Race Cost Benefit Analysis

After paying to run only a mile, I thought about the value or entertainment value of a race. Personally, I don't care how much a race costs. If I want to do it, I'm going to pony up the cash and not think twice about it...except for maybe the Tough Mudder. I've been going back and forth on this one because I'm afraid I'm going to hurt myself or get hurt by someone else.

Anyway, the Macklind Mile was $25 for a mile that took me 6:49 to run. The triathlon I did last weekend was $65 (due to a nice discount I got), the 5k the weekend before that was $30 but you got a medal and the Half-Ironman was $175 because I signed up really early.

So, for the Macklind mile that race cost me about $3.70 per minute, a very expensive race. Below are the cost per minute for the other races mentioned.

Octomax Tri: $0.67/minute (would have been $0.97 without the discount)

5k: $1.15/minute + medal (only mentioned because this is odd for a 5k)

Rev3 Knoxville Half: $0.39/minute

Average Ironman in 2012 if completed in 14 hours (excluding IMNY) would be $0.71/minute

So, it seems like two things are true. The longer the race the less it cost per minute until you step up to the Ironman distance (granted there are cheaper 140.6 races out there) and obviously the slower you are the less it costs per minute. Remember that if you're not winning races or your age group, you're just getting more bang for your buck and most importantly you're doing this because it's fun!

Macklind Mile

There is a running store about a half mile from my house that I've run or walked to more than once. They're probably the biggest running store(s) in St. Louis. If not, they put on the most events. One of them being the Macklind Mile, named after the street it's run on Macklind Ave. The finish line is directly in front of one of their stores. Since it's the first race I could walk to the start line and it's only a mile, I decided to do it. The main reason is because I've never run a race that short before. Sure, we've all done mile repeats but running a mile race is a little different. It's almost an all out effort.

I meant to practice my pace on Wednesday night but that didn't happen because it was the first week of puppy training for Loki and I couldn't work around it. So, I figured I'd try to keep it under 7 minutes.

The Men's race didn't start until 9:20. I tried to kill some time with Loki before I left at 8:30 and I would be gone most of the day. It's been a record setting week of high temperatures with every day being over 100 for the high. Needless to say, I had a good sweat going by the time I got to the start and an even better sweat after I warmed up.

I think it was around 90 at the start

The mile is a very interesting race, I started out sub 6 according to my Garmin probably due to a steep downhill. The race is around an 80 feet drop in elevation. I slowed to sub 7 during the slight incline and picked it up a bit for the last half mile. I felt fine until it flattened out for the last 1/8 mile and my legs could feel it but I managed to hang on until the end.

Finish Time:
6:49
Mostly towards the back in all the groups as the slower people run the Friend's and Family wave. However it was kind of a shame as the excitement was over so quickly. If you think a 5k goes by fast, run a mile.

Then I ran...sorta...home to get the dog and head to the end of the street to watch the elite runners go by. I was drenched and decided to change my shirt but it didn't matter as that shirt was drenched within a couple minutes. The fastest male was 4:09 and the fastest female was 4:48.

A couple hours later, I went riding. I needed to ride for 2 hours according to my training plan...it sucked. The heat was brutal and my arm coolers dried out in less than 5 minutes each time. I didn't not plan accordingly for hydration and basically ran out of water. Stopping for a light made it feel like I was in an oven.

Speaking of running fast there was an interesting post on Slowtwitch about how long you can maintain the world record marathon pace of 4:43/mile (12.63 mph). I never attempted it but after that I would guess 300 meters if I'm lucky. That pace has to be faster than most people can sprint 200m. Hell, it's faster than your average person can ride 26.2 miles on a bike.

Tomorrow, I'll have more clever analysis on paying to run a mile race.