Should Influencers Get Free Marathon Bibs?

With the World Marathon Majors becoming increasingly harder to get into, the influencer bib debate seems to have escalated. There aren't a ton of controversial topics in the amateur running world, but when they arise, I like to address them.

I'll provide an overview of why this is so controversial and then break down the three different parties responsible for these influencer bibs: the marathon itself, the sponsor, and the influencer.

The Debate
Social media content creators, more commonly called "influencers," are running the World Marathon Majors with bibs obtained from sponsors. Instead of entering these races through the lottery, charity, a tour group, or qualifying times (which is how most people gain entry), some influencers run these marathons

with "gifted" bibs from the race sponsors. I put "gifted" in quotes because even though the influencer doesn't pay money for the bib, he or she is responsible for creating content to promote the race and the sponsor. 

Runners try for years to gain entry into the NYC marathon lottery, which has hundreds of thousands of runners seeking only 50,000 spots. Likewise, many runners try for years and years to qualify for Boston by improving their race times. Others spend large amounts of time and effort raising money for charity. The demand for these marathons is rapidly increasing, but supply is staying about the same. Therefore, when these runners browse social media and see that an influencer got a "free" bib without having to fundraise, qualify, or win a competitive lottery, they get irritated. Or angry. Or jealous. Or a mix of all of these. 

The Marathon
To understand how this works, let's start with the marathon: Boston, New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Berlin. These marathons have two main sources of income: 1) registration fees 2) sponsorships. In order to pay for the extraordinary expenses of hosting these events, the income needs to be significant. A sponsorship package may look something like this: large booth at the race expo, logo on all race materials, advertisements in the race packet/program, and a certain number of race bibs. Do these bibs have to be part of the sponsorship package? Not necessarily. But if you are Bank of America and are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars (more likely millions of dollars) to sponsor the Boston Marathon and you don't even get any race entries? That feels wrong. "Thank you for this enormous amount of money to fund our marathon, but no - we will not be letting you have any bibs."

The reality of the situation is that large marathons need big-ticket sponsors. And when they are taking that kind of money from a sponsor, it seems like they should give the sponsor a few race entries as part of the package.

The Sponsors
Bibs in hand, the sponsors can do whatever they choose with them. They can give them to employees, executives, customers, nonprofits, partners - whatever they want. Do the sponsors have to give the bibs to influencers? No. So maybe you should direct your anger towards them. It's fine to give the bibs to your employees but don't give them to influencers who will shove it into our faces that they got in for free!!! 

That logic falls apart quickly. The sponsors are businesses, too, and they want the most mileage out of their sponsorship (pun intended).

Blame the sponsors all you want, but the reality is that they want maximum exposure, and they should want maximum exposure for the price they pay to sponsor the marathon. That said, another option for the sponsors is to give them to customers through a sweepstakes or contest. "Buy a pair of our shoes in the month of August and you'll be entered to win a free bib to the NYC Marathon". That's probably what many sponsors did before the rise of social media, but I'm guessing they've done the math and found the social media exposure to be more valuable. So can we get mad at the sponsors? Largely no, but maybe a little bit annoyed that they don't go the sweepstakes route.

NYC Marathon 2013

The Influencers
Imagine if you received an email offering you a bib to one of the World Marathon Majors, and all you would have to do in return is what you normally do every day? Would you take it? Yes. Kind of a no-brainer. 

This exact thing happened to me in 2013. I gained entry into the NYC Marathon through a sweepstakes bib from ASICS. I had already run NYC and hadn't planned on doing it again, but I could not turn down a free entry into a race that was so hard to get into, and expensive too!

The reality is that sponsors are going to offer bibs to influencers and of course that's going to be appealing to the influencers! Can you get mad at the influencers for accepting a bib from a sponsor? No! Because if someone offered it to you, you would probably accept it.

It's not unfair. It's not unearned. Sponsored entries are a legitimate way to gain entry into a marathon. The influencer has earned it by building a social media audience and working hard day after day to create content that resonates with the running community. If this bothers you, then you are free to start your own Instagram or TikTok or YouTube, build a following, and then get a sponsored bib. Nobody is stopping you. 

But here's where things get tricky, and here's where I think the heart of the debate really lies. Once the influencer has accepted the sponsor bib, how do they talk about it on social media? What is their message? Is it positive? Entitled? Inspiring? Informative? What does it offer the running community? Are they genuine? Do they acknowledge the fact that hundreds of thousands of runners want their bib, but couldn't get it?

So while you can't really fault the influencer for accepting the bib, you can be annoyed by how they promote it on social media. Be annoyed at their content, yes, but the mere fact that they are part of a marketing opportunity is simply how business works. 

What Would Elizabeth Do?
I have never run a World Marathon Major with a sponsored bib. I've had offers in the past, but turned them down because I didn't want to travel to Berlin and Tokyo at those times. If I had wanted to run those marathons, I would have accepted the sponsor bibs. But as with any brand partnership I take on, I only partner with a brand when I actually WANT their product. I'd love to run Berlin and Tokyo someday, but the timing needs to be right. 

Boston Marathon 2022

In 2022, Amazon sponsored me to run the Boston Marathon, but I did not accept their bib because I already had one that I had gained through qualification. I received some other perks from Amazon, but the bib was not one of them. At the time I asked myself, "If I hadn't qualified yet, would I accept this sponsored bib?" My answer was no. And that's not because I am selfless! It's because qualifying is what makes Boston special to me.

Other people may see Boston as special for other reasons, which are just as valid as mine, but given my 7-year struggle, to me it's all about earning the spot through time qualification. I wouldn't genuinely be excited about Boston if I hadn't qualified, because to me, that's the main reason to run Boston! It's why I have run Boston six times but Chicago only once. London only once. New York twice (but one was the sweepstakes)! 

So yes, I would have earned the sponsor bib because of my social media presence. Yes, it would be a legitimate entry. But it wouldn't be the Boston I know and love. 

As for the other world majors, I would accept a sponsored bib if I was interested in that marathon at that time. I would create content that expressed gratitude for the opportunity, and show the day-to-day of how I was preparing for the event. It wouldn't necessarily have to be my goal race, but I would have goals for it, because that's how I roll!

TLDR
You can't be mad at the marathons for giving bibs to sponsors. You can't really get mad at sponsors for giving the bibs to influencers (though you might be a little annoyed). You can't get mad at the influencer for accepting the bib, and you can't claim that it's not fair. Every step of the process is a business transaction. You CAN be angry, annoyed, jealous, judgmental-- whatever you want-- if the influencer creates content that you think disrespects the opportunity that has become more and more elusive. If the influencer is me, at least you now know my position.