Marine Corp Marathon - Registration

Janelle and I are long term planners...thus two weeks after the Chicago Marathon we had already decided we were going to sign up to run the Marine Corp Marathon which was nearly a year later.

We had been counting down for registration day and had recruited quite a few people to join us on this adventure. Last year the race sold out in 2 hours and 45 minutes so we knew it would be quick this year - especially since the mishap with the Chicago Marathon registration and the limited slots in the NY Marathon. This left MCM as the last "major" fall race unaccounted for.

Registration opened up at 12PM EST on March 27th. Normally this would be a great time, but seeing as though we were in Japan this meant that Adam and I would have to log on at 1AM to register for the race. We both had been asleep for maybe an hour before our alarm went off for registration. I prepped my phone and began the countdown...

3 Seconds until Registration Opens!

And within minutes the site crashes.... (I was trying to register the two of us on my iPhone, iPad, and Adam's computer)

We were determined to get in! Some how about 18 minutes in, I finally got all the way through the registration process and I was confirmed. Around the same time Janelle confirmed her registration and we were both in!

Unfortunately Adam was still not making progress from his computer. Janelle was trying for Adam but she had said she got an error stating the race was already on hold - this meant there was a huge chance we weren't going to get him in! At this point, Adam accepted defeat and went back to sleep. To his credit, it had been a fun but exhausting week. He had given up, but I wasn't ready to throw in the towel yet. 

Luckily I also had started another registration immediately on my iPad and some how that made it through. I followed the advise on the MCM website and stalked it religiously to try and figure out if it was completely sold out and/or if others were having this same trouble. 

I kept refreshing and eventually got to the check out page. I thought it would all be done soon. Of course another major glitch! Every time I would input our credit card information, it would clear out and not go through! I probably typed in that number over 25 times and no result. Next thing you know I see this error...

How could they be upgrading the site during a time like this?! Shouldn't that all have been done the day before. Finally around 1:15AM (75 minutes after registration opened) the upgrade worked and I was able to receive the email with Adam's confirmation.

The group that we had convinced into racing MCM with us all got registered as well! Look out DC - we're coming for you in October!

It was great that we all managed to get in but I felt bad for all the other people who were stuck on the site and never got in. While it doesn't make it 100% better, I was happy to receive this email today from Active.com. It describes their intention to distribute its fees received from MCM to two charitable causes. At the people at Active.com are trying to make the situation right!