This past weekend, I went out and supported my younger brother in his first ever marathon race, the 2013 Goodlife Fitness Victoria Marathon. That’s him in the picture crossing the finish line. He did awesome! He rocked that run! He’d trained and planned for this run for a long time and it was really great to be able to watch him complete such a milestone. I was proud!
During the race, in addition to my brother and a couple of clients, I saw a friend/neighbour a couple of times and cheered her on too. Later that day, when we were relaxing at home, reading race results and some Facebook chatter, I noticed that she’d posted an update to her status to let her friends know she’d done the half marathon. We’d already been looking at the official results page (checking my brother’s results) and they had times for each runner’s splits (their 10K and finish times). However, when I looked there to check how she’d done in the first half of her race, there was no listing for her. Hmm, that’s odd, I thought.
The next morning, she called to talk about something else and I mentioned that I couldn’t find her in the results listing. She then told me that she’d entered the race without paying the entry fee! Her rationale was that “they” decided “kind of last minute” to run the race and were not going to pay the higher late-entry fee. When I expressed my disapproval, she attempted to rationalize the decision by saying that the “only resources I used was some of their water”. She apparently didn’t feel there was much wrong with what she’d done. To say the least, I was shocked!
People like that, who enter a race without paying the entry fee, are called a “bandit” runner by the race community and they’re definitely not appreciated. In fact, if you get caught running as an unregistered runner, some race organizers may (as they should) ban you from future races. In addition to being extremely bad running etiquette, bandits are essentially thieves. Worse yet, they’re quite often stealing from a charity!
Think about it. If you wouldn’t steal cookies from a Girl Guide, or shoplift at the Salvation Army thrift store, or take money from the charity sponsored donation container on the counter of the coffee shop, why would you even consider running in a charity fundraising race and using resources that you haven’t paid for? Sure, you can try to rationalize your action somewhat, as my neighbour did, but look around you. You’re essentially abusing all the cheering spectators and the volunteers along the way looking after the street corners and water stations, ignoring the charities involved, and overtaxing all the resources that were pulled together to make the race a success. The other racers paid for the privilege, you did not.
Putting together a good event involves a tremendous amount of planning and expense. A lot of folks have volunteered a large part of their time and effort. There’s pre-race planning and preparations; set-up and take down of barriers, water stations and finish line facilities; and, volunteer scheduling and coordination. As well, arrangements must be made for police and emergency personnel, and, meetings must be held with local bureaucrats to gain permission to use, and sometimes close, public streets (usually at a permit cost). The organizing committee spends months in preparation for the event. When it all comes together, it can be a tremendously rewarding experience, but bandits can ruin the race for all of those who worked so hard to prepare for it. First of all, race directors have limits on their races to ensure that participants have a safe and enjoyable experience. They plan their course amenities, such as water and sports drinks, volunteers, medical assistance and post-race recovery goodies (bananas, apples, cookies, etc.) based on the number of people who’ve signed up for the race.
Bandits add to the congestion on the route (perhaps slowing a paid runner hoping for a “personal best” or “Boston qualifier” time) and at busy water stations, they photo bomb official race pictures, and steal the supply of recovery food at the finish line. So, if you jump in without registering, you’re not only making the course more congested than planned for, you’re taking some of those limited race resources away from all the runners who’ve paid for those benefits.
There’s a multitude of ethical issues involved in this debate. But, a primary issue is that if one person thinks it’s okay to bandit a race, then what would happen if a few thousand other runners thought it was also okay to bandit? The bandits aren’t the only losers in this scenario, the charity hoping to benefit from the race loses out significantly.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to become a cheapskate bandit runner. Other people paid for the race and, if you want to participate, you should too. So, do yourself and other runners a favour – be smart, courteous, and safe by only running races that you’ve registered for and paid the entry fee.
I say, get your ass off the course unless you’ve paid to be there and, please, don’t go bragging on Facebook about your accomplishment unless you’re fully prepared to let the world know that you’re a “bandit”! Thoughts?