The Greatest of These Is Charity

Considering the Future of Running and Charity Giving

Whether the charities are willing not only to haul in dewy-eyed first-timers, but take steps to conserve and replenish the stocks will test whether the association with running is a long-term relationship or not. They need to treat running as an end worth fostering for itself, not merely a means to their own income. How many charities are steering their contributing runners towards grass roots running events, not just mass-emotion spectacles? Why is no charity creating developmental running incentives such as were built into the Avon Women’s races of the 1980 and 90s, where top runners advanced to regional, national and international championships?

For its part, running needs to take the initiative and show how this can be done. How many clubs have forged links with the large charity programs? How many races are educating first-time charity runners about how and where to run next?

Some encouraging efforts are underway. Bedford points out that the London Marathon organizers, with dollars raised in part through charity runners, "support developing endurance runners with scholarships at Queen Mary’s College, London, and we help to fund the facilities there." As a club, the New York Road Runners puts on 21 different charity related events throughout the year, ensuring that each not only benefits the causes served but contributes to the club’s mission of promoting health and fitness in its community, and that participants are tied into the ongoing club activities throughout the year. Many TNT leaders, like Powers, support local races with activities such as sponsoring a water stop at an event their group is not running.

We think the sport needs leadership towards such positive outcomes. No one wants to be a Scrooge and say "Bah humbug!" to those who seek charity. It is true that someone who runs every day for the love of it may enhance that joy by doing it for others once or twice a year. "To take what I do well," says Powers, "and be able to benefit others with it, is a blessing." We would hope that all of us could have such an opportunity.

It is the "transformation" that leaves us uneasy, and that we think needs to be considered more carefully. We are anxious that "the world’s Number 1 endurance sport training program" (TNT) has a core mission unconnected with endurance sport; we regret the decline in running’s great egalitarian spirit and entrepreneurial independence. Running is unique in its mixture of joyous freedom and significant competition. It is unique also in providing what has been called "a mass celebration of individual accomplishment." In so far as the alliance with charities enhances these unique strengths, we welcome it. But we value the strengths so much that we believe they must not be sold, however good the cause.