Marathon Maybe

6 years ago I ran my first New York City Marathon. It cost $80 and there were about 30,000 runners in it. 6 years later the cost of this race is over $200 dollars and more than 40,000 runners are projected to be registered in it. This morning the New York Road Runners who are the organization putting on the race, announced that there will be no baggage pick up for runners after the marathon is over. This has always been a standard policy in the past where runners would bring a bag and put things like extra clothing or medical items. NYRR said it had to do with crowded group of runners when they are done racing. There has been quite a backlash from club members and those who are running the NYC Marathon. Things seem to have been building up to this. The rates of entry fees to NYRR races have jumped dramatically this year. At the same time, services provided by the club to the runners appears to decrease. I'm not registered for the NYC Marathon this year but I did qualify for next year. With the way things have been going I'm not sure if I will be running in 2013. I've run 4 NYC Marathons and wanted to complete my 5th next year. But if the quality of the race continues to decrease then I'll go elsewhere. So maybe I will run it or maybe I won't.