Marathon Registration...not so easy afterall

October 18, 2010 - I had been waiting for this day since October 2009 when I went to register for the 2010 Boston Marathon and it was FULL. There was no way, after all the dedication I put into qualifying for Boston - that I was going to completely miss out on my chance because I did not register in time.

I woke up Monday morning anxious to get my day going - I'm in "taper" mode for Marine Corps so a 3 mile jaunt was all I needed. I was dressed, showered and out the door for work by 8:10am (lately, I haven't been leaving work until 8:40...so this was a pretty big deal). I grabbed a coffee...arrived at my office set up my computer awaiting for registration to open.

The excitement that I had built up reminded me a lot of the days I would sit at a computer waiting for N Sync tickets to go on sale (lame but true). On the phone...on ticketmaster.com... determined to get the best seats available. 9 am finally arrived - I logged onto baa.org - filled out all my information, I was so excited that I even filled out the "un required" fields like - what place I came in at my qualifying race (1165) and how many Bostons I have run (2 but only 1 with a number). I hit submit...and the screen cleared, telling me to re-enter.

Not a good sign - I immediately got nervous, figured I did something wrong and tried again. After 5 attempts I logged onto the Facebook page (thank God for social media) and found out that I'm wasn't the only one having these issues...I believe all 26,000 who were able to register eventually - hit this same roadblock. Instead of working, like I should have been doing, I spent the next 2 hours trying to register for this race. I began thinking that this just wasn't going to happen...Then FINALLY I took someones advice on Facebook, followed the link they provided and got through.

PHEW...

When I got home from work I decided to take some time to read what people were saying about the process - clearly people were upset throughout - and when it was announced that the entire field was full by 5pm...there was outrage. The number one complaint was that charity runners are taking all the numbers. These are people raising money for some incredible causes, and as a charity runner myself, running a marathon for a charity is probably one of the best experiences I have ever had. To all those people who did not get a number and still want to run - they should consider running for a charity.

Second complaint was that the qualifying times are way too easy (specifically for woman) - they are allowing "every day" runners to be accepted to the race because "anyone can run a 3:40 marathon." - Yes, I must admit, now that I've run a 3:40 I can say that it wasn't has hard as I had once thought...However, it took me 5 years to figure out that I could push myself to that point. I'm sure that the BAA will eventually changed the qualifying time but honestly - I think anyone who thinks that should just get over themselves.

All these people who are upset because they didn't get to register and are completely ripping apart the Boston Marathon need to realize that 1. You aren't going to win Boston...and if you were, you would have a number - so clearly you don't "deserve" it as much as you think you do 2. I read over and over again that Boston has lost it's "prestige" - if you really didn't care then you should go run a spring marathon somewhere else.

Some of the other complaints included that the BAA wasn't prepped for this kind of response, they should open the field limit to over 30,000 and so on.

Whatever people are saying...doesn't really matter to me. I'm beyond excited that I will be running the Boston Marathon because I earned my spot. I busted my ass and I qualified. I can not wait to get to Hopkinton and just run.

Before that...gotta get through Marine Corps 8 DAYS!!!!