Discussion: prices

"By the way, can anyone tell me why entry fees at running races are several times greater than at orienteering races, even though way more work goes into planning an O-race?"

Economics I'd have thought - if people are willing to pay that much for relatively no effort, and there's a decent turn out, there's no reason to put the prices down! I'd think the majority of the people at a road race won't have come from very far either.

But I'd hasten a guess that if O events charged road-race prices there'd be quite a few who wouldn't bother... especially as there's usually (certainly in the UK) quite a significant cost in time, if nothing else, to get to the event.

One reason may be that O meets are organized by O clubs for other O clubs and their members. Basically this means that all the money is just shuffled around between orienteers. Many clubs pay entry fees (or part thereof) for their members and if everyone would start charging higher entry fees it would also mean they´d have to pay more in all other races...
Another reason is tradition. Road races are - not always, but sometimes - organized for a profit and if runners still pay what they charge, why not? O meets are of a more 'idealistic' kind and rarely charge what it really costs considering the money and work put into mapping, building our arena for every new meet etc.

nice one, sounds like you might have got close to 36 with better pacing, good that the shoes were good, wil be good to compare your form in 6mnths. impressive time from mats too say well done from me!

And I'd say there was a lesson to be learned about pacing, which applies to O' as well as just running -- you have to learn what it feels like to run at the pace you can hold for the entire distance, without either running out of gas before the finish or finishing with too much gas left in the tank.

Nice splits dude (sub 4 min), good time too! Is this the fist time I see you wearng tight? :)

good work boris, i might do one next saturday on trails if i recover from the woc camp. Gives me a time to beat!

But what's with your training plan? Sick, and then you come back with standing around freezing for a day followed by a 10km hard?

I'm not saying I wouldn't do the same, just can't say it sounds like the brightest of ideas :)

In NYC regular weekend race is $15 for members and $30 for non-members of NYRRC if you sign-up in advance - it gathers on average 4 to 5 thousand people - it is a huge production and I think I get my money worth (and a bagel and an apple or a plum after the race - in winter time + hot chocolate :). On results: Mats' time is quite impressive - you need to improve on yours.

Yeah, Mats ran almost as fast as James Scarborough's PR....which demonstrates once again the disparity between road and track speed and orienteering speed. I'm guessing that your terrain:road ratio is relatively good. But I'll still second what PG wrote about pacing. As much as I think the specificity of your training is a good thing, it might be a good idea to try doing some track interval workouts to get used to even pacing. I'm thinking repeat kilometers, because it's too easy to muscle through 400s too fast.

Eric, I think you are right. I will try to find time to run some 1km repeats. If not on the track, then at least I'll try to do intervals on the same loop that I do over and over so I can keep pace. Gotta work on max speed, too, but that's a different story...

Sorry Boris, Greg is right, you're still way too fat!!! Speed up, boy ;p