Cluband $107 for nonmembers plus a $9 nonrefundable processing fee. The Chicago and Boston Marathons filled their slots in record time. Chicago's fee is $90. Boston, which requires runners to meet a qualifying standard, charges $95 for Americans.
Another woman who was not successful in the lottery for New York posted an ad on Craigslist for a bib so she could run with her friends. She said she was willing to pay as much as $200. "I definitely wouldn't pay what other people are paying on eBay," said the woman, who also requested anonymity because she feared race organizers would bar her from future races.
With few exceptions, marathons prohibit the transfer of bibs because of the medical issues that can arise if an injured runner is misidentified, and because of the desire to preserve what they consider a fair entry system. Many organizers said they were taking steps to curb online sales.
Richard Finn, a spokesman for the New York Road Runners, which organizes the New York City Marathon, said two volunteers monitored Web sites to see if anyone was selling bibs. The directors of the Chicago and Boston Marathons said they also tracked sales online.
According to Mary Wittenberg, the director of the New York City Marathon, about 100 runners were contacted and warned each year for trying to sell numbers. She said 25 people had been contacted this year.
But catching someone may be a difficult proposition. People selling their bibs online usually do not reveal their identity or bib number. And many recreational runners figure they will blend into the crowd of thousands without being detected.
But sometimes runners do better than expected. In the 2001 Vermont City Marathon, in Burlington, the women's second-place finisher, Karine Maltis of Montreal, confessed that she was running under someone else's name. Based on her previous time, Maltis did not think she would come close to first place. Race organizers said she was wearing a counterfeit bib, and she was stripped of her medal and $800 prize money. The woman who sold her the bib number, Johanne Provencher, was barred from the race for life.
The year before, the men's eighth-place finisher, Joe Straub of Chester, N.Y., was caught running under someone else's name. He and the seller were also permanently barred from the race.
Pinkowski acknowledged that it was impossible to catch every swapper. "We require everyone to provide identification when they pick up their bibs, but you're never going to stop it, obviously," he said.
Susan MacTavish Best, a spokeswoman for Craigslist, said in an e-mail message that the company had not been contacted by any marathon organizers, but that it would work with them if the seller had signed a contract not to resell the bib. She noted that the site was also self-policing; users can flag posts they find inappropriate.
Many marathons employ deferment policies that allow runners to drop out of a race and have a guaranteed spot the next year. The New York City Marathon permits runners to do so up to 24 hours before the race. But under no circumstances do those runners receive refunds, which is the problem for many of the runners who resort to selling online.
Dave Dannenberg, 36, who was registered to run in the Marine Corps Marathon in the Washington area, sold his bib on eBay after he injured his ankle. "I just didn't want to waste the money I spent when I registered," he said.
Greg Golightly, 35, injured his foot and is not permitted to transfer the bib he bought for the Twin Cities Marathon.
"It's a tough situation," he said. "You register seven months in advance. It's tough to gauge where you're going to be."
The Marine Corps and the Vermont City Marathons have introduced transfer policies in recent years, whereby the buyer and seller arrange the transfer on their own terms, then a fee is paid to the marathon. The organizers encourage sellers to sell their bibs at cost. The result has been more runners at the starting line on race day.
Increased turnout, however, is not necessarily a good thing for marathon organizers, who account for a certain number of dropouts when determining how many runners they will allow in the field. Compared with New York's 36,000, about 34,000 ran in Chicago last year.
"That's a number we feel comfortable with," Pinkowski said. He said he had no desire to make the field bigger. Wittenberg and Jack Fleming, the spokesman for the Boston Marathon, also said they were not considering transfer policies.
The sheer number of entries also makes transfer policies unattractive. Preparing the packets that runners receive upon registration can be daunting. "It's a logistical challenge for us, transferring the bibs and the chips," Pinkowski said, referring to the computerized timing devices that runners wear on their shoes and which enable race organizers to identify them.
Meanwhile, the online marketplace for marathon bibs may continue to expand, even though runners competing under someone else's name are not recognized in the official results.
"I would think that would be a hollow victory," Pinkowski said.
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