You can often hear that why pay for a race and go somewhere, if you can just as well run at home. We talked about why the starts are paid in one of the previous posts. Today I want to tell you why runners travel thousands of kilometers to run a top ten or a marathon in a crowd.
Meeting with like-minded people... When I am passionate about something, I want to communicate on this topic with like-minded people. Share your successes and listen to the stories of your friends. It doesn't matter if you collect stamps, do car tuning or run. It's just that every hobby has its own ways of collecting. Someone organizes festivals like rock music fans. Someone meets in sports bars, like fans of football clubs. Runners come from all over the world for races.
Emotions from the start... A well-organized race brings a lot of positive emotions. Support on the track, wrestling with yourself and other runners, excitement, overcoming yourself. The charge of positive emotions from a good race can last for more than one month.
Running tourism... Travel to an unfamiliar city and run through its central streets - what could be better in order to see the main attractions.
Setting a personal record. When the start is well organized, the track is flat, the weather is running and there is good competition, then at such a race you can show your maximum, which you simply could not show at home. Why exactly would a lover break personal records, we'll talk another time.
Earn prize money. In this case, we are already talking about strong athletes and big races. It's easier to get into the prizes at small starts. But the prize money at such races rarely covers the cost of the trip. Therefore, if a runner is going for prizes, he must at least recoup the cost of the road.
Collecting starts and medals. Many people enjoy collecting finisher medals. I would not call them medals in the traditional sense of the word. Rather, it is the finishing trophy. But in any case, it's nice to see a large pile of such trophies on your medal. There are also those who collect official starts. Recruits as many official half marathons or marathons as possible in a year and a lifetime. Again, what gives it to people is solely their business. Today we are talking about causes, not effects.
