In the Sahara Desert, the solar beats down on a solitary determine dragging his ft by means of the sand. Carrying as much as 15 kilograms (33 kilos) of provides on his again, he has been on the transfer for the previous seven days. But this isn’t a survival mission.
This is the Marathon Des Sables Legendary (MDS Legendary) — a 250-kilometer (155-mile), self-supported ultramarathon by means of the Moroccan Sahara — and folks pay thousands of {dollars} to participate.
“I just signed up on a whim. I’d never done a marathon before,” says amateur endurance athlete and aviation operations mission supervisor Tommy Farrell, from Mullingar, Ireland, who ran the MDS Legendary in 2024. “That’s the type of person I am, I suppose.”
He’s certainly one of a neighborhood of amateur athletes who’re prepared to spend eye-watering quantities of cash on competing in endurance races all world wide.
Entry to the 2026 MDS Legendary prices between €3,950 ($4,580) and €4,350 ($5,045). That doesn’t embrace the value of a return flight to Morocco, or transfers to and from the race-basecamp, Ouarzazate. It does embrace a medal — if you happen to make it to the top.
Farrell has since accomplished two full-distance Ironman triathlons — consisting of a 2.4-mile open-water swim, 112-mile bike journey, and a marathon distance run — and one Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) World Series operating ultramarathon.
But these aren’t low-cost pursuits. Some of the ultramarathons by the UTMB World Series price near $700 to enter. And entry to the costliest Ironman triathlon, at Lake Placid in New York State, prices as much as $1,000.
The entry charges are “only the start,” Farrell cautions.
He estimates that final yr he spent roughly €2,000 ($2,320) on coaching and gear for swimming and operating: carbon-plated trainers, a GPS watch, a wetsuit, swimming wear, and a month-to-month swimming pool subscription.
But he says the bike is by far the costliest aspect. “Mine was about four and a half (thousand euros, $5,240), and then I added some upgrades as well. I have friends who have spent €12,000 ($13,900) on bikes,” he says.
With the extra bills of some additional gear and clothes, his lodging, journey and bike transportation to and from the race begin, Farrell estimates he spent a mean of €10,000 ($11,610) on every of his Ironman races final yr.
It’s maybe unsurprising, then, that amateur triathlon attracts a rich demographic. A 2015 survey performed for the World Triathlon Corporation discovered that the common family earnings for Ironman individuals is $247,000; an Ironman consultant instructed NCS it doesn’t have more moderen figures.
Natasha Van Der Merwe, former skilled triathlete and head coach at NVDM Coaching, costs $1,500 per 30 days for her one-to-one teaching and describes lots of her purchasers — all of whom she is getting ready for a particular occasion, like an Ironman, or has finished so up to now — as “very successful” businessmen.
“They feel very comfortable paying it, in knowing that they have access to me and my specific input,” she says. Van Der Merwe says her excessive net-worth purchasers worth her potential to arrange their coaching for them, given their hectic work schedules.
“They might be traveling, there might be certain days of stress, of meetings. And I basically have to look at every week and… plan out what (time) they have access to and then schedule their workouts,” she says.
Van Der Merwe says she is all the time on name to advise on coaching and vitamin and can even journey the world over to her purchasers’ races “to support them all the way to that finish line.”
For amateur athletes prepared to pay for in-depth insights, for an extra price Van Der Merwe can present an evaluation of what number of energy they’re expending per day and what they should eat to gasoline their exercises, in addition to VO2 max testing to measure their most oxygen consumption throughout train — a exact indicator of cardiovascular health.
Money isn’t the one factor that endurance sport fanatics are investing. Ironman says that the common participant spends seven months and 18 to 30-plus hours every week coaching for a full-distance triathlon.
Such a rigorous routine is perhaps the norm for skilled athletes, however why do a few of these rich amateurs take all of it so significantly?
“For a lot of them, it’s a passion,” says Van Der Merwe. “They really love the sport (and) they consider that passion to be healthier than, maybe, putting their money into fancy dinners and concerts and alcohol.”
“A lot of our athletes talk about this ‘growth’ mindset, where they’re continually trying to better themselves,” she provides. “It betters them as business leaders, it betters them as parents, through the process of training for something.”
Van Der Merwe will not be alone in offering free-spending amateur athletes with elite stage providers. For simply in need of $9,000, Team EF Coaching — the amateur teaching department {of professional} UCI WorldTour biking staff EF Education-EasyPost — provides a week-long autumn coaching camp in Girona, Spain, alongside its skilled riders.
Those on the camp can go on day by day coaching rides with automobile help from the Team EF coaches and get skilled bike becoming, lab-grade health testing, and private vitamin consultations — all whereas staying in a five-star luxurious lodge.
“It’s also a unique opportunity for a rider to see what it’s like to live as a WorldTour pro,” says Team EF Coaching director Colby Pearce. “Their bikes are washed by the WorldTour team staff… they get massaged by the same soigneurs [cycling team support staff] who work with the riders throughout the entire year. We do their laundry every day. And then we eat with the [pro] team,” he provides.
Team EF additionally provides teaching, with packages costing as much as $1,000 a month, and for an extra $1,000 a day purchasers can rent their coach to return to the camp and work with them on a person foundation. Pearce says that round 85% of their teaching clientele is concentrating on a particular occasion.
“At Team EF Coaching… we are delivering the expertise of professional cycling to athletes of all levels,” says Pearce. “When you break it down in terms of dollars per minute of knowledge distributed… it can make a lot of sense,” he provides.
Nevertheless, he acknowledges that some amateur athletes are being priced out, citing excessive registration charges for standard biking occasions just like the Unbound Gravel – as much as $345, relying on distance – and the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race, which prices $627 to enter.
“There’s no question it becomes a certain economic level or strata that can afford to pay for sports like these,” he says.
It’s additionally predominantly male and center aged. Pearce says that the majority of Team EF Coaching’s purchasers are males, and within the 45-to-55-years age bracket; Van Der Merwe says that her demographic is 80-85% male and aged 40 to 50.
Men outnumber ladies in endurance sport participation extra usually, however significantly in triathlon, in accordance with analysis. Ironman information exhibits that feminine participation in its long-distance occasions has elevated by 10% within the US and Canada from 2024 to 2025 however globally, males outnumber ladies by greater than 4 to 1 in full-distance Ironman triathlons.
The race organizer says it’s working on new initiatives to develop feminine participation, together with elevated visibility of ladies in Ironman media, and knowledge periods to “help educate and inform how to overcome the real and perceived barriers into the sport.”
A 2022 report from UK-based SheRACES, a gaggle that goals to attain extra equal illustration of ladies in races, cites the excessive prices concerned within the sport as partly liable for the distinction in participation charges. With decrease earnings on common, monetary limitations pose a larger barrier to ladies — basically — than to males.
Two thirds of the ladies surveyed mentioned they’ve been postpone getting into triathlon occasions as a result of price — not simply of entry charges, but additionally the extra bills of journey, lodging and kit.
Van Der Merwe says there are methods to do a triathlon extra cheaply, explaining that, by shopping for second-hand, an gear funds of “only” $2,000 is possible.
But Farrell, who accomplished his first Ironman on an ordinary street bike — a less expensive various to the sooner time trial (TT) bikes usually utilized by triathletes — says it’s exhausting to be aggressive when others are racing with top-of-the-range gear.
“You had people going past on ten grand (€10,000, $11,600) … bikes,” he says. “They were putting in half the [effort] you were putting in, and they were just flying down the road.”
Despite the prices concerned, Farrell gained’t be giving up endurance racing any time quickly — though he’s “sticking to ultra[marathons] next year, just because they’re a lot cheaper to do”.
“The buzz you feel during an Ironman especially, it’s second to none,” he says.
But Farrell thinks the 12 months of coaching and making progress within the lead-up to the race is extra necessary than the consequence itself.
“It gives you a reason to get up in the morning… [it] adds so much discipline to your life,” he says. “It’s lifestyle and identity, really. It’s where all of my friends are. It’s a community.”