brooklyn half marathon and nyc marathon registration

wow, the contrast between the registration experience for these two events couldn't have been more different (or stressful)!

as a major league procrastinator, i normally wait until the last possible moment to register for a race. sometimes i learn the hard way, such as getting closed out of a race entirely (2006 disney goofy challenge and 2006 chicago marathon). but with the passage of time, i'll revert back to my old habits.

yesterday i logged on to nyrr to register for the brooklyn half marathon. that went smoothly - and was done with the paper (keystrokes) in no time at all. but good things only last so long. next up was clicking over to the nyc marathon site (a separate being, apparently, from the regular nyrr site). i clicked my way over to the registration page, and will admit that i felt slightly upbeat doing this two days before the deadline for guaranteed entry!

there were two choices guarding the entrance way to the application - method (a) for those w/a user name and password, and method (b), for those like me that didn't realize we had the aforesaid items. there was a third option (which i'll refer to as "i") for invited runners to submit an invitation code. i went with option (b) and was promptly informed that i MUST use option (a) because i already had a user name and password!

that's when the little hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention and an alarm bell sounded inside my head. in an almost mocking tone, an internal voice said to me, "wow, i didn't know we had a user name and password?!" "we don't," i answered myself back, continuing this internal dialogue. well after a few unsuccessful efforts to negotiate with this immovable guard to the application, i realized there would be no registration for me that night.

i sent an email to the marathon site, and called the nyrr office a couple of times this morning. then, finally, i received an email with the critical data. i would never have guessed that my user name was, in fact, my email address! while the user name was plausible, there was no way i created a string of eight upper and lower case letters and digits for a password! computer generated, probably. created by me, impossible!

not one to ever look a gift horse in the mouth, i immediately took those two precious bits of information and logged on to the registration page. the user name and password worked - and, after i submitted the necessary information, i could finally relax. a few minutes later, and a $136 lighter, i received an email that confirmed my registration! even with all that distraction, i still had 24 hours to spare until the deadline ;)