2024 Trends Report

Every year we look at thousands of races to see trends and provide insights for our partners. We continue to focus on the areas that are most valuable to our partners; when people book, what kind of races they book and who they are.

This year we have continued to compare the past year with the 2 previous and, also, 2019. The aim is to see if impacts from the pandemic are continuing to influence behaviour.

Interest in racing

The feel in 2024 was that the popularity in racing was on the rise. In great news, the numbers back that up.

We track this by looking at the volume of searches for a wide range of race specific terms through Google such as 'half marathons near me' and '10ks in manchester'. The terms we track remain the same each year to get an accurate picture of trends over time.

The data in this chart is indexed. It shows the change in search volume relative to 2019. We saw a large increase of searches for race related terms, 53% up vs 2023 and for the first time we saw an increase since before the pandemic.

Takeaway - 2024 was the year for racing. Running in particular has seen huge increases in popularity. Below we look deeper into the types of races that are being booked and the people booking them.

Which races are most popular?

Here we look to see if the types of races being booked have changed.

In 2023 the story was that the casual racers had not returned since the pandemic and that longer and tougher challenges were increasingly popular. That has shifted in 2024.

Whilst 10ks and HMs remain the most popular distances we saw a strong increase in the percentage of 5ks being booked - from 5% in 2023 up to 8.4% in 2024.

We'll see below that more women returning to racing and the rise of the more social runner has been the driving force behind this.

In the next section, we look at the demographics of people booking on findarace

Takeaway - We thought last year that the more casual runner was a huge area for growth and this has been borne out by the numbers in 2024. Continuing to promote the accessibility of racing and removing the intimidation as much as possible is key to continued growth of the sport.

When do racers sign up?

Here we look at any changes in booking time frames.

2024

Perhaps the most significant change over the last few years has been in when people book. The percentage of races being booked in the last few weeks before race day remain much higher than in 2019. Many Race Organisers are working hard to get people booking earlier and we have seen the impact of that with small improvements in 2024 vs 2023.

The tables below show the change in booking times for the most popular types of races over the past years.

All running events

10 km

Half Marathon

Marathon

In 2024, as in 2023, the majority of bookings for running events are still made in the 2 months before the race. This has remained consistent since before the pandemic.

In positive news, for all of the most popular types of races we have seen reductions YoY of the number of people booking races in the last 2 weeks.

The work of Race Organisers to incentivise earlier bookings along with the overall popularity of racing means that we expect this trend to continue throughout 2025. As entrants become more aware of the chance of missing out on getting a spot on the start line we should see those booking windows move further back from race day

Takeaway - If early bookings is key to your race then incentivising those with pricing works in shifting booking windows. We hope to see the trend continue throughout the year as more and more races start to sell out.

Entrant demographics

This section looks at the gender and age of entrants.

The chart shows the percentage of bookings from each age range. From 2023 to 2024 we saw minimal changes in the age range of entrants on findarace. Younger people continue to make up a greater percentage of bookings than in 2019.

Takeaway - findarace users remain, on average, younger than the average entrants to races. Using different marketing channels is key when looking to grow your races and attracting a new audience.

Entries by gender

Breakdown of entrant's gender by race type.

2024

2023

2022

2019

There were great signs in 2024 that more women returned to racing. Previous years showed large decreases in the proportion of women taking part in races, especially in shorter events. We saw that trend change in 2024. For the first time since 2019, more women than men booked 5ks and 10ks through findarace.

Takeaway - It's great to see that Race Organisers' focus to remove the barriers women face to racing is paying off. There is still significant room for growth here especially with increasing female participation in longer races where there continues to be a significantly higher proportion of men taking part.

Are prices increasing?

The average entry price of races across a range of event types.

Price increases in 2024 were larger than in previous years. Significantly rising costs in 2022 and 2023 are most likely to be the cause of this along with standard inflationary pressure.

Takeaway - It's important to note that this is the average fee for races booked on findarace. We plan to look deeper in to the affect that pricing has on sign ups when people are deciding between races and will share that later this year.

We'll be sharing more of our insights throughout the year. If there are any areas you would like us to explore in more detail or if you have any questions; get in touch - [email protected]