Running in the Windy City

February 19, 2013

I did it.

I got in.

When I got to the website, the link wasn’t there. It said that registration was supposed to open at 1:00pm Central time, but the link wasn’t there. I had already booked my hotel in anticipation of this race, but that link still wasn’t there. I needed to find that link because today was the day that I was going to register for the Chicago Marathon.

I had been anticipating this day for a while now. In 2011, the race sold out in 31 days. In 2012, it took 6 days. I was expecting it to sell out even faster this year as marathoning interest is definitely at a high.

This race is flat, fast, one of the largest marathons in the world and is a world marathon major. This would be the big leagues and I wanted in. Apparently, many others felt the same which resulted in the registration site at Active.com not being available and temporarily removed from the Chicago Marathon website. I checked for frustrated tweets and Facebook posts which confirmed that many others were not being let in and couldn’t find the registration link.

Registration for the Chicago Marathon has been temporarily suspended — Uh-oh…

Not to be dissuaded, I looked for posts which would provide me with direct access to the registration and was able to dig up a link from a helpful post (thank you social media!). I clicked through to the registration form and got stuck with a “Site not available” message. I had to jump in and out of meetings and try to find slivers of time where I could try again. I would fill out the form, provide my personal information, hit continue, get locked out, and try again.

As one person put it, the “registration feels more difficult than the race,” but after a few tries and some anxious moments of fearing that I’d see a tweet indicating that registration was full, I got in. I was able to submit my payment information (I’ve never been so happy to pay $200 for something which is ridiculous) and I waited for my confirmation email. I searched for my name amongst confirmed registrants and was able to find myself (and yes, I’m that obsessively paranoid).