Paying to Run

During marathon attempt #1 in Chicago, the plan was for my brother to meet me at mile 21-22 and run the last 3-5 miles with me. As I've mentioned a bunch of times before, I didn't make it past mile 15 so we didn't get the chance to run together. Afterwards when we were walking to the car to go home, he said that he wanted to run a half marathon race with me. Being the over planner that I am, once the dust of the marathon aftermath had settled, I immediately began focusing on my goals and fun races in 2012. I've sent my brother numerous emails with various different races ranging from a 5k to half marathon to see if he wanted to run them together. He hasn't responded to any of my emails, and I finally called him out on it yesterday. He said he does still want to run a race with me. When I started going over the various options, dates, and prices he interrupted me. "I'm not going to pay to run," was his response, as if this was obvious. I then asked "Why wouldn't you? You get a shirt, timing chip, medal... It is worth it!" He just said that he thinks its crazy to pay to run. He'll run the race with me, but he doesn't want to pay, doesn't need the medal... he just wants to run and finish a race with his sister.

My brother and I

I'm kind of torn on my thoughts. My brother is not a runner. I feel like non-runners just don't understand the lure of the race price and what you're paying for. I'm happy he wants to get out there and run a race with me, but I don't know how I feel about him not paying. I don't think it is fair to the racers that pay or for the race directors in general for people to just hop in. They get the benefit of the water stops, blocked course, bathrooms, etc. without paying those that put it together. Maybe it is just because I am a strict rule follower, but what are your thoughts on people jumping in to run an entire race without paying (this is totally different than running a few miles with your pal during a half or full marathon)? Does your opinion differ based on the size of the race? Local 5k versus giant urban race? (There are some sweet military discounts at the Fort2Base Nautical 10 Miler so it might be worth it for me to pay his way and we can finish it together...)

In other news, my work schedule has been absolutely insane this week and I haven't run a single mile since Monday. I'm going to try to squeeze in 2 on the dreadmill today during my lunch break. We'll see how that works out. I was happy to get in a lot of miles last weekend, and I'll probably do the same this weekend. Oh the joys of a full time job to keep me busy!