And I mean a regular running/jogging race. I'm about to run in my first race in, oh, 10 years or so. What I'm concerned about is, because the parking for the race will be far away (people will be shuttled to the staging area from the parking lots), I won't have easy access to most of what I carry in my purse, so I'm going to need to carry only the essentials on me -- I don't think I'll even be able to bring a towel, although I'm sure by the time the race is over, my shirt can be used for that purpose. Thing is, how exactly do I carry things like my driver's license and stuff? Running wear doesn't exactly have a lot of pockets to shove things in. Anyone have any advice?

For carrying stuff, it helps to have a friend or family there with you.

My brother and sister have both run in races before, and typically a few other family members are there to watch, and take care of the stuff such as wallet, keys, water bottles, energy bars, etc...

If nobody else is available to go with you, I suppose if you trust the race coordinators enough, you could leave the stuff all together in a bag, and leave it with one of the officials if there's no other options.