Often after a road race, runners will receive an offer to purchase photographs of themselves captured during the event. These photos tend towards the terrible, because running is frequently the opposite of photogenic (but not always). I don’t believe I’ve ever purchased race photos myself, but someone must be doing it, because they keep sending the photographers out there.

Last Thursday, three days before a race, I received an email from MarathonFoto with the subject line “Photo presale is live!”. This was new—they were attempting to sell me photographs that had not even been taken yet.

When I clicked the “View Your Photos” button, I was beyond disappointed that it didn’t show me pictures from the future. In fact, the page showed no photographs at all. It did, however, show me this “best price” offer:

Boy howdy, what a bargain! For the low, low price of $60, I could buy digital copies of any photos of me that might be taken. Thank you, MarathonFoto, but no.

The day after the race, I received a more traditional come-on. Now I was curious what that same package of digital downloads would cost. Would the price actually increase? Just how much more expensive could they make it?

Well, there’s our answer. They took an already egregious price and made it 17% more expensive. You will be unsurprised to know that I once again declined to purchase.

Despite not taking MarathonFoto up on their offer, I can still relive the race just fine. My pal Lisa P. is a photographer extraordinaire, and she occasionally catches me out on the course:

This priceless image was graciously provided entirely free of charge.