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.

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

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.