About this time last year I put a reminder on my calendar for Sept. 8, 10am EST to register for the 2015 Boston Marathon. As luck would have it, I was out on maternity leave when 09/08/14 rolled around and had nothing much to do other than watch the calendar for registration to open. In preparation I visited baa.org to make sure I knew the process.

I promptly learned that qualifiers who beat their time by 20 minutes or more had first dibs on registration that Monday. Wednesday at 10am, registration opened for qualifiers who beat their time by 10 minutes or more and Friday was open to those who beat their time by 5 minutes or more. I readjusted my focus and set my sights on Friday, September 12 (my original due date!). I had achieved my qualifying time of 3:35:42 for the 2015 Boston Marathon at the Big Cottonwood Canyon Marathon. On Friday morning, I logged onto the registration page at 10am EST on the dot and after several failed attempts at registering I clicked the link “registration calculator” link to see when I could register. I read it, tried to register again and finally emailed my error message to the BAA.

And then I did the registration calculator again. And re-read it. Apparently in my post-partum exhaustion I totally misread the calculator and misunderstood my qualifying time. Those :42 seconds were kicking my ass. Not only did they prevent me from having been able to register for my previous AG in 2014 but they were pushing me to the “open” registration for my next AG for 2015. Grrrrr. I reset my calendar reminder for 10am EST Monday, September 15.

Entry ID

Registering for entry to the Boston Marathon was extremely easy. I was prepared for site crashes and slow load times thinking of how many final runners would be competing for whatever space is left in the 30,000 seats. As I continued to learn about the registration process, I discovered that registering at 10am on the dot would do me no good and I’m not sure if my just under 5 minute overage for my AG qualifying time will stand out enough from the pack. I will now hang onto my entry ID until some unknown date in October and anxiously await the next step of this process–an email that will inform me whether or not I’m listed as an entrant for the 2015 Boston Marathon.

Good thing I have a new infant and toddler to keep me occupied and teach me patience! We wait!