A total of 186 people took part. I have generated the graph below to show the results....in blue....and I have compared it to a similar survey done in the USA by a popular running magazine....in red.
On that basis, you could probably take a small part of each blue column and add it to the blue column to the right. For example, if someone spent €400 (=$520), then that should really be in the $500-$750 column. On that basis, the bulk of runners in Cork/Ireland are spending approx €250 to €1000 per annum. I would presume those that are spending €1000+ were probably travelling overseas to Marathons and the like.
My own interpretation of the graph is that the average spend here is higher than in the USA. But why? I can think of two conclusions......
1) Retail prices here are higher in comparison? It's very easy to jump to this conclusion but is it true? I have no idea. What's the price of a popular brand in a US high street store compared to here?
2) Or can it be due to the sheer number of races that we have here in comparison? Do all of those entry fee's add up? There was an article on the blog before by Paul Tucker ,who was an Australian living in Cork for a while, and he compared Cork/Ireland to other parts of the world like the US and Australia . He had been to the city of Dayton in Ohio which has a population of 177,000 and yet it had nothing near the volume of races compared to here.
Or are there other reasons? Or do you interpret the figures differently? Click on the comment link below...
I'll give you an example of prices being higher for running gear. I went to a shopping centre in cork where it had two different sports shops...... went into the first one to buy a branded running pants - €40. so i said i would go to the other sports shop and check to see how much they were in there. Price in the other shop - €25.......how can there be such a massive difference???? you wouldnt mind but there is probably a massive mark up on the 25 euro panst let alone the 40euro ones...
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