are all marathons and races fundraising events?

[juicychops]

or are there any around that are purely for the fun of running without the charity aspect?

i want to do some races but without the collecting money part. i know that sounds bad, and i intend on doing the marathon one day which im fully prepared for the fund raising part but i dont know that many people so if every race i apply for in the future is a fund raiser im going to be asking the same people every time for money which i will feel a bit uncomfortable doing.

i want to do a few 5k & 10k races that are just a group of people wanting to run together for the fun of it with a bit of friendly competition. does such thing exist?

Have a look for park run, they run a regular timed 5 k run all over the country.

Not tried one yet, but hopefully soon.

Parkruns are a brilliant idea and I'm gutted that there isn't one near me. They're low key, timed 5k runs that happen regularly so you can see how you're improving each time.

If you want to find some other races have a look in the events section of the Runner's World website. You'll find that most races aren't charity or fundraising events and there's nothing to say that you have to raise money even if you're running one of the big races.

Yes.

I ran the Great North Run on Sunday and this year decided not to raise any money for charity. Its not compulsory !

thanks everyone. i just assumed you HAD to raise money for charity for the majority of races!

im still waiting to find out if ive got my marathon place this year and if i do il try and raise some money, but if i dont i think il have a look at that park run and do a few of them.

It's strange that people have this idea that we only race for charity when the same assumption is not made about other sports. You wouldn't ask a friend who is playing in a football match "which charity are you playing for?" so why do it for runners?