Help !!!!!

turner and hooch

Hi lads,
I'm looking to take photographs at running events, Marathons, Triathlon , ducathlons, Half marathons etc. They would need to have a minimum of 500 athletes in them in order to have any chance of selling enough photos to cover costs.
Is there anywhere that shows the average number of competitors in the various events ? I have tried run ireland, but most places just give me a calendar of events, but I would have no idea how many competitors would normally run in a particular event.
I would prefer not to contact the race organiser without first knowing whether its worth while covering it.
Also, If an event holds a particular prestige, people are more inclined to buy photos from it.
Any assistance or suggestions would be welcome.

RayCun

I don't know of any site that lists events by number of competitors, and bigger races will usually (?) have a partnership with a photography company (eg MarathonPhoto) to take the official photos and sell them to competitors.

Racepix.com host 'unofficial' photos of loads of races, so you can put your photos up there and people can contact you through the site to buy photos. You should take a look at the site. Its a rare event that doesn't already have a bunch of people posting up photos from it.

turner and hooch

I know marathon photo cover Dublin city marathon, dingle marathon, but there must be events that Are too boarderline for them to cover. I have opened an account with Racepix and hope to have photos for sale here.
Maybe if board members could name events they have run in that have had 500+ runners in, that they think were good and popular and that didn't have easy access to. photographs for sale. Racepix like marathon photo allow you to search by race bib number so you can find photos of yourself easily, and that's a must ! Who wants to search 1000's of photos looking for one ( or none ! ) shots of themselves.

thirstywork2

In fairness what would be needed to cover costs?
Very simple to find out amount in each event by just googling the race and year and you will get results.

mcc85

Have you thought about looking at the calendar of events, picking an event on the calendar and looking at the previous years results?

It would give you an indication of how many people participated the previous year and act as an indicator for the current year. Might mean a few extra minutes on the internet but wouldn't be too much hassle