S is for Suspense

Hoooooly. Cow.

Today was the lottery for the 2012 ING New York City Marathon. Registration for the marathon opened months ago and closed on Monday. Today was the opening ceremony to kick off the marathon and draw names for the lottery. (Like my letter S in NYC Marathon colors?)

Apparently, there were something along the lines of 150,000 entries and only 47,000 slots. There were a few ways to get guaranteed entry, such as a qualifying time or having been denied entry for the previous three years. Most people, like yours truly, had to wait several months for the lottery today, and man, did they over hype the event.

This was a total cluster f**k.

The lottery was supposed to be held at 12:30 EST (9:30 my time). The names of the lucky winners would scroll across a screen that people could watch live. Unfortunately, the site crashed and no one could get on to watch.

I had a lot of fun watching the freak outs on Facebook all day long. As the clock kept ticking and no lottery results were being posted, more and more people turned to Facebook and Twitter to vent. Once your name was selected, they immediately ran your credit card. If your card didn't go through for whatever reason, you got rejected. All day long, people - myself included - kept checking their credit cards online to see if the cards had been charged.

What an absolute mess. Five hours later, after people had been glued to their monitors all day long, FINALLY the website could be accessed. And then I found out I had been denied.

The 2012 ING New York City Marathon

We're sorry but you were not selected for the 2012 ING New York City Marathon. We appreciate your commitment to running with us, but we must limit the size of the race field to make the event safe and enjoyable.

You're not in, Jaime!

I didn't really expect to get into NYC via lottery and I knew all along I would have to run for a charity if I wanted to participate, but I managed to get all nervous and hyped up with everyone else, so I did fee a little disappointed when it didn't pan out. But it's okay. Now I just need to find a charity and hope that I get accepted that way.

Here's a sampling of the comments all over FB:

David Laviska Everything about how you have handled this lottery/hype/announcement/entry process has been disappointing. It's shameful for such a well-established event to be run this way. Thanks for wasting my lunch hour and most of the afternoon. #lame #INGNYCfail

 

 

DeAnne Sapel Perhaps instead of acting like everything is cool and fun, you should apologize and promise to try to improve the way things are done next year...I think I a lot of us would be much less annoyed if you did that!!!

5 hours ago ·

Neil Gottlieb Actually, all NYRR needs to say is "if you haven't seen your credit card pending transaction, you are not in". Why the extra waiting? People, don't lose sleep if you didn't get a credit card charge....time to look at another November race.

5 hours ago ·

Darren Kreitman I think you guys suck since your own staff on the phone today said they don't agree with the way u do things. Then your own staff on the phone says everyone gets an email not just those accepted. Then I read your post that says "accepted" runners get an email. I'm speaking for many, a large company with millions should get their shit together and simply tell everyone the correct info the first time instead of have them watch a garbage web show where people get in for free from the crowd that had nothing to do with us. It's pathetic and why runs like the rock n roll series are passing u by. I hope next year it is run professionally. I am speaking on behalf of the 9,700 who wasted their time on your webcast today. Say what your going to do and do what you say!!

5 hours ago ·

Oh, what fun this opening kick off was. It's hard to have a huge party and expect everyone to play nice when less than a third of the entries will get in. There was less drama for the lottery of the Hunger Games and that involved the threat of death!

I'm still excited to run NYC. I can't think of a better city to run my first marathon. Today was a little bit of a let down because I still hoped lady luck would be on my side and now I know for sure I have to not only train to be able to run 26.2 miles, I also have to raise a few grand to be able to run NYC. And somehow ride my horse five days a week and still work 40 hours.





Soooo....Meh.

It's still going to be awesome. See you there!