No, I will not donate to your marathon

This morning I was having a lovely gchat with my friend Anny. We were discussing an issue that I'm certain most if not all of you have come across at least once since you graduated college.

That issue, my friends, is being asked to donate to someone's marathon.

While I certainly support charitable giving, and I support my friends in pursuing their interests, there are a few things about being asked to donate to a road race that really annoy me.

1. There is no real relationship between running and charity. People run marathons because they like running and want to set some kind of personal goal for themselves, and to get the bragging rights that come with having completed a marathon. No one goes, "Hey, I want to raise money for charity, what's the most efficient way for me to do that? Oh I know! I'll train for months and months to run a long race and raise a few thousand dollars along the way." If they did think that, they'd be morons because running a race is far from the most efficient way of raising money. I put this reason in bold because this one is always in my head even while considering the other reasons.

1a. I would rather give my money to someone who I know is wholly committed to their cause as opposed to partially committed to their cause and partially committed to running a race. For example, to an awesome friend who puts a ton of time and effort into maintaining the non-profit that she started (though I haven't donated to that charity either recently, sorry P! Ha).

2. Not giving money to a friend or coworker's marathon makes you look like a jerk even if you really don't have the money to donate.

2a. People running marathons will always have a few friends who willingly part with $50. As Anny pointed out, $50 is a lot of money for some people, but sometimes those people would in theory be okay shelling out $1, $5 or $10. However, going to someone's donation page and seeing that everyone else is giving the big bucks might make some people balk at the thought of giving a significantly lower amount because, yet again, they'll seem like a jerk. I know that I'd rather give zero than give $1 for fear of having people see my donation and think, "Why did she even bother?" This is terrible because when charity is concerned, every dollar counts (right?).

3. Personally, I make a point of giving to charitable causes when I'm able to do so and in ways in which I feel comfortable. I gave money to my alma mater this year (undergrad, not grad school - they will never see a dime of mine) even though I'm not exactly financially stable right now; it was something I wanted to do at the time. Just because I sometimes have charitable tendencies does not mean I want to donate to your cause of choice at the moment. If we all gave money every time we were asked to do so, we'd all be broke. You have to pick and choose.

4. Running marathons isn't exactly great for your health. Yes, I know that runners are sort of by definition in shape, but marathoning is really hard on your body in more ways than one (or five). If I emailed my peeps and asked for money because I wanted to undertake an endeavor where I drank a shot for every year old I am (26!), no one would do it. But just as sure as I would end up in the hospital long before I reached my 26 shots, some marathoner running in NYC next month is going to end up there too.

I'm wondering if there are other people out there who secretly (or not so secretly) resent being asked to donate to road races (but, I might add, still sometimes do it anyway).