ATHLETICS:Ticket prices are a sensitive issue for many of us these days, and athletics is no exception

MY FRIEND Charlie went to Beijing on Wednesday to see Bob Dylan’s first concert in China. And you think I’m bad. Dylan played the Workers Gymnasium, same place our boxers won their Olympic medals in 2008, and it was reportedly a sell-out – in more ways than one. The set list was censured, and some tickets were priced at ¥1,961.411 yuan – about €210 – as a sort of nod to Dylan’s first recorded concert, in New York, on April 11th, 1961. Whatever about the set list, makes you wonder how they set these ticket prices, doesn’t it?

Indeed, ticket prices are a sensitive issue for many of us these days, and athletics is no exception. Not in the strict admission sense, obviously, because God knows the last time anyone actually paid to watch athletics in Ireland, at least in any considerable numbers. The issue here is what people are being charged to compete, as in the Race Entry Fee.

Whether it’s a 10km fun run or a full 26.2 miles, the danger is that the entry fee could be going the way of fuel prices – and you don’t need me to tell you which way that is. There is still some good value out there, but while the Race Entry Fee and fuel prices are both being dictated by demand, only one has a limited supply. If anything, the Race Entry Fee should be going the way of house prices – because we all know how badly we got that one wrong.

This weekend sees the traditional road racing season hit full stride, although it’s essentially become one never-ending season (another sensitive issue, which we’ll come to next time). Two headline events are tomorrow’s Great Ireland Run, a 10km in the Phoenix Park, and the Connemarathon, which, as you probably guessed, takes place in Connemara.

Believe it or not, the Connemarathon is the first of 13 scheduled marathons in Ireland this year. No one is denying we’re in the midst of a running boom, which is only a good thing, but this is a little excessive – especially if quality is losing out to quantity.

Let’s run through them: after the Connemarathon, we have marathons in Limerick, Belfast, Cork, Longford and Dublin – plus the Clare Burren marathon, the Mourne Way marathon, the Run Kildare marathon, the Dingle marathon, the Mooathon marathon in Donegal, the Cliffs of Moher marathon and the Clonakility Waterfront marathon.

Plus there are at least as many half-marathons, including my favourite, the Dublin Mountain Plod.

The Race Entry Fee for the Connemarathon is €70, and all 3,300 numbers sold out weeks ago. That’s not exactly cheap, but they do have some exceptional costs: they hire 78 buses to transfer all the runners from Galway, Oughterard and Clifden to the start, and of course back again, from the finish at Maam Cross. I’ve run the Connemarathon, or at least half of it, and it is a wonderfully unique experience, which helps explains why it attracts entries from 31 countries. Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary and this event is definitely here to stay.

Tomorrow’s Great Ireland Run has an entry fee of €28 (or €30, to enter late). That’s not exactly expensive, but there’s nothing particularly unique about running a lap of the Phoenix Park – especially with 10,000 other runners, which at times makes it a slow march. It is very well organised, but then these are the same people who have been putting on the Great Run series in England for years – the small irony here being the Great Ireland Run is actually a Great British event.

Anyway, now in its ninth year, it’s become the biggest 10km event in the country. It now also incorporates the national 10km road race championships, under Athletics Ireland, which is actually just €20 to enter, provided you’re a member of an athletics club.

Yet most of the 10,000 runners will have paid €28. You do the math – but any profit from this event does little if anything to promote or develop athletics in Ireland. On the positive side, it does help raise some considerable funds for Irish charities.

What the Great Ireland Run also does well is assemble an elite field, and Martin Fagan is back to defend his title, with Joe Sweeney among his main challengers, while Mary Cullen and Fionnuala Britton look set to battle it out to become the first Irish woman winner since Catherina McKiernan, in 2004.

These elites are, of course, being paid to run, and that’s essential to their survival these days. They’ll also be wrapped up in their tracksuits and sipping an isotonic drink by the time most other runners will have passed the One Mile marker. Presumably everyone will have enjoyed themselves, feel they got value for their money, or else they wouldn’t keep voting with their feet.

And yet, later in the summer, there’ll be three similarly large road race events in the Phoenix Park, otherwise known as the Countdown Series to the Dublin marathon. These consist of the five-mile, 10-mile, and half-marathon – and the Race Entry Fee is €20, or all three for €50. If you also sign up for the Dublin marathon you get an additional discount of €5 on that entry fee of €70.

That’s the sort of value-pack runners are looking for these days, but unfortunately isn’t always available. I should point out that the Dublin marathon Race Entry Fee increases to €80 after July 31st, and then to €90 after August 31st, and these prices haven’t changed in four years. And that’s still a bargain compared to the overseas Race Entry Fee for the New York marathon: €205.

The revived Cork City marathon, which takes place on June 6th, has a similarly scaled fee, from €62, up to €83, if entering after April 30th. They’re also offering a 50 per cent reduction for the unwaged, which in the current climate should be available for every Race Entry Fee.

The big attraction of running these days is that it’s cheap and accessible and obtainable to everyone – and the quickest route to anima sana in corpore sano.

But when it comes to the Race Entry Fee we should be careful not to lose the run of ourselves.

Maybe we should start looking around for better value – starting with next Saturday’s Rás UCD, a 5km around Belfield for which all funds raised go to UCD Volunteers Overseas. Race Entry Fee? €8 for students, €12 for everyone else.

Now that’s a race that deserves to sell out.