It's not fair, it's not right, we real runners are being squeezed out. I can't imagine not being able to find some outstanding tourist destination to get to if I really wanted to run 26.2 miles somewhere. Or Crater Lake. Whine, whine, whine. Hey, it's economics, pure and simple.
Races have sponsors.
Sponsors like attention. Race directors, race sponsors and race founders all like the idea that people WANT to come to their race. Doug Kurtis would love it if the MS Society, for example, asked if it could bring 2,000 runners to Detroit. So would the local hotels, airlines and restaurants. My first marathon was in 1981, when to prove I was through with a nasty drug habit and was worth hiring, again, I sold the Free Press sports department on the idea of running a series of stories on a bunch of first time marathoners, me included.