Planning

My plan all along, since starting triathlon training, has been to do an Ironman event.

Last year was the sprint, and this year I did the olympic distance. Originally I thought a Half-Ironman would be the next logical step. But the training required would be very similar to the full Ironman training, and as I'm not getting any younger, I think now that it makes sense to go straight for the full distance event.

This logic may be flawed - I don't care!

So I thought that maybe a half marathon would be a good mid-term goal to get me on my way. And I discovered one in Windsor, in September. Perfect. Except that it's closed to 'normal' entrants now. I have to pay £125 for the pleasure of a Charity Golden Bond. This is crap. I can understand closing entries when capacity has been reached, but reserving places like this is just rubbish. This is as bad as the charity muggers you see on the high street, manipulating people into signing direct debits to charities they probably don't even care that much about.

The charities involved here are not ones I would ever give money to. Yes, I can't even nominate a charity I do care about, I have to give money to the homeless (CRASH) or to The Prince Philip Trust Fund which last year paid for a church kitchen to be refurbished for gods sake!. It's not cheap either - £125.

It annoys me a lot that this seems to be the case for a lot of running events. The London Marathon is practically impossible to get into unless you wear a chicken suit and say it's for 'charidee mate'. These events have big name sponsors, and every runner pays too, so why do they think they have to play the charity card? Does Madonna refuse to sell you a ticket to her concerts unless you give an extra £100 to charity? Does Manchester United have a compulsory charity tax at their grounds? No, that would be ridiculous. By all means use some of the profits from a race as donations to charity - everyone will contribute equally and still have a fair chance of competing. If the entry fee is too large the event will attract too few runners and not continue in following years, so that should keep things economically priced.

Just open the registration on a certain date, and when you've sold out your capacity, then close it. This is how triathlon works, and I really hope as it becomes more popular they don't go down the charity route too.

So I'm now looking at Humanrace and considering the Kingston Festival instead. It's not 13 miles, its either 8 or 16, and I'm leaning towards the longer distance today.