DFW running club part 4!! ALL ARE WELCOME!!

redsquirrel80

Hi all.. 3 miles for me last night in 31:22, felt pretty good, going out again tonight.

RichOneday_2

KeepYourChinUp wrote: »

all of a sudden like something has clicked within me :dance:.

Whereas for us old bods, when that happens we have to check its not a hip thats gone.........:p

RichOneday_2

Nice one Red - if its feeling good then your body must be wanting to get on with it. Very positive.:D

RichOneday_2

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article6994319.ece

In which case, running backwards on a beach, barefooted and naked, must burn 3 times as many calories and feel great?:rolleyes::p

tirlittan

hello all. I quite fancy going for a run soon as the cold has cleared, but with moving/sorting out the new place, I just don't seem to have the time at the moment. Will try to go next week latest though. Need to get back on track!

Rachel021967

RichOneday wrote: »

But is it?

These events typically have 3,000 or more participants..so £39,000 per event.

They are run in parks and staffed by volunteers. Every Saturday there are 26 5K events across the country run in the same park environments and staffed by volunteers, cost to participants FREE!

Its easy for them to brush off the fees with 'towards funding of the event' without being questioned but if you really want to know where that money goes take a look at their accounts, you may be a little alarmed.:eek:

But lets for one moment assume that it does cost £39,000 to organise a 5K amble around a local park, and that all involved are emotionally involved with the best interests of furthering the cause of research into cancer, then what a shameful waste of money when that money could be doing some proper good at the front line.

Why, if these charities are so close to people's hearts, dont they just send their donations and keep quiet about it? Its not as though you cant go and amble around the park with a few mates anyway...everyone has free access.

And what about the 'raising sponsorship' angle. I've never understood this one. How can someone base whether they make a donation to a charity based on whether someone else completes a 5K? So the charity is worthy of a donation if the 5K is completed and, by extension, isnt worthy if it isnt completed? Whats the link? None whatsoever.

In my opinion if anyone wants to donate to their favourite charity they should do so (but without any conditions) and leave others to do the same.

Hehe Morning rant over........;)

Bah Humbug to you sir. Rich have you ever been to a Race4life event? There is a positive but moving atmosphere. The people who take part are quite happy to pay their fee. The people who sponsored me were happy to support such a charity. The very act of asking somebody for sponsorship is to bring that charity to the forefront of their mind and most people unfortunately have been touched by cancer in some way.
I agree that the charity should call it something other than a Race but "Race4life" has become a recognised brand for the Cancer Research.

becky_rtw

Rachel021967 wrote: »

Bah Humbug to you sir. Rich have you ever been to a Race4life event? There is a positive but moving atmosphere. The people who take part are quite happy to pay their fee. The people who sponsored me were happy to support such a charity. The very act of asking somebody for sponsorship is to bring that charity to the forefront of their mind and most people unfortunately have been touched by cancer in some way.
I agree that the charity should call it something other than a Race but "Race4life" has become a recognised brand for the Cancer Research.

I dont think you'll get very far - Rich is a professional grump , he'll take bah humbug as a compliment :rotfl::rotfl:

But he does have a point about 'admin' costs of charities, you have to look past the emotional blackmail and see the reality that only 1/3 of the money you raise (never mind the entrance fee) goes towards research for cancer - which by the way is massively funded by the government already (especially in terms of researchers at universities) and most of the research is carried out in conjunction with private companies who are both being paid for their time and ready to take a huge slice of the profits if a 'cure' ever comes about...

Now I accept this as part of the game of 'R4L' but I think a lot of the people who participate would be shocked by the numbers...

I'd much rather personally the Oxfam unwrapped style of 'buying' something even for race sponsorship - so if your friend completes the 5k in 25 minutes then you reward them for the effort with £25. Which also encourages life long fitness as well as helping fund research (or whatever)

Ukevas

My OH sponserd someone to run a 5k... and for my marathon only thing i got was a leg rub...:eek::eek::eek: :rotfl:

becky_rtw

Ukevas wrote: »

My OH sponserd someone to run a 5k... and for my marathon only thing i got was a leg rub...:eek::eek::eek: :rotfl:

Which leg?

RichOneday_2

Rachel021967 wrote: »

Bah Humbug to you sir. Rich have you ever been to a Race4life event? There is a positive but moving atmosphere. The people who take part are quite happy to pay their fee. The people who sponsored me were happy to support such a charity. The very act of asking somebody for sponsorship is to bring that charity to the forefront of their mind and most people unfortunately have been touched by cancer in some way.
I agree that the charity should call it something other than a Race but "Race4life" has become a recognised brand for the Cancer Research.

Hehe...;)

Okay then - would they be happy to pay their fee if they knew that one chap was directly trousering over 20,000 of those fees each year, taking over a quarter of a million to fund his lavish lifestyle? Or would they be happy to know that there are 160 other people gleefully raking in over £100,000 each?

The people behind these events put self interest way before any thought of the charitable cause....but they'll quite happily keep twisting that emotional purse opener.

You'll find that a lot of runners have looked into this quite deeply (and therefore appear grumpy:p) simply because of the way that charities have strangled the life out of the sport slowly but surely over the years.

But dont confuse criticism of the the employed fundraisers and their methods with criticsm of the charitable cause and volunteers, they are completely different things.

As an example, a local arm of a national charity have to pass all their donations through their HO in London, who then deduct the 'contribution to running costs of the charity' before putting the net amount into a sub account for local use.

That net amount is 20% on figures up to £5,000 and, on top of that, if the local arm have organised for someone to run VLM for the charity the HO take the entry fee out of the 20%. So £5,000 raised at local level mysteriously gets whittled down to £600 once it returns to local level.

The HO has done nothing but pay its own salaries and spend oodles on advertising.

And we run in parks all the time so inevitably bump into the R4L events. They dont appear to be anything more than a big gathering of women going for an amble, which should be a positive uplifting experience....but the bottom line is that the whole thing is just a very slick bunch of marketing people that knows how to tug the heart strings to earn themselves nice big fat salary cheques.

You've got to hand it to them, they've got a pretty nice setup....because even the participants handing over their dosh dont want to question their motives, they'd rather just turn a blind eye and enjoy the self-indulgent charity glow thing. Its quite odd when the same bunch of people are probably as cynical as the rest of us when it comes to any other form of marketing......