The registration is closed for 2010. The Loop registration was open for 3 hours and 3 minutes on January 1st starting at 10am and ending at 1:03pm. We had two online registrars taking registrations at one point. We don’t think there are many people who did not have some issues (major and minor) with the registration. If you sailed through smoothly it was your lucky day.
Our task now is to settle up the remaining registration spots. There is no fair and perfect way to do this, but we are trying for the least unfair way to fill these spots. Here is what we are doing on our end:
1. ) We processed over 900 registrations on 1/1/2010, completely filling the Loop to our normal capacity. If you received a registration confirmation from either AllSportCentral or Active.com then you are registered.
2. ) AllSport has some of the information for those of you who filled out name, address, phone, and email information on January 1st but were unable to submit your credit card. They are going through that list by hand and contacting people via phone or email to have them complete their interrupted registration. This process might take as much as two weeks or more to get finished so please be patient.
3. ) If there is still room then we will go through the emails and website submissions in order and try to get as many of you in as possible.
4. ) At some point during this process we will have to cut off registration since we don’t have unlimited space in the Loop. Everyone should understand this and there is not much we can do about it.
What you can do now:
1.) Check the AllSportCentral.com site to see if you are listed as a registrant in the 2010 Leatherman’s Loop. The folks there have combined the list from Active.com into their list and they have the master registration list onsite. The link for the listing is here: http://www.allsportcentral.com/ec/events/entrants.cfm?EventID=21703
2.) If you have sent us a note or entered a comment at the website, we have your information. There is no need to send it again unless something has changed. We are waiting until AllSport is finished with their steps before contacting people about their registration issues or other questions. This may take a week or more and you should be prepared for bad news.
3.) If you sent a note or a comment to us on 1/1/10 about problems encountered and afterward were able to register successfully, we would appreciate a quick note that will allow us to check off your name.
4.) If you were registering and somehow managed to register twice but only need one spot please let us know and we will refund your extra registration so we can open up a spot for another runner.
5.) If you have any other issues not previously sent in (wrong age, gender snafu, etc.) but are registered, let us know.
If you did not get an email confirmation, one possibility is your email address had a typo and was undeliverable. We have not gotten any bounces that indicate this happened but it remains a small possibility and has happened a few times in past years.
If registration had gone perfectly yesterday then we most likely would have closed within the first hour. We know this because the number of unique visitors on our website was 861 people between 10-11am on January 1st. The next two hours equaled that total. Assuming some of the first 861 were there to sign up more than one person (spouses, etc.) and we get well over 900 very quickly.
The demand for this race is astonishing and amazing. Some of you would have gotten in and some would not have. We have no way of knowing with absolute certainty who was wrestling with registration for 2-3 hours and who was there for 2-3 minutes—although we do have your emails and website submissions sent during registration hours. These emails and comments number over 500 so the math can’t possibly work in everyone’s favor. A fair number of these emails cite more than one person having a problem with registration so the true number of hopefuls is higher. This is unfair and we realize it but our options are not good and most of you will be upset.
We have to check with the park about our limited options. We operate under several constraints but no avenue is going unexplored. Keep the ideas coming… carpooling is one way to help with the parking constraints and it is more fun to come to the Loop with a group of friends and/or family anyway.
We will keep you updated as we bushwhack through this unblazed trail. Keep in mind that the Leatherman Harriers are all volunteers and love the Loop as much as you all do. Please be patient, this will not be fixed overnight. Most likely many of you will be disappointed this year when we make a final shut down. We feel your pain—we have been through registration hell together and know things will only get better. Thanks for listening.