marathons selling out at an alarming rate

Up until this morning at 7am, I was absolutely certain that I was NOT going to register for the 2013 Chicago Marathon. It wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t upset about it. I just wasn’t willing to commit until I got thru the Lansing Marathon to see how my foot took the abuse training regimen. No big deal. Then at 7am this morning, it hit me like a ton of bricks and I started “thinking” about it. Thinking about how sad I was last year to miss the marathon. Thinking about how much I love Chicago Marathon weekend. Thinking about how easy it is to just drive downtown the morning of the race, run and drive back home to my babies when I’m finished.

Well, I’m a better “doer” than “thinker” so by 7:05 am, I was browsing thru my old email folder looking for the alumni charity runner info that Ronald McDonald House Charities had sent me. By 7:30, my commitment form was signed and sent off to RMHC. Done. Or so I thought.

Little did I know that the charity runner registration process had changed since last year. RMHC no longer registered me (which had to be a total nightmare on their end) but instead, sent me a registration link and a code to register. This meant that I had to fight the fight with everyone else come noon. Now, I was ready and waiting at noon just like everyone else. I have a high powered cpu at work and it should have taken minutes to register but instead the link took me to a page that notified me that the site was currently “unavailable”.

Again, and again, and again. Sometimes, I’d get a bit of information entered, then click to the next screen to reveal the above message box. Two times, I made it all the way to the end and entered my charity code. The first time, it immediately took me to the “site is unavailable” screen, the second time, it acknowledged my code, then encouraged me to click “submit” to finalize my registration. It was at that time, it took me back to the “site is unavailable” screen. So am I in, or not? My friend Jill sent me this screen shot which she found under the “runner’s registered” section:

So I “think” I’m in although I have yet to get a confirmation email. Maybe, maybe not. I’m done stressing about it. If it’s meant to be, I’ll be running the streets of Chicago on October 13th. If not, I’ll go to Indy, or Detroit, or Milwaukee and run one of those much smaller but still amazing races. Enough is enough but I’m curious to see if I’m in or not! I truly love the Chicago Marathon. I think its worth the $$. Its worth the time and effort training in the summer heat. It’s worth it for me since its in my backyard!