Is Dynamic Race Pricing the New Norm?

What's good, and welcome to a new edition of The Dispatch.

This week, we were very excited to sign up for a registration slot for the new UTMB Chattanooga race in June 2027. A new UTMB event in Tennessee? Run with Friends? We're in. But then we started comparing notes with friends and realized something was a little... weird. Three of us were on the phone together looking at the same race and seeing wildly different prices, with the difference between some registrations reaching hundreds of dollars.

That was a tough pill to swallow, especially for a first experience with UTMB. And now that Ironman owns a minority stake in the World Series, it immediately raises the question of whether this is simply the new reality of entering some of the biggest races in the sport. Dynamic pricing? We really hope not. The growth of trail running is something we love to see, but there's a big difference between a sport becoming more popular and athletes feeling like they're being preyed upon and priced out of it before they even get a taste of the bigger events.

And that's the tricky part about the explosive growth happening across endurance right now. Trail running alone is estimated to have more than 16 million participants in the U.S., and race participation continues to climb across the broader endurance space. There will always be local races, smaller events, and plenty of ways to get out on the trails without spending a fortune. But when you're excited about a major race and finally log on to register, you shouldn't have to start a group chat with your friends to compare prices like you're all trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets.

Because this isn't floor seats versus the nosebleeds. There's no VIP section. Everyone is starting at the same Start Line, running the same course, and trying to get to the same Finish Line. If the sport is going to grow, athletes should feel like they're being welcomed into that growth—not wondering why their friend paid hundreds of dollars less for the exact same experience.

Alright, enough of that. There's plenty more to get into this week.

Stay moving,