Join the Coalition

Running
Is
Political

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 — and a place to sign on.
Read + Sign →
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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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Who We Are
About Us
We're runners who got tired of pretending it's all just a hobby. No brand deals. No apologies.
Our story →
Our Values

What We
Stand For

Eight clear things. No disclaimers.
We don't believe running is just a sport. We believe the systems that decide who gets to run safely, affordably, and with dignity are political choices — and we're done pretending otherwise. These are the eight things we believe. They are not complicated. They are not negotiable.
01
Running is for everyone — and any race, organization, or industry that prices out working people has chosen a side.
02
Every finisher deserves equal recognition — regardless of gender, disability, or how they identify — and "equal" doesn't mean a separate, lesser prize.
03
Race 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.
04
The 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.
05
Running 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.
06
Safe running infrastructure — lit paths, protected crosswalks, park access — is a racial and economic justice issue, not just a nice-to-have.
07
The brands that profit from running culture are accountable to the entire running community — not just the elites they sponsor, but the workers who make their products and the everyday runners their prices exclude.
08
Being a runner is not a political statement — but the systems that decide who gets to run safely, affordably, and with dignity absolutely are.
Sign On
Sign the Manifesto
Add your name. We keep score of who's paying attention. No spam. No brand deals. Just runners who give a damn.
✊ You're on the list. Thank you for signing. Running is political — and now it's documented.
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.
Entry Fee ($)
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Local Min. Wage ($/hr)
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💡 Federal minimum wage: $7.25/hr  ·  California: $16.50/hr  ·  New York City: $16.00/hr  ·  Seattle: $19.97/hr
Who We Are

About Us

Runners. Skeptics. People who do math in their head during long runs.
Running Is Political is an accountability platform for the running industry. We publish data, run scorecards, and refuse to pretend that who gets to run safely and affordably is a coincidence.

We started this because we were tired of the gap between what the running industry says about itself and what the numbers show. The $315 entry fee at NYC. The race executive earning seven figures at a "nonprofit." The $0 paid to a nonbinary division winner who won fair and square. The wheelchair athletes getting 67 cents on the dollar. The Black women's running group suing a major marathon for racial discrimination in 2024.

These are not fringe issues. They are structural. And structure is political.

What we do:

We run the numbers on major marathons and publish them in plain English — entry fees as hours of minimum wage labor, prize gaps in dollars, not percentages.
We track what race organizations say versus what their IRS 990 filings and prize records show.
We name the gap between diversity statements and actual leadership demographics.
We connect the physical act of running to the systems — economic, political, infrastructural — that shape who does it and who doesn't.

We are not affiliated with any race organization, running brand, or athletic governing body. We don't take sponsorships. We don't have a shoe deal. We're just people who run and believe in radical transparency about the industry built around it.

The data on this site is sourced from public records, IRS 990 filings, race organization websites, the Running Industry Diversity Coalition, Brand Finance, World Athletics, and investigative journalism. We cite our sources. We welcome corrections. We update when we're wrong.

Running belongs to everyone. We're keeping score of who's acting like it does.

Get in Touch
Found an error? Have data we should add? Know a race doing it right — or wrong?
Reach us at [email protected]

Data corrections and additions are always welcome. We'd rather be right than first.