Fred was the President of the New York Road Runners Club and made the New York City Marathon a mega race. Fred took the race from loops in Central Park to running the 5 Boroughs of New York City: Staten Island, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Manhattan.  Entrance fees where tiny because Fred believed sponsors needed to pay the freight not the competitor. The more exposure a sponsor received, the higher the bill.  He wanted every runner to get a shirt, cap, mug and medal; it didn’t come out of the entrance fees but the public relations fees that a sponsor paid for cheap exposure to millions of people.

Fred used to have race packages where you could sign up for 3 races in Central Park for $10. Fred LeBow was a great man who died too early in life of brain cancer, he cared for people and he cared for me. When I was running the Knickerbocker 60K and was hurting on my last loop and a group of young thugs singled me out and started riding their bikes in circles around me, Fred, who was hands on in every race, sent over three bikers to clear my way so I could finish the race.

Valerie Silk was the original Race Director of the Ironman and she was so hands on that she used to answer the phone from anxious tri-athletes wanting to know if they got in the race. Valerie got the most out of Bud Light and the other sponsors; kept our fees low (below $100) and that included all your goodies plus a free concert, pasta load and all the Bud Light you could drink.

Today’s Race Directors are more like the Politicians we have in Washington.  It’s supply and demand; if there are more competitors than slots they juice the entrance fees because they can. Do they care about the race or do they care more about how much money they can make? Our Politicians are not much different.  The biggest Lobby Groups are also the biggest donors; they get more attention for their cause because contributions to re-election campaigns motivates the Politician to take up their cause. Does anyone out there feel that a $600 entrance fee is going towards your safety and well being? Sponsors need to pay, not the competitor and the Race Directors need to think more about filling their pockets from the Sponsors instead of the competitor, who is making the race interesting.

Unfortunately we need all three of these people, so why not just choose your races carefully and boycott the excessive fees? You can also choose carefully who represents us in the White House, Congress & Senate -stop giving these career people a free ride.