Has anyone gotten in trouble for running a road race that you weren't registered for?

geek squad wrote:

Everyone here proclaiming all the negativity towards banditting has done it themselves at one point in time or another.

I haven't. Your statement is preposterous.

I have never and would never. None of those reasons are valid, at all.

I have no problem either going into your store and taking whatever I want off the shelves. I also see no problem in having you pave my driveway and then decide not to pay you. Either way I'm going to be arrested for theft and sued.

No difference in you stealing from me by banditting my race. And who cares if it's for charity or for me and my organization making a dollar. We do the work - you have a choice of participating or not.

I have no problem tackling and holding to the ground a bandit in my race and calling the police and having them hauled away for theft. They are putting my ability to get insurance and to have an event by STEALING.

Anybody being a bandit should be treated exactly the same as any punk ass kid swiping a six-pack from 7-11

It just puts up the cost to everyone else that runs.

geek squad wrote:

Everyone here proclaiming all the negativity towards banditting has done it themselves at one point in time or another.

I'll add my voice to the others and say that I have never run in someone else's event without paying and I never will. If I don't have the money or inclination to pay, I don't enter - simple as that. There are plenty of free trails and roads to run on without taking advantage of someone else's hard work without paying. I agree with the others that this is the moral equivalent of stealing. Try this with some other sporting event like a basketball tournament or soccer tournament or rodeo or whatever and see what happens. Maybe you also slink around movie theaters and sneak into movies you haven't paid for?

I'm not a very good runner, one of those dads who actually works that you disparage, and I will occasionally pay to run in a charity run or fund raiser or because I am friends with the race organizers. It's pretty low not to pay - the last run I paid for was to raise money for the local hospice and the meet announcer was pleading with people to not run if they hadn't paid - but I still saw several a**holes out there without bibs. Hopefully no one in their family will ever need hospice care - if they do, I'm guessing these same dirtballs will gladly accept the free care that is offered.

So we are going to make these people criminals? I don't do it, but really, relax. Now that I have read how to do it, I have to get ready. I have already been sneaking in to basketball for years, now I know how to do it at races.

dadcoach wrote:

Now see that was something positive. Ideas to promote running with out spending 65 dollars a week. I spent about four hours this week trying to find any race under 20, couldn't find any. But I still wouldn't have her run bandit. We don't live in Boston. I don't have any problem with adults who make money paying, it is just kids that should have some place to race.

you should have instead worked a job for four hours at $11.25/hour. that yields $45. problem solved.

racedirector wrote:Anybody being a bandit should be treated exactly the same as any punk ass kid swiping a six-pack from 7-11

A six pack of what?

Spank It wrote:

There's nothing better than banditting a 5k, dropping a low 15, and keep running right through the chute for your 10k tempo. It feels good to be a sub 2:18 marathoner because nobody says shit to me when I want to race for free.

Hey, look everyone, it's Allen Wagner! Still a dbag I see.

I would never enter a race w/o paying....period. If I wanted to run for fun or run for free then I do that on my own time, not on the expense of an organized event that requires a entry fee.

i got outkicked in a 5k this morning by some kid who apparently bandited the race and decided to cross the finish line anyway. he got 5th, i finished 6th. the race was chip timed, however, so the race directors didn't really know that he had done it. anyway, there were prizes for top 5(money for top 3, a medal for each of the top 5). anyway, he stuck around for the awards ceremony and ate the free food, then i went up to him and offered him the medal. i told him that he beat me and that he deserved it. he happened to be standing right next to one of the race managers and then they read him the riot act. i honestly didn't want to prize since i didn't win it, but it felt nice to see him get his face chewed off by an angry race organizer. this race wasn't for charity or anything, just a local road race that has been going on for 20 some years to support the community center's activity budget. it's a great race, and the race manager basically told him that if everyone bandited the race, the race wouldn't exist.

on a side note, it would be fun to just start a bandit race series where a bunch of people just show up at a course or a park and race, then disappear on a cool down.

Betelgeuse wrote:

Jdh655 wrote:

If you ever do please don't finish in the chute, it can screw up results a lot of times.

That's what she said.

Well done.

I don't think one single person has answered the OP's question.

Entertainment wrote:

I don't think one single person has answered the OP's question.

No. No one ever has gotten in trouble because no one really cares.

slick rick wrote:

on a side note, it would be fun to just start a bandit race series where a bunch of people just show up at a course or a park and race, then disappear on a cool down.

i like your idea. flash mob races

I have run 175 race events over 29 years of running from 5K to the marathon, including Boston three times. I have only run a race as a bandit one time, about 8 years ago. It was a half-marathon I had enjoyed running for several years where me and my son made it an annual event and weekend get-away. He would go out riding his mountain bike somewhere while I ran the race. One year, not realizing how popular the race was getting, I got my submitted registration returned with a stamp on the envelope stating the race was full. We had plans to go, as well as a non-refundable hotel registration, so we went anyway. I had my son drive me out to the starting line dropping water bottles along the way out. I started at the back of the pack, didn't use their water stations, and finished by running the final stretch one block to the south to my own finish line instead of one block east to the official finish line. We went out later to pick up empty water bottles and discarded clothing. I didn't feel badly about it at all. I tried to legitimately register, I didn't ride their bus out to the start, I didn't use their aid stations or finish line or interfere at the start. They don't own the roads so I figured as long as I didn't interfere with official race elements, I was okay. But with all that said, most bandits are simply free-loaders.

Can we please stop calling them bandits? Makes it seem like runners have some tough characteristic.

Entertainment wrote:

I don't think one single person has answered the OP's question.

Ok. Personally, I don't know of anyone.

Lol how do you get it considered "trespassing" if you use public roads? (assuming you do)