Perhaps this has never happened to you but over the past few years it has happened to me on several occasions. It can be embarrassing and is totally unavoidable. I call it an accidental race.
An accidental race happens when you wake up early in the morning, lace up your sneakers, and head out for your scheduled training run along your usual path. All of the sudden, out of nowhere, you realize you have unknowingly become part of an actual road race. Everyone around you has a bib number on, but you do not. You have no idea where they came from or what direction their race is heading; you can only hope it is not the direction you were planning.
Today that happened to me...again. I was scheduled to run 5 miles which usually takes me out around Jackson Community College and back home. What I forgot about today was that this is the weekend JCC hosts the Rose Run. The Rose Run is a tradition in Jackson, dating back for as long as I can remember; at the age of 9 it was the fist road race I competed in. Up until about a year ago I was still wearing the commemorative T-shirt I got for completing that race...back in 1990. I have since packed that shirt away for posterity. Well, today was the Rose Run and I forgot. As I approached JCC, it hit me. Signs declaring "Runners on the Road" and police cars blocking traffic. How embarrassing. I fell in line behind two other girls and continued my run. At one point we passed an aid station handing out Gatorade and I was tempted to take some. Finally the runners took a left to finish the race on the campus of JCC and I had to continue on Emmons Road to get home. I got some awkward looks and one race official tried to wave me back. I just smiled and kept running.
If you are familiar with racing and race etiquette then you know it is very bad form to run a race without a bib number. What this implies is that you were too cheap to pay the entry fee, but wanted the race experience. Typically fellow runners will boo you or shake their heads in disgust which is why accidental races are one of my worst running nightmares. Thankfully the roads today were not lined with spectators and the portion of the race I ran was sparse. In future races I will think twice before judging unmarked racers too harshly...perhaps they too have fallen into an accidental race!
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