PSA: Volunteering and Registering at Ironman Races

Coach Rich

Hi Folks,

I've sorta watched the cluster that has been the IMWI volunteer registration process. It's likely that many athletes, including many of you, want to volunteer...because you want to volunteer, and that's great...but also because you feel it improves your chances of registering for the 2012 event. I just want to share with you what PnI have learned from being at alllll of these races, especially in the past couple years, and what means for registration the day after the event:

• The day after the event, there will be two Big Ass Lines (BAL's). People will wake up crazy early to get in these lines. Line #1 will be volunteers wanted to register for next year's race. Line #2 will be for everyone else, who didn't volunteer, also wanted to register. IMLP is especially...epic...because the entire infield of the oval is full and you'd swear they are selling Led Zepplin tix.
• They'll process Line #1 first. When that's done, they'll process Line #2.
• The last couple years (P in '09, '10 @ IMLP, R in '10 @ IMWI) we wandered up to Line #2 at about 10:40. At about 11am a WTC official-type person goes to the back of Line #2 and tells the last person: you're the last person who'll be allowed to register. Please don't let anyone else get in line, tell them to reg online.
• I was then reg'd by about 11:05, total 25' in the line.

Bottomline: if you are in "a" line before about 10:45am the day after the race...you'll able to register. No need to volunteer (unless that's what you want to do), no need to camp out on the sidewalk like it's 1986 and Duran Duran is in town. Just sayin...

Brad Loescher

 Thanks Rich.  Haven't though about Duran Duran in a long time and just caught myself signing Rio .  

Barbara Spitler

Thanks for the info. Rich! Nice to know!

vickaiser

So, let's say you're not on site. What are the chances of registering online when it opens?

Al Truscott

Posted By Victor Kaiser on 27 Apr 2011 09:03 PM

So, let's say you're not on site. What are the chances of registering online when it opens?

Depends on the race. St George, Coeur d'Alene, Louisville - can take days, weeks, MONTHS to fill up. WI, LP, AZ, Canada - you better be quivering over the "Enter" Key at 10 AM (race site time) the day after the race. TX: who knows - hasn't happened yet.

mattsull

I registered for IMWI online last year and got in very easily. I know many others who have had success online.

mancona

Online registration fluctuates year to year. Three years ago it seemed like people were not able to get into CDA, LP, WI, etc because active.com was slow or they waited until Monday afternoon to try and register. The last two years it seems it has actually been easier to get into races on line and pretty much everyone I know that was ready and waiting to hit enter on Monday morning got in. My guess is this is due to WTC adding 3 or 4 more 140.6 races in NA in the last 3 years (more supply), increasing the field size at each race (even more supply) and the maybe the economy (less demand).

If you are 100% set on a certain race going on site is the safe bet and like Rich said you do not need to volunteer (however I recomend it and do myself each year). Just get into line by a decent time and you will be fine.

If you are willing to take a slight risk, just be logged in and ready on active.com when registration opens and you should get it. If you can't be online when registration opens I recomend finding someone else to do it for you.

Or... just register for St George as it is still open on active.com and the race is in less than 2 weeks :-)

Scott Alexander

If you're registering online, be ready with CC in hand, already have an active.com account set up (it will pre-populate info for you in the race form), and be ready 10 minutes ahead of time. Just keep hitting refresh.

When I registered for IMFL2008, in 2007, it opened up 5 minutes early. Same with IMAZ2011, in 2010, it opened up slightly earlier than the posted time.