Yes, it may only be February. However, your friendly neighborhood race directors are hard at work behind the scenes, booking necessary expenditures and projecting pricing models so as to make their events at least a break-even enterprise. And that means we can take a relatively deep-dive behind the scenes to project out race pricing for the remainder of the year, and as pricing starts for 2024 events.

As we discussed in our piece last year on this topic, quite literally everything wound up rapidly increasing in price over a six month period, resulting in 10-15% price increases year-over-year for 2023 events. Thankfully, race producers should be able to see relatively flat costs for this year, meaning that races shouldn’t be seeing the same kinds of price increases again.

Let’s break down those numbers into separate categories.

The Absolute Necessities

When we’re talking about race necessities, we’re often talking about five Ps: permits, police, port-o-potties, payroll, and production.

With regard to the first two items, you are at the behest of host municipalities. And for the last decade or so, costs have been continually rising — even through the COVID pandemic. It seemed like no matter where you turned, there was some increase in costs. In one year, the application fee might increase; in another, the hourly rate for police went up, or there were new mandatory minimum time payments.

Early indications from this year are showing these costs to be holding flat to 2022. Note that for many large race production companies, like IRONMAN, hold three to five year agreements with their host communities which gives a more stable cost forecast. In turn, that pricing predictability is passed onto the consumer as holding prices where they were in 2022 despite general inflationary pressures.

Port-o-potties, meanwhile, can make or break a race. Too few and you have angry athletes and delayed starts (which can easily wind up eating into your precious permitting time). Too many and you can bust a budget, given the current average cost of a rental hovering near $200 per port-o-john. However, that number is another one that has stayed consistent from 2022 to 2023. Both race directors and athletes can rejoice.

The last two items — payroll and production — go together. This bucket includes any employees of yours or of the additional essential race service: timing. For my wife and I, as fully volunteer race directors, our payroll cost really shows up with what our respective timing companies need to cover their own operational expenses and to be able to pay their employees. Those expenses include obvious things like bibs and timing chips and less obvious ones like fuel and hotel rooms. This, too, is flattening, after two straight years of increases.

This bucket also includes that bug bear of insurance. Policy pricing appears to be holding steady through sanctioning bodies; your mileage may vary if your race producer is insuring outside of that umbrella.

Aid Stations and Food

This is probably the one area that still has the most pricing volatility. Luckily for most racers, because this is an expense budgeted far in advance, it is also the least likely item that will have a direct impact on race cost. (It certainly has an impact on race profitability, but that’s another story for another time.) For example, we order race nutrition about three months before race day, and will dial in post-race food within a few weeks of race day.

The Other Stuff

Slowtwitchers, when asked, will refer to the above list as everything they need for a race. “Make it cheaper! Make swag optional!”

I hear you. Just, hear the other side of this for a moment. Many athletes talk significantly about how a shirt or a medal is important to them or was a determining factor as to their racing experience. Charging a fee for those items on top of the base race cost has brought many a race director heartburn for being accused of a bait and switch. And it simply doesn’t make for much of a bottom-line difference for a race director. Frequently, it is more expensive to order 400 of something than it is to order 500 of them, simply based on where pricing breaks exist. The economies of scale dictate that you’re better off ordering for everyone than trying to manage orders based on who paid what during the registration flow.

Looking at the cost of swag for a moment, the price of medals has stayed constant over the last couple of years. This is in part due to some manufacturers, like Ashworth Awards, deciding to create a “Made in America” product line-up that reduces shipping lead time and cost. Although the medals may not be as intricately molded as options from overseas, they have been well received by athletes and race directors alike. As for shirts, we’re seeing more pricing stability for both cotton and synthetic tees, as well as for printing cost.

In Summary

The worst of the pricing increases appears to be over. Barring any specific global economic event or significant change in service from a race (e.g., a luxury travel option), that should translate in similar race prices for the rest of the year and into next.