The marathon industry collects billions from runners every year. Entry fees that cost more than a week's work at minimum wage. Race organizations that call themselves nonprofits while their executives earn seven figures. Prize structures that say "equal" but carve out exceptions for every athlete who doesn't fit neatly into one of two checkboxes.
Meanwhile, Black and brown runners are still harassed, followed, and shot while doing the same thing wealthy suburban runners do on weekends without a second thought. Safe infrastructure — sidewalks, crosswalks, lit paths — maps almost exactly onto zip code income.
Running is one of the most human things there is. It belongs to everyone. What's been built around it doesn't reflect that. We're keeping score. ✊
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Our Values
What We Stand For
The eight things we actually believe about running, access, and accountability.
Read →
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Race Scorecard
The Splits
Run the numbers on any major marathon. Entry fees, prize equity, leadership diversity, and more.
Check the score →
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Data & Research
The Rundown
The numbers the running industry would rather you not obsess over.
See the data →
Our Values
What We Stand For
Eight clear things. No disclaimers.
01Running is for everyone — and any race, organization, or industry that prices out working people has chosen a side.
02Every finisher deserves equal recognition — regardless of gender, disability, or how they identify — and "equal" doesn't mean a separate, lesser prize.
03Race organizations must be transparent about where the money goes, because calling yourself a nonprofit while running a commercial event is not accountability — it's branding.
04The neighborhoods that host mega-marathons should benefit from them — not just absorb road closures, disruption, and economic activity that flows back out of the community.
05Running leadership must reflect who actually runs — 34% of U.S. runners are people of color, and 1% of running industry senior management is Black. That gap is a policy choice.
06Safe running infrastructure — lit paths, protected crosswalks, park access — is a racial and economic justice issue, not just a nice-to-have.
07The brands that profit from running culture should be held to the same values we run by — including how they pay the athletes who wear their logos.
08Being a runner is not a political statement — but the systems that decide who gets to run safely, affordably, and with dignity absolutely are.
Race Scorecard
The Splits
Search a marathon and find out how it scores.
In running, your "splits" are your checkpoint times — the data that tells you whether you're on pace or falling behind. Every competitive runner runs the math obsessively: are you where you need to be at mile 10? Mile 18? Mile 26.2?
We're running that same math on the race industry itself. Entry fee vs. local minimum wage. Men's prize vs. women's prize vs. wheelchair division. Nonprofit status vs. executive pay. How are they doing at the checkpoints that actually matter?
The clever part: just like in racing, the splits don't lie. You can spin your "community investment" narrative all you want in a press release — but when you run the numbers on entry fees, prize equity, and financial transparency side by side, the math tells you exactly where you actually are.
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Race not yet in our database.
We're building it out — major races being added regularly. In the meantime, use the calculator below to run the math yourself.
Run Your Own Numbers
Entry Fee Calculator
How many hours of work does it take to enter a race? Enter any race's fee and the local minimum wage to find out.
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💡 Federal minimum wage: $7.25/hr · California: $16.50/hr · New York City: $16.00/hr · Seattle: $19.97/hr
Data sourced from official race websites, BAA, NYRR, Running USA, and RIDC. Prize figures reflect 2024–2025 open division. Entry fees reflect 2025 general registration. Local minimum wage figures used where applicable.
Data & Research
The Rundown
The numbers the running industry would rather bury in a press release about "community investment."
Data sourced from public records, race organizations, RIDC, Brand Finance, and investigative reporting. Always verify before citing.
Running While Black
Ahmaud Arbery was 25 years old when he was shot and killed while jogging in his Georgia neighborhood in February 2020. His killers' hate crime convictions were upheld by a federal appeals court in November 2025. In 2024, a Black women's running group filed a federal lawsuit against Boston Marathon organizers and Newton police for racial discrimination and profiling during the 2023 race. Tony Reed, co-founder of the National Black Marathoners Association: "People have spit on me while I'm running, called me the N-word, milk cartons have been thrown at me." This is not ancient history. This is the context every stat on this page lives inside.
Access & Cost
$315
NYC Marathon entry fee for non-members in 2025 = 43 hours at federal minimum wage ($7.25/hr)
NYRR 2025
$160
Houston Marathon entry fee = 22 hours at minimum wage — Texas has no state minimum wage floor, the federal $7.25/hr applies
Chevron Houston Marathon 2025
$152
Philadelphia Marathon entry fee = 21 hours at minimum wage — Pennsylvania hasn't raised its minimum wage above $7.25/hr since 2009
Philadelphia Marathon 2025
3×
Increase in London Marathon international entry fee in two years — £73 (2023) → £225 (2025)
London Marathon Events
44%
Price increase for international runners at Tokyo in 2026 — $160 → $230
Tokyo Marathon Foundation announcement, 2025
$683M
Chicago Marathon's record economic impact in 2024 — for a city, not a charity. Chicago Event Management is a for-profit organizer.
Chicago Event Management, 2024
400K+
Applicants competing for ~38,000 spots in the Tokyo Marathon lottery — making it the world's most selective race
Tokyo Marathon Foundation, 2024
$5.2B
Economic impact injected by the top 50 marathons worldwide — the industry is enormous, the accountability is not
Brand Finance / World Marathon Majors, 2024
43%
Of U.S. adults who can't afford an unexpected $400 expense — the same population priced out of most major marathon entry fees
Federal Reserve Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households, 2023
$285
Average Disney Marathon entry fee in 2025 — but runDisney is a corporate Walt Disney product, not a running nonprofit, and pays $0 in prize money
runDisney 2025
Prize Equity
67%
Less prize money Boston wheelchair winners get vs. open division — $50K wheelchair vs. $150K open (BAA 2025). Boston raised it from $40K in 2024, but the gap remains massive.
BAA 2025
1
Major marathon that has equalized prize money for wheelchair and open athletes — London Marathon (2024). The only one. Every other major still pays wheelchair divisions less.
London Marathon, 2024 · NBC News, 2024
$0
What NYC nonbinary division winner Cal Calamia received despite $5K being advertised — the prize was never paid
PinkNews / Sportico, 2024
$150K
Boston first-place prize (men and women equal) — the highest single-race prize of any World Marathon Major
Boston Athletic Association, 2024
$10K
First-place prize at Philadelphia, Twin Cities, and Grandma's marathons vs. $100–150K at the six World Marathon Majors — a 93% gap between regional and major race payouts
Race websites, 2025
$0
Wheelchair/para prize money at Philadelphia and Twin Cities marathons — no prize structure for para athletes as of 2025 at either race
Race websites, 2025
4 of 6
World Marathon Majors with no nonbinary division as of 2025 — Boston, Chicago, Berlin, and Tokyo still offer no nonbinary category
Race websites, 2025
$53B
Global running shoe market annual revenue — the industry has the money. Prize equity is a values choice, not a budget problem.
Custom Market Insights, 2024
Leadership & Representation
1%
Of running industry senior management positions held by Black employees — in an industry where 34% of participants are people of color
Running Industry Diversity Coalition (RIDC), 2023
34%
Of U.S. runners who identify as people of color — that's 16 million runners. The industry's leadership doesn't come close to reflecting this.
SFIA via RIDC · That's 1-in-3 runners.
11%
Of running industry employees who are Black — but only 1% reach senior management. Black workers are in the industry. They're just not leading it.
RIDC 2023
69%
Of trail runners who are white — compared to 66% of road runners. Participation drops sharply when running moves away from urban infrastructure.
RIDC Trail Running Study
59%
Of running organizations with DEI goals that don't track whether they're meeting them — goals without accountability are marketing
Running Industry Diversity Coalition (RIDC), 2023
80%
Of senior DEI initiative leaders in the running industry who are white — the people running diversity programs are overwhelmingly not from underrepresented groups
RIDC Research, 2023
70%
Of running organizations that have DEI goals on paper — but 59% don't track whether they're meeting them
RIDC
0
World Marathon Majors with a publicly disclosed board diversity breakdown — none of the six publish demographic data on their leadership
Analysis of BAA, NYRR, Chicago Event Management, London Marathon Events, SCC Events, Tokyo Marathon Foundation, 2025
The Industry
$53B
Global running shoe market revenue annually
Custom Market Insights, 2024
41%
Global athletic footwear market share held by Nike — a single company controls nearly half the market that runners depend on
Straits Research, 2024
£1B
Raised for charity by London Marathon since 1981 — the world's largest annual fundraising event, and a model no other major has replicated
London Marathon Events
$0
Minimum charity requirement to enter the Chicago Marathon through general registration — compared to London where charity bibs raise millions annually
Race policies, 2025
3
Companies — Nike, Adidas, Brooks — that collectively sponsor the majority of elite runners at World Marathon Majors, concentrating brand power at the top of the sport
World Athletics / race elite fields, 2024–2025
$1M+
Annual compensation for top race executives at major nonprofit marathon organizations — filed publicly in IRS 990 forms and searchable on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer