The Greatest of These Is Charity

Considering the Future of Running and Charity Giving

To an experienced runner, the gap between getting off the couch and running a marathon stretches across years, even decades. One of the effects of the charity phenomenon, however, has been to reduce that gap.

The Aidsmarathon poster campaign on the Washington DC Metro promises "to enable you to complete the Marine Corps, Baltimore or Dublin Marathons." The word "complete" is key. Twenty years ago running was a competitive sport in which virtually all participants measured their PR progress as precisely as golfers know their handicaps. It has become an activity where completion, not competition, is the object for all but a small, anachronistic few.

"In the literature meant to lure charity marathoners, one theme is a constant: completing a marathon is the ultimate achievement in running," writes Scott Douglas in Marathon & Beyond. The positive effect of this change in emphasis is that it provides motivation for those who find the idea of competing beyond their wildest dreams. The negative effects, Douglas argues, are that the charities entice the innocent into aiming too high too soon, and present it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. While statistics on how many stay in the sport are hard to come by, TNT records indicate 15% return to run another marathon, leaving 85% unaccounted for, perhaps to never run again, having already completed the "ultimate achievement." Sadly, and to their great loss, many never adopted the sport as a lifestyle choice or know how to continue without the external motivation of the cause and the charity team support group.

This support is something that clubs have failed to provide, according to Powers. "People are doing it [TNT marathon training] because we give them a safe, welcoming environment," she says. Powers finds area clubs tend to be "seen as for the elites—the ones in their singlets on the podiums" and do not provide the specific group training pointed toward an event that non-runners are looking for. Powers readily admits that the majority of participants come to them for this supportive club atmosphere, with the charity fund-raising serving as both the price of admission, and an additional motivation that gets 70-80% of them, a vast majority first-timers, to the finish line.

A letter from a blissful first-timer to supporters and friends confirms where the charity marathon programs succeed—and where they fail. Justly triumphant to have achieved something that "a year ago seemed next to impossible," and "blessed" by the emotional outpouring from those who contributed to her run, she asks "What’s next? Everest?" What we would hope to be next is not a second "ultimate," but continued commitment to her running, building on the fitness she has gained, testing herself at different distances and surfaces, and finding the even more profound achievement of becoming an improving runner.

"If training for five months to finish a marathon, however slowly, is the only level they think they can reach," says Allan Steinfeld, President of the New York Road Runners, "There is something positive in that too ... I don’t have a problem with raising money for causes. But what I really want to see is that individuals get involved in the sport and do it for health and fitness ... to learn what a wonderful experience it can be to get out alone each day, to do it for life."