Running Inflation

By Bruce Fordyce 

With the cost of race entries and prize monies climbing every year I thought I would remind older runners of the “good old days”.

Paging through an old scrapbook of mine I stumbled upon an old 1980 entry form for the Old Eds half marathon. Readers will be interested to know that the entry fee was R3 and late entries cost a rand more. I finished 10^th in that race and won R10. In addition my team, Wits University won second team prize and so I pocketed another R10. With that money I filled my car with petrol, bought a record album from the music shop and drank several beers.

Chatting to Alan Robb and Jax Snyman of the Sweat Shop I was reminded by them both that that Old Eds race had already started to show the signs of rampant inflation. They reminded me that entry fees for races were R1 for many years. If a runner was a member of the South African Road Runners club the standard race entry fee was 50 cents. Of course prizes were also anything but extravagant. Alan won a pen stand for his first road race win and Jax won a stainless steel plate for a win. There were very few race T-shirts on offer. Most races handed out badges or medals.

Prizes were available in smaller races but at the classics such as the Comrades there was no prize money at all. 9 X the current first prize purse would be very useful indeed. The Comrades entry fee back then was R5. We were all deeply concerned when we heard rumours that it might go up to an astronomical R10. We would not have believed possible the enormous entry fees, today of some multi day races.

Of course everything was cheaper back then , petrol, accommodation, and food  so we shouldn’t be surprised at the cost of entry fees and prize monies 30 years ago but even I had to gasp in surprise when Alan told me that his return airfare to Durban for the 1974 Comrades was R49!