Driving into work this afternoon, my wife called me at 1:45pm and mentioned that after two hours of trying, she finally had managed to signed up for the must run event of the summer, the B2B 10K. Her confirmation indicated she was #6213. As she tried to sign her sister up, the screen announced that registration for the 2009 Beach To Beacon 10K was CLOSED.... Wow! 1 hour and 45 minutes, 6,000+ runners...registration, done! I had 4 friends that managed to sign up, though with difficulty due to the enormous amount of folks jamming the website. I am sure some runners who have participated for a number of years missed the cut and at the store later in the day, I could sense frustration and amazement from runner's who had been on-line...some had gotten in, some hadn't.

Each year more races face the daunting task of being fair and equitable to entrants, especially with capped or quota based races. The fairest thing is and always has been, first come, first serve. Perhaps a lottery is now inevitable, and with the current system, aren't we almost there anyway? Personally, I am not a lottery fan and would hope that B2B organizers look at ways to ease the website congestion. I am not surprised at how quickly the slots filled. Road races continue to grow with runner's looking for unique experiences with B2B providing that mid-Summer "Maine Coast" feel and it's also known in running circles as "Joanie's Race".

I know there are constrants with how many runner's the town of Cape Elizabeth, race management and officials can handle. However, with Dave McGillivrey directing, maybe it's time to use a multiple wave start and expand the number of participants? Dave is also the Race Director of the Boston Marathon which at one time had a cap of 7,500, but expanded due to demand and now do multiple waves based on seeded status and have over 15,000 participants. Did I mention the race filled up faster this year then any other previous year?

As frustrating as some of us not making it is, I do know this...the folks running and managing Beach To Beacon have done a tremendous job, put a lot of thought into this great event and asset for our community and are some of the brightest and most knowledgeable people organizing road race events. They will take away and continue to listen, learn, improve and create, what is becoming one of the top tier road race events in the country.

Remember....Run Happy!