The State of Master Swimming.

If there is any governing body for distance running, I've never heard of it, nor ever been asked to provide a copy of any registration to race, nor paid a one-day fee. Simply sign up for a race online and you're registered. I think there's some organization that runs track meets for adults, but I'm not interested in short races. An organization sort of like USMS does exist for road running: the Road Runners Club of America. If you were a member of an organized running club with regular coached workouts and insurance your club would probably be an RRCA club. BTW, I ran for years before it dawned on me to join a club. I had a friend who ran with a club and she kept encouraging me to come to a workout with her. But I thought everybody in the running club had to be fast, or had to be an alum from an NCAA D1 track or cross country program like my friend was, and no matter how much she told me otherwise I did not believe her. Sound familiar? And it doesn't even have "Master" in the name. As to organized competitions, I think part of the difference in price structures is how the events procure insurance. When you sign up for a running race that doesn't require you to be a member of any sanctioning organization to participate, you pay your share of the cost of insurance coverage for the race through your entry fee. When you sign up for an event that gets insurance coverage through a sanctioning body like USMS, and for which every participant has to be a member of the sanctioning organization for the insurance to cover the event, you pay at least some of your share of the insurance cost through your membership rather than through your event entry fee. I assume that road running events rely more on event-by-event registrations for insurance because comparatively few road runners belong to running clubs. I bet track meets are different, because for both track meets and swim meets I bet a much higher percentage of people who attend meets are members of clubs.

If there is any governing body for distance running, I've never heard of it, nor ever been asked to provide a copy of any registration to race, nor paid a one-day fee. Simply sign up for a race online and you're registered. I think there's some organization that runs track meets for adults, but I'm not interested in short races. An organization sort of like USMS does exist for road running: the Road Runners Club of America. If you were a member of an organized running club with regular coached workouts and insurance your club would probably be an RRCA club. BTW, I ran for years before it dawned on me to join a club. I had a friend who ran with a club and she kept encouraging me to come to a workout with her. But I thought everybody in the running club had to be fast, or had to be an alum from an NCAA D1 track or cross country program like my friend was, and no matter how much she told me otherwise I did not believe her. Sound familiar? And it doesn't even have "Master" in the name. As to organized competitions, I think part of the difference in price structures is how the events procure insurance. When you sign up for a running race that doesn't require you to be a member of any sanctioning organization to participate, you pay your share of the cost of insurance coverage for the race through your entry fee. When you sign up for an event that gets insurance coverage through a sanctioning body like USMS, and for which every participant has to be a member of the sanctioning organization for the insurance to cover the event, you pay at least some of your share of the insurance cost through your membership rather than through your event entry fee. I assume that road running events rely more on event-by-event registrations for insurance because comparatively few road runners belong to running clubs. I bet track meets are different, because for both track meets and swim meets I bet a much higher percentage of people who attend meets are members of clubs.