Entering a race should be simple.. right?

Over the last few years I have entered many races; from sportives to swimathons the list is long and the experiences mainly good.  But while some race organisers simply open their entry pages and welcome you to join on a first come first served basis, others seem to make the whole process unnecessarily difficult. 

We currently have situations where online entry is promoted as opening on a certain day at a certain time and then when it does, promptly crashes due to the number of people trying to enter at once.  Registering is by a process of luck rather than orderly queue.  This scenario seems to happen consistently with limited participant events, which are largely run by well-meaning volunteers but who don’t have the IT solutions in place to cope with the volume of interest.  

Last year I secured an entry to the Dart 10k swim.  This involved taking the morning of work, getting up early and submitting my form a couple of dozen times before it managed to connect with the server and tick me in.  This year, the same situation with the Brownsea Island Swim but without luck. As frustrating as this is, it is a shame for the organisers because it puts people off reapplying and in the absence of holding a reserve list, the same situation will happen year in year out.

In contrast to this some mass participation events ask you to pre-register interest prior to opening.  I am getting a little suspicious of this approach.  For example, Velo South is a new cycling event launched to take place this year.  The organisers had 15,000 spaces and it attracted 30,000 pre-registered entrants without announcing the entry cost. My guess was it would be high and it was, funnily enough it did not sell out immediately even with that registered interest level. 

Organised cycling events on closed roads are fun to take part in but not if the entry fees are high.   Choose your events carefully and make sure you are not paying for the privilege of something you could do yourself, without paying to take part.

Finally, a word of caution when entering races.  Check the terms and conditions carefully and in particular the refund policy.  With so many events cancelled this year because of snow and extreme weather I am reading about many people who are finding themselves out of pocket as some organisers choose not to refund entry fees.  There is actually a statutory legal duty for race organisers to refund entries so if you find yourself in a situation where they say they will not I would be tempted to press them a little further and be very visible on social media in publicising your responses.

Happy racing!