# Fancy dress charity runners accused of 'choking' running events

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/04/15/fancy-dress-charity-runners-accused-039choking039-running-events/
- Published: 2005-04-15T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Dr Alan Buckingham, a lecturer in sociology at Bath Spa University College, has 
criticised running event organisers for allowing them to be dominated by fancy dress
charity runners at the expense of serious runners.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s the
Today programme yesterday, two days before the London Marathon, Dr Buckingham said:“
the sheer number of people running the London Marathon for charity are really crowding
out the runners who want to run to run.”

Dr Buckingham told The Bath Chronicle: “When I tell people that I’m running a marathon,
they ask which charity I’m running for, as if running and charity are synonymous.”
He compared the influence of charity participants in running to that in football:“
Why don’t we have Michael Owen dressing up as an orange kicking a football around?
You wouldn’t accept that, so why do we have to accept that in running?”

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