Don't Talk To The Mrs. About Chicago

I'm sure by now most of you have heard about the Chicago Marathon "sign up debacle" this year.  You know, the one that was very similar to the Boston Marathon registration problems for the 2011 race.  It went something like this ...

Trust me Chicago ... you don't want her
lookin' at you like this!

At noon on February 19th, about 100,000 runners or more tried to register simultaneously for only 45,000 spots in the race.  The registration servers, which are ran by Active.com, simply couldn't handle the influx of applicants and ultimately crashed after allowing about 30,000 runners to successfully register.  Subsequently, they set up a lottery system for the remaining 15,000 spots.  

It's kinda been a sore subject around our house ... especially with Mrs. Weatherly.  You can't bring it up without her rambling on and on about it.  In fact the other night, right in the middle of "Duck Dynasty", she barges in and is like, "And another thing about Chicago...!".  Yeah man ... Duck Dynasty!  I'll be in a meeting at work, and she'll text me ... "Wanna know what someone wrote on Facebook about the race?" (In my head ... "NO!")  "Uh sure, what is it sweetie"?  Heck, we were on our way to get pizza the other night and I said, "I think we should get Chicago Sty...."  Immediately I stopped because I had slipped and uttered the "C" word.  Which of course sent her into an hour long diatribe about how "jacked up" the registration process had been, and how poorly it had been run.  Which it has.

In fairness to her though, she is the one that toiled online for 6 hours trying over and over and over to get us registered on that Tuesday.  And she is the one that checks their Facebook page everyday to read the endless slanderous comments about the race, Active.com, and Bank of America.  And she is the one who decided to run the marathon with her friend Coy, who actually got into the race during the first go around.  So I get why she's all bent out of shape about it.

It's not that I'm not frustrated too.   It's just that Chicago is in my "grand scheme" to check off at some point ... whenever.  Granted, I was planning on running it this year.   I mean, I really want to redeem myself from last fall's huge giant failure in Wichita and was planning on smokin' Michigan Avenue with a new PR.  But if we don't get in, we don't get in.  I'll just move on and find another race for the fall. (warning Wichita, if it don't get in, it's probably you!)

We both successfully got registered for the Lottery and will find out next Tuesday if we are one of the lucky 15,000 chosen for the remaining spots.  Is it fair that we had to go through a lottery and others didn't?  Probably not.  Does it suck that all of the large races are selling out in a few days or less, making it more and more challenging to register?  Definitely.  But if we get in, we get in ... I'm just not that broke up about it.  But Mrs. Weatherly on the other hand ... well if you run into her on the street, I wouldn't bring it up.  You might just get an ear-full!
... be great today!