Charity Towards ING NYC Marathoners - A Sliding Scale Of Its Own

I went to marathonguide.com on Thursday to see if there might be an event that I could get to on Sunday, November 11 and pick up another state.

The first story on the site's home page was about the Philadelphia Marathon, which I'll run next Sunday, opening up 3,000 additional slots for runners affected by Mayor Bloomberg's decision to shuttle this year's ING New York City Marathon.

Great publicity, of course, at first blush.  Everybody seems to be getting in on the act, including those events that issued a $25 discount within 60 seconds after the announcement.

Philadelphia, after seeing its 350 remaining charity slots gobbled up rather quickly, decided to make a tenfold addition - and oddly enough at the mayor's direction.

The City of Brotherly Love's charity requirement isn't as high as other events, but the $200 entry fee - of which $100 will be donated to New York City and New Jersey-area charities - seemed rather high for individuals who had just spent $250 or more to run New York City.

So I did a quick pass of those events slated for this weekend, Saturday, November 10 and Sunday, November 11 to see how they compared to Philadelphia.

The Soldier Marathon in Columbus/Fort Benning, Georgia (11/10) welcomed New York City Marathoners for free.

Sunday's Marshall University Marathon in Huntington, West Virginia gave runners a $40 online entry fee through Thursday, November 8.

Santa Barbara International Marathon, run on Saturday, offered a $50 registration for the first 300.

Pensacola Marathon's fee was already only at $75, but advised runners that they would mail a different race shirt and their medal to them at a later time.

Similarly, the Anthem Richmond Marathon indicated that they would mail medals for the additional registrations expected to come from New York City runners.

The Fort Worth Marathon on Sunday offered a special discount code for an $80 entry fee.

The Malibu International Marathon were letting runners in at their early bird rate.  $109.  So what's the current rate?  $145, including the $10 tax per runner for the city of Malibu.

And finally, the Competitor Group's Rock 'N' Roll San Antonio Marathon was giving NYC runners a 20 percent discount -- from its current $150 rate, but they were matching the $30 discount with a donation of their own to charity.