Youth baseball and softball leagues strain to make ends meet. Tennis tournaments struggle to get a fraction of the entries they once attracted. Minor league sports teams have trouble keeping attendance high enough to remain solvent.

But the world of road racing seems to be clicking along just fine in a stressful economy, with many races drawing as many or more entries as in the past.

Not everyone is thriving. The annual Firecracker race in East Moline, which was held Saturday, experienced a drop-off this year.

But the 35th annual Quad-City Times Bix 7, slated for July 25 in Davenport, is collecting entries at a pace slightly ahead of last year.

Race director Ed Froehlich is optimistic that the race might be able to at least get back to its 2007 participation levels.

Each year nearly half the entries in the Bix 7 come from outside the Quad-Cities as fitness fanatics pour into town from Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis and other places. Froehlich said he suspects people in those places might be less inclined to take big, expensive trips now and might be more inclined to hit the Bix.

"I really think that's what is happening this year," Froehlich said. "We're getting people coming in here and staying overnight, and running the race instead of taking big trips."

Nationwide, several races appear to actually be prospering in the current economy.

The Lilac Bloomsday 12K in Spokane, Wash., saw its entries jump from 47,528 in 2008 to 51,258 this year.

The Chicago Marathon upped its maximum number of runners from 40,000 to 45,000 and sold out two weeks earlier than in the past, Froehlich said.

The Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, also held Saturday, maxed out at 55,000 runners.

The Bolder Boulder 10K, held Memorial Day weekend in Colorado, had its second highest number of entries and a record number of finishers.

"In a down economy, we actually get an extra boost because our race falls on a holiday weekend," Bolder Boulder marketing director Matt Jenkins said. "Instead of spending money to fly or drive to another state to enjoy Memorial Day, our event becomes part of a 'staycation' option right in their backyard."

American running legend Bill Rodgers, who will run the Bix 7 for the 30th straight time, has taken note of the trend.

He said he ran in two fairly new races last winter - one in Florida, one in Mississippi -and both drew large fields despite the fact that they're not very established.

He pointed out that the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in Washington, once limited to 4,000 runners because of a congested course, went to a new layout this year and attracted more than 12,000 entries.

Then there's the Pittsburgh Marathon, which Rodgers said had "died."

"It went away for about 20 years," Rodgers said. "But they brought it back this year and got 10,000, 11,000 entries at the snap of a finger.

"Running and walking are still booming, and I don't think that's ever going to go away."

There are some problems. Many races are losing sponsors. That was an issue with Firecracker, which did not have the funds to promote its race as much as in the past.

The Utica (N.Y.) Boilermaker 15K, scheduled for next weekend, once had General Motors as a major backer. Not anymore.

But there doesn't seem to be any shortage of runners.

It would seem to be because running is a relatively inexpensive activity. Unlike many summer-time sports, you don't need a lot of expensive equipment. You don't need to spend money to do it. All you really need are a pair of legs and a stretch of pavement.

The cost of entering most races is lower than the greens fees for a single round of golf.

Rodgers makes one other point: He thinks running and other fitness pursuits can have a cathartic impact on people's lives when things such as a problematic economy are getting them down.

He recalled that he lost his job in the mid 1970s and was unemployed for nearly a year, and that actually kick-started arguably the greatest distance running career in history. Without a job, Rodgers poured his time into training and developed into the top marathoner in the world.

That's not to say that everyone who loses their job can win the Boston Marathon.

But Rodgers said running helped bring him up from his emotional depths.

"I think running, taking action in some way, something like that, is a way to fight the futility of losing your job," he said. "It's a way to take action. For me, it gave me a sense of control over my life."