When is too much to ask, too much too ask when fundraising for the Boston Marathon?

I ran the Boston Marathon for the first time in 2016. It was one of the best times of my life. I wrote my first children's book, “Big Dan Runs the Marathon” about the experience. The experience gave me the courage to try. 10 years later and my book is being made into an animated short. I ran as a charity runner and raised a little over $7,000 for The Perkins School for the Blind. It was not easy. I don’t work for a job who can match my donations. I also lost 63 pounds training in 4 months leading up to the race. It was difficult but it wasn’t a daunting task. It was fun. My other marathon experiences were also fun and I cherish those memories.

In the last few years John Hancock stepped away from sponsoring and Bank of America stepped in. It seems like more charities are involved and charities who traditionally got many entrees aren’t getting as many and to maximize the fewer bibs they get they pass a more difficult fundraising path onto the runners. I’m seeing charities who just a few years ago who had minimums of $6500 to $7500 now starting at $10,000 and asking runners to pledge above that number which could be anywhere between $12,000 and $15,000 to run Boston. One of my former teams is asking $13,500 this year which is nearly double what it was 9 years ago.

This begs the question when does this become too much to ask? Well for me the number is above $10,000. To be honest I am not comfortable even trying to raise that much. Two teams turned me down already because I won’t go above their minimum. I’ve raised over $35,000 running Boston. I have 3 medals, all of which are very precious to me not just for finishing but for what I was able to do for the charities. So to those charities that passed on me it’s their loss not mine. Being able to wake up every morning and live life is just more important to me then a charity not choosing me. I’d like to have celebrated my 10th anniversary in Hopkinton at the starting line, but that is not looking likely.

To me it looks like the day of giving the little guy, the average guy, the person who wants to do a little good just to run the race might be over. It makes me sad because it is a great race, a great experience and now many of us are getting priced out. I don’t know if calling it corporate greed is the correct term, but it’s definitely shutting people out that would like to run. Many of us do feel like we are getting squeezed out because we feel the goal in addition to training and living our everyday lives is too daunting of a task.