About 30,000 runners ran the Boston Marathon Monday.
One of the world’s marquee races, the Boston Marathon is always popular with runners. Many train for years just to qualify.
But other races are seeing their participation dip. After a decades-long running boom, the number of people running in road races overall has slowed down, both nationally and in some Minnesota races.
Boom times
As a sport, running gained steam steadily in the ‘90s and early aughts, then boomed during the Great Recession, according to data from Running USA, an industry group that tracks running participation.
Though runners tend to be more affluent to begin with, Rich Harshbarger, Running USA’s CEO, thinks the economy had something to do with the sport’s jump in popularity in that timeframe: As opposed to expensive gym memberships, “when you think about the running industry, all you really need is time and a pair of shoes,” he said.
It wasn’t the first time running saw a major expansion. The first running boom came in the 1970s, widely credited to the success of Frank Shorter winning Olympic gold in the marathon distance in 1972.
The more recent running bonanza was fueled by women. While the number of men finishing events roughly doubled between 1990 and 2016, the number of women increased by eightfold, according to Running USA.
With an increasing number of runners came a proliferation in races, especially the kind of runs that emphasized the social aspect. Races added live bands, beer tents, costumes and other gimmicks to make the race an event — not just a road race.
A running slowdown
After 2013, things started to slow down.
No boom can last forever, Harshbarger said. He attributes the plateau in road-race participation partly to people’s interest in other exercise activities.
“These days, lots of urban and suburban neighborhoods are full of yoga studios. There’s also CrossFit, barre, SoulCycle and Orangetheory. And, coming out of the Recession, people tend to have more money to spend on these types of things.
“Some attribute falling participation in road races to costs that have gone up as events have become more elaborate. Registering for a 5k these days can cost $30 or more, while marathons can run upwards of $130.
While participation in road races has slowed across the board, the biggest drops in recent years have come in experiential runs, which fall into the category called “other distances,” including fun runs and mud runs, in Running USA’s data.
In Minnesota, the drop-off seems to be more in the long-distance sphere, according to race organizers.
“I don’t think 5ks are seeing a decline in this market; it’s more the longer distance,”said Virginia Brophy Achman, the executive director of Twin Cities in Motion, which puts on the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. “This local market is actually a very good reflection of what’s going on nationally. There’s so many choices, and things you can do now.”
The Twin Cities Marathon, held in October in the Twin Cities, bucked the national trend until 2017, when race numbers dipped slightly.
The Mankato Marathon saw a slight decline in 2017 and 2018, but Joy Leafblad, sports commission director for Visit Mankato, says numbers could be up slightly this year.
The Dick Beardsley races, which include several distances, has seen a dropoff in participation in recent years, too.
“Oversupply of races and not an increasing number of runners,” wrote Mark Knutson, of race organizer Go Far Events, in an email.
Not across the board
While the dropoff is widespread, it’s not across the board. Big events, like the prestigious New York City, Chicago and Boston marathons, are still in huge demand, Harshbarger said.
Declines aren’t uniform across long-distance races in Minnesota, either.
The Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon, a smaller from Holdingford to St. Joseph, hasn’t seen a slowdown, wrote race director George Bienusa, in an email.
The race held steady at 450 runners, where it’s capped, in 2017 and 2018, up from 425 in 2016. Numbers could be down a little this year, though — with three weeks left to register last week, 430 runners had signed up.
And Grandma’s Marathon, held every June in Duluth, has had strong numbers in recent years, said Shane Bauer, the race’s executive director.
The numbers increased a bit in 2017 for the race’s 40th anniversary, but are still pretty much where they’ve otherwise been in recent years.
For a relatively small-town race, Grandma’s has a big reputation, Bauer said: It’s a fast race — the rolling hills, as opposed to big hills or all flat, mean that times are fast and runners use many muscle groups, which helps with stamina.
And the scenery can’t be beat. route hugs Lake Superior’s North Shore, which means beautiful views. And the fact that it can still be chilly up there in June makes it tolerable to run in early summer.
Bauer is expecting a surge in elite athlete registrations from all over the world this year because many are prepping for upcoming Olympic trials.
“It’s definitely a bucket-list marathon, and the experience is so different from any of the big city marathons that it sets it apart,” Bauer said.
