This is my race and my cheers

     As you cross the finish line in races these days you can pull your phone out and scan a bar code on your bib or you can look up your bib number on the race website to see your official time.  This wasn't the case a few years ago though. You would stand around for an hour or so and wait for whatever timing team kept track of the race to release them.  Every so often you would see TURKEY written in.  A "turkey" was a person that crossed the finish line who wasn't in the race or wasn't wearing the appropriate bib.  Today you don't see this on result sheet because most races are timed by a chip.  But even though you don't see it on the result sheet it still happens.  Runners who are not registered entering the race and crossing the finish line.
    I can't speak for everyone on this subject, but I can tell you my thoughts on it.  I think this is the ultimate thing you should not do.  First off you didn't pay for that race.  Everyone else paid to run in that race and paid to wear that bib and cross the finish line. Most of these races go toward a charity, so it's not only a slap in the face to the runners but its one to the charity as well.  Now I understand times are hard and our economy is for shit these days. If you don't have the money then go watch the race, cheer the other runners on and go run the course on your own time and track your time.  Secondly the crowd on these courses are cheering for people that they assume are in the race.  You are basically stealing our cheers from us.  Imagine two runners neck and neck going all out and the crowd is trying to motivate them to beat each other.  Only problem is one of those runners is just someone who jumped in and ran.  The registered runner just lost some cheers and motivation to someone who didn't deserve them.  And my main reason is for safety reasons.  As someone who has ran and has had his legs taking out from him, I would be livid to find out the person who did this was not registered.  Imagine a person is running their perfect race.  They feel great, their time is way ahead of where it normally is and then all of a sudden they get ran into by someone that isn't registered for the race and they can not finish the race.  It wouldn't be fair to that person.  I know there is mixed reviews on this subject and I am open to hear them all.  So please comment and  maybe you can change my perspective on the issue if you feel different.