2022 Top 100 Largest Races

We are returning with our Largest 100 Races Report now that things are returning to normal (although plenty of things were not really back to normal still in 2022).

First, several notes:
– This is based on an earlier set of data we collected and reported on in 2019.
– The data is Total Finishers based on public results data for all events for each race weekend (eg. total of 5K, 10K, Half and Full)
– The data does not include untimed events, so many large P2P events are not included
– We likely missed some races! This report is very manual – let us know if something was missed so we can update – eric at runsignup.com (Thanks to Eric Cone for collecting and collating the data!)

2022 Top 100 Largest List

As expected, the numbers are down.
– A total of 408,483 finishers less than the 1,673,712 finishers in 2019 – down 24%.
– Only 14 races grew from 2019.
– There are 8 new races.

2022 Rank	2022 Finishers	2021 Finishers	2019 Finishers	Name	Change 2019 to 2022	Registration Provider 2022
1	58,852	31,836	53,519	TCS New York City Marathon + Dash to the Finish Line 5k	5,333	in-house
2	42,784	29,917	45,852	Bank of America Chicago Marathon + 5k	-3,068	Haku
3	34,877	24,391	60,636	AJC Peachtree Road Race	-25,759	Haku
4	34,545	–	42,342	Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend	-7,797	Haku
5	32,997	15,385	35,127	Boston Marathon + BAA 5k	-2,130	Custom
6	32,443	virtual	35,433	Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas	-2,990	Active
7	28,582	5,095	41,197	Bolder Boulder	-12,615	Configio
8	23,657	–	32,362	Disney’s Princess Half Marathon	-8,705	Haku
9	22,590	virtual	25,168	Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend	-2,578	Haku
10	22,356	–	24,659	United Airlines NYC Half	2,303	In-House
11	21,922	9,512	26,967	Honolulu Marathon	-5,045	local
12	21,898	20,603	25,729	Philadelphia Marathon, Half Marathon, and Rothman Institute 8K	-3,831	RunSignup
13	21,478	virtual	24,709	Chevron Houston Marathon / Aramco Half Marathon / ABB 5K	-3,231	Haku
14	21,018	virtual	34,832	Lilac Bloomsday Run	-13,814	local
15	20,474	11,200	34,565	Blue Cross Broad Street Run	-14,091	RunSignup
16	20,397	–	–	Springtime Surprise	20,397	Haku
17	19,860	10,192	31,325	Flying Pig Marathon	-11,465	RaceRoster
18	19,327	–	5,794	NYCRUNS Brooklyn Marathon & Half	13,533	Custom
19	18,944	11,949	19,702	St. Jude Memphis Marathon	-758	Blackbaud
20	18,824	virtual	26,818	Brooklyn Half Marathon	-7,994	in-house
21	18,821	20,263	32,285	Hot Chocolate 15K/5K – Chicago	-13,464	Enmotive
22	18,466	10,925	17,796	Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon & Medtronic TC 10 Mile	670	RaceRoster
23	18,272	–	15,990	Arizona Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon	2,282	Active
24	17,702	2,430	19,965	Yuengling Shamrock Marathon, Half Marathon, and 8K	-2,263	Haku
25	17,260	18,656	16,649	Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio Marathon and Half-Marathon	611	Active
26	16,782	virtual	18,336	Bay to Breakers	-1,554	RaceReach
27	16,772	virtual	20,781	Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle	-4,009	Haku
28	16,750	virtual	20,140	Pittsburgh Marathon	-3,390	RaceRoster
29	16,716	virtual	20,358	Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile & 5K	3,642	MarathonGuide
30	16,563	22,609	23,539	San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon	-6,976	Active
31	16,330	virtual	23,426	Oneamerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon	-7,096	RunSignup
32	16,025	11,767	29,287	Cooper River Bridge Run	-13,262	Active
33	15,076	virtual	16,864	Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot	-1,788	RunSignup
34	14,696	virtual	19,535	Lifetime Miami Marathon, Half Marathon & Tropical 5k	-4,839	RunSignup
35	14,182	virtual	23,060	12th Annual Pat’s Run	-8,878	RunSignup
36	13,650	10,220	–	Bay Bridge Run	13,650	RunSignup
37	13,362	11,921	17,587	San Francisco Marathon	-4,225	RaceCentral
38	13,343	14,161	9,518	BMW Dallas Marathon	3,825	RaceRoster
39	12,701	18,852	24,485	St. Jude Rock ‘n’ Roll Nashville	-11,784	Active
40	12,659	8,711	18,806	Detroit Free Press/Talmer Bank Marathon	-6,147	Enmotive
41	12,540	–	–	Hood to Coast	–	In-House
42	12,474	virtual	26,476	Gasparilla Distance Classic Race Weekend	-14,002	RaceRoster
43	12,358	11,512	15,382	Richmond Marathon, Half Marathon, and 8K	-3,024	RunSignup
44	12,308	8,939	26,096	Los Angeles Marathon	-13,788	Active
45	12,129	4,665	20,170	Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10K	-8,041	RunSignup
46	12,008	8,266	25,107	Army Ten Miler	-13,099	Active
47	11,734	–	Cancelled	Statesman Capitol 10K	11,734	Enmotive
48	11,520	10,013	16,182	Indianapolis Monumental Marathon	-4,662	Haku
49	11,413	7,335	12,616	Gate River Run	-1,203	RaceRoster
50	11,360	7,511	12,414	New Balance Bronx 10 Miler	-1,054	in-house
51	11,273	virtual	13,333	Santa Cruz to Capitol Wharf to Wharf Race	-2,060	RaceRoster
52	11,143	7,112	13,510	Drumstick Dash	-2,367	RunSignup
53	10,900	virtual	12,682	Hot Chocolate 15K/5K – San Francisco	-1,782	Enmotive
54	10,548	–	11,854	NYRR Five-Borough Series: Queens 10K	-1,306	in-house
55	10,232	13,392	13,106	Detroit Thanksgiving Parade Turkey Trot	-2,874	local
56	10,154	4,636	13,914	Austin Marathon & Half Marathon	-3,760	EventDog
57	10,060	8,796	17,020	Baltimore Running Festival	-6,960	RunSignup
58	9,851		10,723	Colfax Marathon	-1872	Race Roster
59	9,830	5,328	18,852	Cowtown Marathon	-9,022	RaceRoster
60	9,618	–	13,789	Rock ‘n’ Roll Washington (formerly Seattle)	-4,171	Active
61	9,534	8,517	11,912	Buffalo YMCA TURKEY TROT 8 KILOMETER RACE	-2,378	RunSignup
62	9,483	19,109	17,056	Rock ‘n’ Roll USA Marathon	-7,573	Active
63	9,171	virtual	26,106	Marine Corps Marathon	-16,935	Haku
64	9,124	6,930	12,530	Columbus Marathon	-3,406	MarathonGuide
65	9,066	9,655	11,314	Rocky Run	-2,248	Active
66	8,874	8,001	9,456	Long Beach Marathon and Half Marathon	-582	Active
67	8,758		10,723	Portland Shamrock Run	-1965	Active
68	8,673	9,311	11,396	Surf City USA Marathon and Half Marathon	-2,723	Active
69	8,609	867	11,544	Falmouth Road Race	-2,935	RaceRoster
70	8,600	–	10,403	Spring Lake 5 Miler	-1,803	RunSignup
71	8,512		9,276	New Balance 5th Ave 1 Miler	-764	In-House
72	8,470	7,038	14,348	Oklahoma City Marathon	-5,878	RunSignup
73	8,425	6,115	10,750	OC Marathon	-2,325	RaceCentral
74	8,416	virtual	13,942	Crescent City Classic	-5,526	RunSignup
75	8,372	7,975	8,040	California International Marathon	332	RaceRoster
76	8,360	7,419	9,956	Manchester Road Race	-1,596	RaceRoster
77	8,348	4,598	15,569	Utica Boilermaker Road Race	-7,221	RunSignup
78	8,329	5,553	8,536	HOKA Chicago Half Marathon & 5k	-207	RunSignup
79	8,165	–	6,109	NYRR – Run as One 4M	2,056	in-house
80	8,151	8,766	9,848	San Jose Rock n Roll	-1,697	Active
81	8,015	virtual	9,457	Hot Chocolate 15K/5K – Atlanta	-1,442	Enmotive
82	7,878	virtual	10,817	Hot Chocolate 15K/85K – Dallas	-2,939	Enmotive
83	7,823	1,787	9,972	NYRR Staten Island Half Marathon and 5K	-2,149	in-house
84	7,402	2,875	8,880	NYRR New York Mini 10k	-1,478	in-house
85	7,250	6,828	8,000*	Dana Point Turkey Trot	-750	Active
86	7,028	4,234	10,239	NYRR – Front Runners New York LGBT Pride Run 4M	-3,211	in-house
87	7,006	7,229	18,957	Grandma’s Marathon – Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon	-11,951	RaceRoster
88	6,924	374	1,160	Seattle Cherry Blossom Run	5,764	RunSignup
89	6,915	6,074	5,006	O’Side Turkey Trot	1,909	RunSignup
90	6,851	5,657	9,673	Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon, 5K, Mile & Dash	-2,822	Haku
91	6,807	–	7,071	Skyway 10k	-264	RunSignup
92	6,771	6,054	5,356	Mile High United Way Turkey Trot	1,415	Events.com
93	6,722	3,638	5,886	NYRR- Achilles Hope & Possibility 4M	836	in-house
94	6,684	4,525	9,636	Crim Festival of Races	-2,952	RunSignup
95	6,598	4,595	8,476	Hot Chocolate 15k/10k/5k – Denver	-1,878	Enmotive
96	6,590	virtual	6,900	Big House 5k	-310	RunSignup
97	6,544	5,626	6,835	CPI Security Charlotte Turkey Trot	-291	RunSignup
98	6,533	–	7,525	NYRR Grete’s Great Gallop 10k	-992	in-house
99	6,226	–	11,141	Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon and Half Marathon	-4,915	RaceRoster
100	6,115	4,877	8,556	Thanksgiving Day Race	-2,441	GetMeRegistered

Registration Provider

To summarize the registration provider data from 2022:

Of course, RunSignup has a far broader reach than the other vendors in the endurance market in the US as we outline in our Trends Report and 2022 Year End Report with over 24,000 races and 7.4 Million registrations.

Haku has spent the last 5 years targeting the high end of the market building custom solutions and sending personnel to races with a higher cost model that some races feel they want.

Active’s Top 100 business comes largely from the Rock ‘n’ Roll series (that has faced some headwinds as noted below in the races that fell off the list).

Race Roster has been very aggressive on the pricing front the past year and will likely increase the number of Top 100 races in 2023.

As we look into 2023, we know RunSignup will pick up a few Top 100 races and lose a few to Race Roster pricing (by the way, if you are a Race Roster customer, make sure you are getting your fair share and getting deals comparable to races like the Philadelphia Marathon and The Crim). From a RunSignup perspective, we want to continue to price comparably for races based on customer size (published openly in our Partner Contract) as we want to be valued for the technology we produce and not have customers chasing “deals” or getting locked into us as a vendor.

2019 Races That Fell Out of the List

Seventeen races fell off the list:

– 7 Races did not have enough finishers in 2022 to still make the list
– 4 Races were discontinued
– 2 Races were replaced
– 1 Race moved to Spring 2023
– 1 Race was virtual in 2022
– 1 Race we removed because it was virtual in 2019 and in 2022 and did not meet the Finisher requirement for this list

2019 rank	2019	2022	Race	Registration Provider 2019
20	25,244	One year only	Tunnel to Viaduct 8k
21	25,168	Discontinued	Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend	Haku
26	23,668	Discontinued	Star Wars – The Dark Side Weekend	Haku
41	18,901	Virtual Removed	The Great Pumpkin Run	RunSignUp
43	17,768	5,715	Mercedes Corporate Run Miami	Haku
56	13,823	None	Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicago Half Marathon	Active
62	13,063	Replaced	Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans Marathon & 1/2 Marathon	Active
65	12,604	2,649	Shamrock Run	Active
72	11,815	Virtual	Great Aloha Run	Events.com
76	11,273	Discontinued	Rock ‘n’ Roll Savannah Marathon & 1/2 Marathon	Active
79	11,081	Relaunched	Rock n Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon	Active
82	10,600	3,123	The Giant Race	RaceRoster
83	10,554	4,588	City of Pittsburgh Great Race	RaceRoster
86	10,110	Spring 2023	The Ohio State 4 Miler	imAthlete
89	9,877	4,172	Hot Chocolate 15K/5K – Seattle	Enmotive
93	9,657	4,452	Hot Chocolate 15K/5K – Philly	Enmotive
98	9,461	5,814	Air Force Marathon	RaceRoster

These hurt the other registration providers in the 2022 totals, although hopefully the races recover in the future.

Summary

As we discussed in our comprehensive Trends Report, large races were still suffering in 2022:

This is from a combination of participants not wanting to travel, disruptions early in 2022 from Omicron, and reduced marketing budgets due to cost containment efforts brought on by financial difficulty during the pandemic.

We are seeing encouraging signs in the early days of 2023. The pandemic also accelerated change as can be seen by the number of races who fell off from the 2019 list. Some old events are struggling with the new environment. The Facebook wave is over, influencers and video content are increasingly important, and participant expectations for unique experiences and value is shifting.

Some races are embracing these changes and using technology to enhance their marketing efforts, which is what RunSignup is focused on with things like our full featured and free Websites, Email, Referral Rewards program and innovations like Vouchers that go beyond Coupons as new mechanisms to reach target new audiences. We will continue to roll out 2,000 releases a year trying to create technology to help races grow again.