At 5-foot-5 and 155 pounds, Ruth Duncan didn’t exactly consider herself an athlete. Her gym membership had long since lapsed, her hiking days were for the most part over, and the only exercise she had had in years was chasing her young son around the house.
But at age 49, the Fremont, Calif., homemaker found herself committing to running a marathon for one primary reason: charity.
To get specialized coaching while training for her 26-mile trek, Duncan would have to raise thousands of dollars for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Each step, each mile, might be painful, she knew, but it could bring researchers a step closer to a cure for the blood-related cancers.
“It’s just a good feeling that you get from knowing that you’ve helped, that you’ve done something and not just sat back on the sidelines,” says Duncan, whose 4-year-old son suffers from leukemia.
It’s a sentiment shared by many as a record number of Americans have been drawn to walkathons, marathons, cycling events and triathlons to raise money for non-profit groups.
The events have been credited with getting people off the couch and into fitness gear. They have been lauded for raising awareness about diseases and causes while also raising billions of dollars. And they have given many people hope that cures and treatments will be found to make their efforts all the more worthwhile.
“They’re a very nicely packaged outlet to enable people to become activists,” said Michael Seltzer, who in the 1960s was a director of the American Freedom from Hunger Foundation, thought to be the first group to hold large walkathons. “It provides an opportunity for people to directly focus their energies to make a difference.”
But some event organizers have been criticized for failing to donate a large percentage of the proceeds to charity.
The for-profit organizer of the national AIDS Rides–Pallotta Teamworks–has generated controversy because, after several of its cycling events, it turned over to charities only 15 percent of the money raised–far below projections and industry standards. The group blamed the problem on expenses, from office space to advertising.
Although such events tend to raise millions of dollars, and many charities enjoy the lion’s share of the proceeds, marathons and cross-country cycling events can be costly to organize.
Charities are aware that more funds would wind up in their coffers if people sent them donation checks directly and skipped fitness events altogether. But such fundraisers remain crucial to their mission because they do more than just raise money. They raise public awareness of causes better than any advertising campaign could.
“It’s our bread and butter,” said Kimberly Brooks, director of the South Bay division of the March of Dimes. For the past 30 years, the group has held nationwide walkathons, raising more than $1 billion–and drawing more than 600,000 participants this year alone.
Organizers of the Joints in Motion marathon training program also provide participants with information on their primary focus: arthritis.
And the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has members of its Team in Training program wear hospital bands honoring leukemia patients all the months they’re in training to raise awareness of the cause.
Cathy Peters, special events director of the Northern California chapter of the Arthritis Foundation’s Joints in Motion program says, “People benefit from the program in various ways, and we’re also able to raise a great deal of money and awareness.”
With more charities holding fitness events as fundraisers, it would stand to reason that participation and donations might get spread too thin. But many events end up selling out, and non-profit groups report that their annual profits from marathons and other events keep growing.
Chalk part of that up to the fact that the diseases many of these events aim at eradicating have touched countless lives. People are highly motivated to fight breast cancer and multiple sclerosis, birth defects and AIDS.
“You don’t get as much satisfaction from responding to a direct mail solicitation [for donations] as you do participating in a walk,” Seltzer said.
Often, participants get more than satisfaction. They get professional coaching, recommended workout plans, tips on preventing injuries and clinics on everything from nutrition to podiatry. Programs such as the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training and the Arthritis Foundation’s Joints in Motion are intensive conditioning programs geared to teaching even novice runners or walkers how to finish marathons.
The programs have succeeded in showing non-athletes that they can realize even the loftiest of fitness dreams. And the promise of training has helped sell out events.
“Charities have had an impact on the state of running in America,” said Ryan Lamppa, researcher for the USA Track & Field Road Running Information Center in Santa Barbara.
“There’s no doubt that the charity or cause component of the sport has increased the numbers” of participants, he said.
More than 7 million Americans now finish road races each year, compared with 4 million 15 years ago. Many of the new runners are women, older adults and slower adults, competing not because they want to win but because they want to make a difference, Lamppa said.
