Judging by the forum posts I'm looking at runners are very serious about this and I don't feel like being subjected to smug ire from classist elitist assholes. The course in question is 95% public sidewalks and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $75 for a t-shirt, a number, and some snacks (in other words I don't intend to partake in any of them) and I don't even care about placing.
Maybe if I email the organizers and beg they'll give me a fake number so I don't get bullied or something I don't know. Has anyone done this before?
Edit: Thanks everyone you've been very helpful <3 I'm going to email the organizers and try to get a deal and if that doesn't work I'm going to just go for it. Maybe throw in $5 if theres a donation.
It's called going bandit. I do this all the time - not only does nobody notice or give a fuck, there's tons of other people who do it, like I got the sense maybe 3% of the people in the last race I did went bandit or just didn't wear the race shirt/bib.
IDK maybe it's different in different areas but 10ks don't really matter anyways like it's just a pedestrian race. Halfs don't matter either. IDK maybe if you're in the New York Marathon people would care or something but a 10k is just a bunch of people having a fun time and the size of the crowd is part of what makes it cool - you're making it cooler.
And honestly fuck it use the facilities. Drink water at the stations and eat a banana when you're done they'll just throw them out anyways.