Discussion: Question of the day...

Do you care if there are prizes (draw or award) at an adventure race? This is assuming a reduced entry fee if no effort is made to source such things.

To me the best prize is bragging rights.

not sure it would impact price. A lot of the prizes are swag given to RD from sponsors. I know for Big Blue Adventure, we are given all the swag and in most cases required by our sponsors to give them away as prizes or as raffle items. It wouldn't affect the price of the race at all.

The only prize we pay for are the mugs we give away that have Big Blue Adventure on them, and honestly, if people don't get their mugs they go crazy. Not because they are anything special, but because it is something that they can see that shows they won (1, 2, or 3).

I've heard a couple of adventure racers say that they won't do races if they can't win the amount they spent to do the race. Some of them even want to win cash. But they're in the minority and they're generally looking at bigger races than you're talking about.

Most racers aren't expecting to be on the podium. Their race experience is not enhanced tremendously by the opportunity to win random draw prizes. Most of us feel personally rewarded if we have a good race and end up on the podium; the prize is just a bonus.

It's nice to get something as an acknowledgement - even just a bottle of wine. More often than not, I win something that I'll never use so I end up passing it on to a friend anyway. Some of my favourite prizes have been simple mementoes similar to the Big Blue mug described above. These items don't have to be expensive - just meaningful.

Prizes have often been a deciding factor for me in other sports. When I was in a position to win, I'd travel farther for a big cash prize (and promote the race and fill a car). When not in a position to win, I've passed on events I'd otherwise have raced because I felt that big cash prizes had pushed the entry fee too high. I like to race near awesome fast folks, but I'm not willing to pay a whole lot extra for that privilege.

For AR, I don't care as much about prizes. I think it's because it's expensive and time-consuming already, so even most of the prizes I've no chance of winning aren't big enough to get me to a race if I wasn't already going. Factors such as the quality of the race are much more important.

Long gone are the days where I could fly out east and win enough to pay for the 36hour race. Both in winning and in the prize money:-).

Prize money helps us sell the sport to our spouses more than to ourselves.

I've never raced for prizes largely because I never expect to win. I love SEEING the prize table much the way I love window shopping and dreaming what it would be like to get something.
All I look for are well organized races, good course setting in interesting locations with fun challenges and coca-cola at the finish line - NEVER PEPSI!!!
Oh I do like place medals for AR (as opposed to finisher medals). I hang those ones proudly. :)

>and coca-cola at the finish line - NEVER PEPSI!!!

Like