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Supply and demand - people have something others will pay for them. While I think that's sort of alright for scalping tickets to the Super Bowl (go Giants!), it just strikes me as wrong in the Marathon. Why? (I'll start with the lesser arguments/thoughts and build up) 1) It's not allowed. Okay, we're runners, we don't follow rules, what's next? 2) For the race directors, I imagine there must be some liability issues. When you sign up for a race, you sign that little waiver. What about the people who haven't signed that waiver, what happens when something goes wrong, is the race protected? Okay, forget the legal arguments.... 3) By running with someone elses number you skew the results. Not convinced that has any effect in a race with 25,000 runners, next... 4) The marathon is an achievement and a journey and it deserves to be treated that way. The journey begins with researching the race or many races (because there are many great ones) - going throught the process (and following the rules) to get into the race - I hate the NYC Marathon lottery, but doesn't it make getting in that much sweeter? The next step in the journey is training and running the race. But, finally, the achievement deserves to be immortalized. We all save those results booklets. We look up our time on the internet and show others. When we run under someone elses name, we belittle the process and the value as our time isn't ours. 5) Running should also be a lifetime journey - if we can't get into a race one year, we can still try the next year (and I don't want to hear anyone say they're not sure that they'll run another marathon - don't worry, you will). And, if we don't get into a specific race one year, then it's fate telling us to try something different - travel abroad, try a different type of marathon (trail/ downhill/ uphill/ big/ small). There are so many great ones.
It's not allowed, but it also might not be the best thing for you...
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