No Packet Pick-Up on Race Day?! Good Grief!!

[BEGIN RANT]
I've just about had it with these races that are adamant about "No Race Day Packet Pick-Up"! Races have been doing this for years, and few are relenting on this annoying and wasteful practice.

Take for example, the AT&T Austin Marathon. I understand WHY they do it. They want you to spend a lot more money in their city. They're banking on you spending the night in their hotel and spending lots on food.

But from my perspective, it's terribly wasteful. While living in San Antonio, I'd have to drive up there the day before to pick up my packet. That's 180 miles, round trip. And then do it again the next day for the race. That's a lot of my time and a huge waste of precious petroleum. WASTEFUL!!

Now I was looking at the 'Tejas Triathlon' in a couple of weeks. No race day packet pick-up. I emailed the guy and wrote that I'm not driving over 100 miles to pick up a packet. He didn't even bother to respond to my email.

I signed up for the Y-Tri in Pearland because they offer race day pickup. In the past at various events, I've been told by race directors that, "logistically, it's impossible to have race day pick-up" (or some other equally LAME excuse). YET, these same races require you to pick up your timing chip ON RACE DAY......DUH!! Ummm yeah, "logistically impossible"....Yeah, right. I've helped Roger Soler on many race days with many events over the years. Race day is no big deal, just gotta staff it and organize it well.

I don't wanna make a career over your race. Look, I'm not gonna win it, I promise. But I won't be last, either. I look forward to waking up really early with great anticipation, and excitedly preparing for your race! I'm gonna show up and RUN your race! Oh HECK YEAH!! But I'm not excited that your event occupies 2 days, not just one (as it should). I'll come show up, run your race, drive home; simple. I only wanna spend one day on your race, not two. If I have to drive a long way to reach your running/biking store to pick up my race number and el-cheapo tee shirt and a bunch of wasteful paper garbage that's headed to our landfill on Monday morning, I'm NOT going to buy ANY of your stuff! Not even 1 pack of GU!

I'm ALL FOR supporting our running/cycling stores and not going to cheapy online stuff!! I LOVE local running/cycling/swimming stores and will defend and support them to the end!! But enough with driving over 100 miles to pick up my race number!!

This oil thing is just the tip of the iceberg, just watch! Think how much fuel is consumed by every participant having to drive across town because these folks are too lazy or ain't creative enough to figure out how to pass out tee shirts and race numbers to people who stand in line at a table to pick up their timing chips, ON RACE DAY. Good grief. These promotions are gonna have to shape up if they expect good participant turn-out in the future. [/END RANT]

Ahh, I feel so much better now!...Carry on... :):):)