The 2011 Boston Marathon sold out in around 9 hours yesterday.
While it’s great that the sport is going so strongly, races selling out 6 months before they are even run leads to a really poor customer experience for the runners.
It’s stressful and seems odd that the people with the best chance of getting into a race are those with the best internet connections or who happen to live somewhere where the time differential is convenient to when the race opens.
In Boston’s case, they could always tighten up the qualifying standards so that fewer people can get in, but the B.A.A. has previously said that they didn’t want to do that and it will lead to a lot of upset runners that are near the bubble who could then not be allowed to run.
I discount my own approval of tightening the qualifying standards as it is unlikely that they would make them more difficult than I could run to get in.
There is at least one other option that I can think of, however, that wouldn’t solve the mad rush to register problem but would still significantly improve the end user experience:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1Fly0vdMv8
Download This Video: MP4 – MP3 – Watch on YouTube
I’m just glad I decided ahead of time not to register, so that I didn’t take somebody’s spot in the race when I’m not sure that I’d actually want to run the race in 2011. My theory is that if I feel recovered enough to run a marathon that weekend, I can register for the Gansett Marathon instead which I thought was more fun anyway.
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The 2011 Boston Marathon has now closed out in record time!
It’s gone from being able to register almost up until race day to registration closing out a couple of months ahead of time. Last year the registration closed in November, just a few months after the registration opened in the first place.
And now this year, registration has closed in a matter of hours. It has taken less than a day for all 25,000 spots, not counting however many are reserved for the charity runners, to be filled.
Now, this is a problem that Boston isn’t alone in facing and they do have one unique solution that they could use which is to tighten up the qualifying standards in order to prevent people from registering so fast and for so many people getting into it all at once. Then, that would give a wider window for people to be able to get into the race.
But that’s not really a viable option, especially because the Boston Athletic Association already came out and said they don’t have any interest in changing the qualifying standards in the near future. So, I don’t think that’s going to happen.
There’s one thing that they could do, and this is something that is available to any race that has this crazy “everybody-comes-on-registers-at-the-same-time-and-causes-the-site-to-go-down” and not so much “who can get into the race” but who’s quickest at typing in their information and hoping that they can get their credit card charged.
And that solution is: Don’t open up registration almost a year in advance or half-a-year in advance of when the race is actually happening.
Wait until a month or two beforehand so that the people who are registering are the people who are definitely going to run. If you have somebody registering today that wants to run the race next April, that’s a fair amount of time for them to get injured or to decide that that’s not going to fit into their schedule or for them to decide “Oh, this really isn’t in my finances.”
Just wait until a lot closer to when the race is going to happen, then open the registration. Even if you still have this mad scramble of people trying to get into the race, at least it’s people that can actually run the race and that they’re not going to just hope they’re still going to be able to make it come race day.
And then for those people who did get injured and know that it’s just not going to fit into their family schedule or whatever the case might be, at least they won’t have wasted the $150 or whatever it is that they’re charging this year for entering into the race.
Now I recognized getting in the cash flow earlier is a lot better for the race directors and knowing how many people are going to be in the race is a lot better and it just makes it easier to say, “Oh okay. Well, we’ve always opened on this day so we’re just going to continue doing it.”
But realistically, they know the race is going to sell out, especially for races like Beach to Beacon or the Boston Marathon which sell out every single year.
Why not just open up registration a little later? It will be more convenient for everybody involved and it’s not really that much extra work for the race directors. I understand that your going to have to print up bibs and things like that so, maybe, it’s only 3 months in advance instead of 6 months.
Still, it would make it a lot easier on the target market for who’s going to be coming to the race.
What was your registration experience like? Was it a good experience? Or as a user, were you frustrated by the site being down or by having to enter your information multiple times?
Or were you blocked out and even being able to get into the race?
What suggestions would you give to them that we haven’t covered here? Can you think of anything that they could do to make it a better user experience for the runners? Or is the system okay the way it is?
Let me know what you think in the comments below!
I thought the process of registering for the Boston Marathon could definitely be improved. But I don’t have any suggestions. I ran into trouble when they said my credit card could not be verified? So I had to re-enter a different card number…but when it was all said and done, they actually did charge the first credit card. So now I have to inform them of this and hope when I actually get the charge “officially” run threw the system that I only got charged once instead of twice. What a pain! Because of this it took me longer to fill out the registration.
I did register but because of the site congestion/errors my Debit Card has 3 holds of 130 dollars on it. These “Phantom Holds” won’t actually be charged to my account according to the registration page, but its still real money that is being withheld from me. If they want to keep the standards the same in the future, then they should probably have a lottery drawing for everyone. This way its at least fair for everyone trying to register.
Interesting idea, Blaine. My registration experience yesterday was high stress. I knew it would fill up in one day so I was on the computer at 9am. I got almost all the way through the registration process and the site stopped working. It took about 1hr 15min to finally get my confirmation # and that was only with the help of information provided by others on the BAA FB page. I was lucky that I was home yesterday morning and able to be on the computer for that long. What a disappointment for those who were qualified and weren’t able to spend a couple hours on their computer. The first time I ran Boston in 2009 I sent in a paper application after Thanksgiving and never thought about it selling out – what a difference a couple of years makes. I’m disappointed that this happened and I’m very curious to see what the BAA does about this in the future.
Since Ironmans sell out in hours, I have no sympathy 🙂 but I get it!
Wes, I’ve heard that from quite a few tri-guys, but you know what? It would annoy me if I wanted to do an ironman. It annoys me for Beach to Beacon. It annoys me for any race that isn’t happening for 6 or 8 months and you only have a single day to register and have to deal with technical problems from so many people hammering the site at once.
So, if you aren’t going to fix the race selling out so fast, you can at least hold off from opening registration until closer to the event itself.
This sucks!!! This is my hubby second attempt to register for the marathon. We were not able to get in!! Living on the West Coast and the time difference we had no chance, my husband was going to get on after work. 🙁 It was too late!!! I never thought it would sell out in 8 hours!!!!!! This is his second year he has qualified for the Marathon. He has put years training for this marathon. His lifetime goal will now have to wait another year!!!! Hopefully third time will be the charm!
The NYRR uses a lottery system for the NYC marathon and half-marathon, two races that sell out every year. They give everyone a chance to register during a pretty wide open window before holding a lottery a week or so later. If you get rejected two years in a row, you have a guaranteed spot in year 3. I think something like that could work. You could weight the lottery to favor local or faster runners, too.
I think that pushing back the registration doesn’t necessarily solve the huge number of people trying to get in. I would think that verifying times would be more difficult.
It could also create a financial stress on the BAA. At $110 for U.S. residents and $150 for everyone else, entry fees provide the organizers with around $3 million. Combine that with credit card issuers that are slow to pay and the BAA might not have that cash on hand until after the race if registration were a month before. That would mean that the BAA would have to borrow (more?) money to do organize and hold the event. That would lead to higher registration fees. That sum might be small compared to what sponsors provide, I’ve never organized an event of this magnitude, but I’d guess that it’s probably needed 3-4 months in advance of the race. Opening the race 6 months in advance allows them to have it on hand.
Why not stagger the registration?
If you qualified between 9/09 and 12/09 then you register b/w Oct 18 – 19…..qualify between 1/10 and 3/10 the register b/w Oct 20-21.. and so forth
It can only get more chaotic next year. I guess I’d prefer that they expand the field and add a third wave, but that likely would just buy a little time before chaos ensued again. Other ideas: Tightening qualifying standards would probably be the fairest. They could also limit non-qualifiers to no more than 5% of the field. Give preference to those who qualify on difficult courses, such as Boston. Set participation limits per state and country. (I think Massachusetts runners claim about 20% of the spots each year.)
Get rid of the charity runners — if you don’t qualify, you don’t run.
I agree no charity runners!! Make a seprate marathon for the charity runners who dont qualify!!
I am very disappointed. It has taken me 6 years to finally qualify (I’m 51 and barely qualified with a 3:34:53). I live in California and didn’t get in last year because of the closing within weeks. This year I attempted twice at work around 8am Pacific time on Monday. Each time the website didn’t respond when I supplied my info + credit card. I thought I’d wait until after work and try again from home. That’s when I discovered the race reg had closed.
How about runnning the race twice? Once on Sunday and again on Monday? This doubles the field….
Next year BAA should just reduce 10 minutes from the qualifying times. This seems like an easy fix to me. –And if they deducted 15 minutes from the women’s qualifying times, that would probably be fair.
Since the BAA is so arrogant and refuses to listen and adapt, we should encourage both left-out runners AND sympathizers to crash the marathon.
I ran Exeter (Gansett) and Boston earlier this year. It’s clear which one was a giant commercial, and which one was simply focused on running.
If I would’ve known Boston would sell out this fast then I wouldn’t have bothered signing up. I probably won’t run Boston again. Registration was a mess.
Boston is supposed to be the best of the best so how about this deal. Leave registration open for 2 months. Anyone that meets those times can register, but priority on getting accepted is based on qualifying time. Thus someone with a 2:40 is a sure thing, and someone with a 3:08 probably won’t make the cut. Seems like the most fair way to me.
The good thing about it filling up so fast is that maybe they’ll change the date of the ‘Last Chance for Boston’ Marathon. Brrrr, Ohio in mid February, just sayin’.
I myself am new to marathon running and have not qualified for Boston, but it’s certainly a goal of mine, so I would hate to see the qualifying times changed. People have invested years training towards a 3:10 time and I think it would be devastating and defeating to suddenly find out that it’s no longer good enough. Personaly, I’m wondering if it wouldn’t help to limit or better monitor Boston qualifying races. I recently ran a Marathon that was a Boston qualifier. It had turn-around points at mile 8.5 and mile 21. However there were no D-tag check points at either of them. My husband who was spectating watched two different people cut the turn-arounds by 3/4 of a mile. I was surprised that as a Boston qualifying race, official times were not more appropriately enforced. Perhaps monitoring the qualifying races to ensure Boston type quality would limit the field.
Charity runners should be allowed…but, they should also meet the BQ times. If it is so necessary for charity runners to run in the world’s most pretigious race they should make the standards. I am sure some of them do, but not all. Another way to cut back the number of entrants is to only allow the BQ to be used for one year instead of two years. The BQ could be used for this year or for next year, but not for two years in a row.
Open reg from oct to dec. Charge a $10 processing fee and let in the best 26,385 runners weighed by sex and age as seen in the big races of that year. So if 40% of the people that finish marathons in a year are women, then 40% of boston should be women. If 10% of the people that finish marathons are age 40 to 44, then 10% of boston should be 40 to 44. Note: I think finishing a Marathon means running it so all times greater than 5 hours should not be considered in the weighting. This means each year the qualifying time will be different but then the boston would represent the best. Oh and charity should be allowed in but those runners should have the class to say if they did or did not qualify when they tell people that they run boston.
And yes, if you aren�t going to fix the race selling out so fast, you can at least hold off from opening registration until closer to the event itself.
Last year I was prevented from registering for the Boston Marathon because my fiancee experienced a house gutting fire in September and a perforated colon in October resulting in three operations. I contacted the BAA to make sure my qualifying time at the Twin Cities Marathon was good for 2011 also. I was assured it was. Looking at last year’s registration I felt certain I would get my registration in if I did it on the first day. That did not happen. I am 56 years old and through determination and perseverance I qualified on my twentieth try. I am dismayed and shocked that I will not be able to participate because there was no warning it would close so unbelievably fast. To work this hard for something and have it taken away because I did the right thing for my fiancee and a registration that closed so quickly without warning. The BAA runs a very shoddy operation.
I can understand that the organizers would like all this lead time to prepare but I totally agree that come race day there are going to be hundreds of runners who don’t show up for whatever reason. What I would like to see is maybe a day in January where runners are able to withdraw their registration and have half their fees returned. It’s not that big a deal to refund these people and it would open up a few hundred more spots. They could hold a second mini-registration. It would give people a little more hope.
I also agree with the thought that charity runners should also have BQ times.
Has anyone heard of a relationship between the race selling out so fast and the volcanic ash from Iceland that closed flights last year preventing a lot of racers from travelling to the race??
Maureen, I believe that there were only 500 people that got bibs for having gotten stuck in Europe last year, which (had they been available) would have only meant that registration stayed open an addition 15 or 20 minutes, probably.
perhaps a system could be implemented that would prevent people from participating more than one year in a row. If you run in 2011 then you have to wait until 2013 or 2014 to run again. maybe grandfather the people with active streaks going but for new people one year on one or two off. Perhaps an odd/even year system would work. If you are born on an odd year you could only register for odd year marathons (still would need to qualify according to present rules). Other such ideas could be used.
This is so sad and upsetting, I know several 2:40;2:30 and a 2:28 marathoners, they are not running(closed registration…) What are we suppose to do, run again under 2:40 and maybe they(BAA) will recongizied that we are serious runners. It’s all a business for BAA. Over125Million dollars during this week, I say run a smaller marathon….with those times they meant win it all. Suggestion how about a 3rd starting time???? ie. 9am, 930am 10am and so on?