Houston Marathon: Setting bib prices in the 21st Century

You may have heard that registration for the Houston Marathon is closed. Yep, the darn thing capped out at 17,000, about a month ago…and it’s still 11 weeks away!

Now, don’t get me wrong here. I like the fact that it’s a relatively small marathon. But what’s a runner to do if they missed out on a bib number for Houston? Well, the Houston Marathon Committee has set up a forum on the Houston Marathon web site where folks can go to buy and sell bib numbers. The idea is that some folks may have signed up to run but may not run for various reasons. Typical reasons include injury, family plan changes, and/or training program interruptions.

I applaud the fact that the marathon committee has made an attempt to resolve the bib supply and demand issue. Unfortunately, one of the results of the bib forum is to create yet another reason to sell one’s bib number….profit. Yep, there are folks out there buying and selling bib numbers for *more* than the approximately $100 price paid…a lot more.

Capitalism is alive and well in the running community.

However, the latest news on the Houston Marathon web site is that if you attempt to sell your marathon bib for more that $200 (or half-marathon bib for more than $140), you could risk being banned from the 2009 event.

Evidently, the marathon committee has decided that 100% profit on a marathon bib is okay but any more than that is out of line. So, capitalism may be alive and well…but so is Keynesian economics.

I wonder if this has really been thought through. One can only wonder what will happen if/when someone is “caught” selling a bib number for more than $200. Is the “risk of being banned” an idle threat? If banned, will the banee protest? And then what?

It’s gonna be interesting.

Me. Well, I plan on running the Houston Marathon and I have a bib. No, it’s not for sale at any price. Ah, well, it could be if you can cover my 2009 registration and travel costs to Austin ;)