Are novelty fun runs stealing participants?

Published

Here in Austin, TX we seem to have a 5k every weekend for all sorts of causes and reasons. I honestly didn't think we could add any more races into the year and then a couple years ago these novelty races started popping up and took off like crazy. I had friends covered in mud, color paint, glow sticks and zombie blood flooding my Facebook stream. This made me wonder, are these races competing with non-profit fun runs/walks for time/space/participants? Or has it made our already fit community fitter and more likely to participant in more runs? Let's share our thoughts.

 

Here in Austin, TX we seem to have a 5k every weekend for all sorts of causes and reasons. I honestly didn't think we could add any more races into the year and then a couple years ago these novelty races started popping up and took off like crazy. I had friends covered in mud, color paint, glow sticks and zombie blood flooding my Facebook stream.

 


 

Image from http://thecolorrun.com/about/

This raised more than  few questions in my mind about the potential impact on non-profit P2P events and I haven't found too many articles written from this perspective so I thought I'd ask you, the Community:

  • What have you experienced over the last few years?
  • Do you feel these races are competing with non-profit fun runs/walks for time/space/participants?
  • Or has it made our already fit community fitter and more likely to participant in more runs?
  • Have you seen declines in participation that you attribute to the increase of popularity of these races?
  • Have you altered your race feel to be more whimsical or fun since these types of races have grown?
  • Have you had a harder time finding and booking locations for your runs because of the increased competition?
  • Do you see novelty runs as competition or as a potential for partnership? (I did note that more than a few donate to charity)

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had these questions, can you share your thoughts and experiences?

News Blackbaud Luminate Online® Blog 04/09/2015 3:43pm EDT

Leave a Comment

1 Comments
This is a conversation that deserves a lot of attention. I share your thoughts and wonder what has been/is/will be the impact of these types of events on the annual/established P2P events.

Share: