This time it wasn't an Ironman event that brought the Active.com registration servers to their knees, it was an ordinary, gaining in popularity Olympic distance triathlon in Burley, ID, specifically the Burley Lions Spudman Triathlon.
The race normally opens for registration at 12:01 AM on January 1st and fills up several hours later, I guess once people wake up after eventful or un-eventful festivities. Well, it seem that race organizers decided to try something different based on some advice from their online registration partner, Active.com.
Quote from Spudman Triathlon Blog:
Over the last few years the race had developed a tradition of opening the registration at 12:01 A.M. (just after midnight) on January 1st. At the request/suggestion of our online registration partner, (active.com) we have decided to postpone the registration to a date and time when the active.com offices are fully staffed and available for phone support. blog entry link
It seems that the triathlon has become popular as last's year race sold out with some 1,600 registrants by noon after opening up after midnight. Race organizers decided on Monday, January 7, 2008 @ 12:00 noon (MST) as the new date and time online registration would open for the 2008 Burley Lions Club Spudman Triathlon.
Depending on whose figure you use, registration only lasted several minutes, possibly less than 15 minutes for a total of 1,800 participants. It was a Speedfest, only those who had a fast connection and could make a connection to the Active.com servers, who could type fast enough and key in that CC # and press Submit the fastest were able to register. Which left many people were very unfortunate, and mad about not being able to register for this year’s race. (see Speedman news link further ahead) Who’s to blame for the frustrations people experienced or will experience for not being able to race, should they have left things alone or should Active.com been more prepared?
Quote from Spudman Triathlon Blog:
The 22nd Annual Lions Spudman Triathlon sold out in record time. We reached our event capacity quickly and due to the high volume of participants trying to register at the same time, you may have experienced some site slowness or received an error message when trying to register. Active.com had a support team watching the event registration closely and they worked quickly to resolve any issues that came up. We apologize for any frustration or inconvenience you may have experienced and appreciate your understanding. If you have any questions about whether you are successfully registered you may contact Active.com’s customer support team at support@active.com. blog entry link
We pay high fees when using Active.com to register for a triathlon and I think even race organizer pay a fee for the service so why do we have problems like this. It seems that they would have been prepared for this type of situation. Yes, they probably had over 2,000 people trying to register in a matter of minutes for this race, so what does that tell you about their infrastructure. Ticketmaster deals with the same types of issues for concerts but they are dealing with bigger crowds. Remember the old days when you had to stand in line to buy concert tickets. Technology has improved significantly since those days. The advent of online registration has opened up a new era by allowing people from around the world to register for a race anywhere in the world but what you need for this popular sport of triathlon is a good infrastructure. I guess we'll just have check out the next blog post to see what their online registration partner says...
Quote from Spudman Triathlon Blog:
Dear Spudman Registrants and frustrated unsuccessful registrants;
Yes, the Spudman is full. It filled up in record time as many of you are well aware. We hope to provide more technical information about how the registration process went, from a technical point of view, once we get a more complete report from active.com, our registration partner. Stand by for more information once the dust settles. blog entry link
Per Active.com website:
Active.com is the leading online community for people who want to discover, learn about, share, register for and ultimately participate in activities about which they are passionate. Millions of active individuals visit Active.com each month to search and register online for races, team sports and recreational activities; interact with others who have similar interests; start online training programs; and access nutrition, fitness and training tips.
Speedman - Related news story from the South Idaho Press from Tuesday, January 08, 2008
