Beach to Beacon Sells Out in Less Than 2 Hours
By Glenn Jordan, The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram
Posted Monday, 16 March, 2009
Whether they walked or simply jogged at a pedestrian pace, entrants in the 2008 TD Banknorth Beach to Beacon Road 10K took more than 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete the course in Cape Elizabeth.
That's how long it took to fill the field of 6,000 for this year's race, scheduled for Aug. 1.
Online registration for the 2009 race closed 1:45 after it opened Sunday at noon.
"It was hectic, to say the least," said race organizer Dave McGillivray, who has seen the registration period shrink from 10 days to 25 hours to 105 minutes over the past three races. "What's next? Ten seconds? None of us is trying to box anyone out. It's just that the interest is so great."
McGillivray received plenty of e-mails and phone calls from folks frustrated at not being able to register, many of whom were at their computers at the appointed time. Some made it all the way to the confirmation screen before something went awry.
"We're going to address those," McGillivray said. "We'll tell them to be patient, we're looking into this and we'll get back to you. We don't want to ignore them, but at the same time, we don't want to give them false hope."
Whether in error or on purpose, some applicants signed up more than once. Such duplicate entries will be weeded out, McGillivray said.
Although no servers crashed, wait times were long. McGillivray himself tried twice in the first hour to register but gave up because of slow responses. He said he finally found success shortly after 1:30 p.m.
Some runners alerted McGillivray to e-mail messages making the rounds of running clubs, encouraging applicants to log on to the Web site before noon and open multiple browsers to increase the chances of registering.
He likened the procedure to purchasing tickets to a popular concert or to Fenway Park.
"We'll constantly look at it and try to see if we can come up with an improved procedure, but I'm not sure there is one," he said. "Some people are saying, 'Why don't you do a lottery?'
"There's all kinds of different methods we could consider, but there's just so many people who want in that can't fit. It's putting a basketball through a garden hose."
Successful entrants were sent confirmation messages Sunday night. Those in doubt can go the race's Web site, beach2beacon.org, and search for their name in the entry list.
Spaces remain in the kids fun run scheduled for Friday, July 31, but McGillivray decided it would be too confusing to leave the site open after the 10K race field had reached its capacity of 6,000, an increase of 500 over last year.
Each 10K entrant paid $35 plus a $3.75 processing fee that goes to the race's technology company, Forte Interactive, based in Florida.
"I wish we could accommodate everyone," said race founder Joan Benoit Samuelson in a statement sent to media outlets Sunday afternoon. "We cap the field at 6,000 to provide the runners with a memorable experience and safe passage."
"It's frustrating for all of us," McGillivray said. "I look at it almost like a technologically imposed lottery. It allowed so many people in and for other people, it took a little longer. And in the end we had our 6,000."
Staff Writer Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at: gjordan@pressherald.com
Copyright 2009 by The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. All rights reserved.
Facebook 
Twitter
i