Lake Norman Closed out in less than 18 minutes.

Lake Norman, which is going to be my “A” race, closed out in just 18 minutes. Registration opened at 7pm this evening. By sheer luck, I got in at the last second, but my friend Cathy did not 🙁

I finished dinner a bit after 7pm and put a cup of tea in the microwave. Then I headed toward my computer to check my email. I wasn’t even thinking about Lake Norman at this point. I looked at the time on the screen, and it said 7:12. I thought, “Oh, it’s after 7 pm, I can go sign up for Lake Norman now.”

When I got to the Set Up website, it said just 46 spots left, out of the 700 race cap! By the time I logged in to sign up, less than one minute later, the number was down to 40. Ridiculous! When I was all done, it said 34. I called my friend Cathy at 7:15. Down to 30. I asked her if she signed up for Lake Norman yet. Down to 24. I told her to do it now. Down to 20. She dropped what she was doing and ran to her computer, but was too late. She got closed out. This is such a bummer – Cathy was looking forward to bettering her time from last years race.

The participant list only shows 568 people registered. I think if you don’t complete the paypal process, you’ll lose your spot in 1 hour. So, I’m going to check back at 8pm to see if any new spots have opened up.

Update: I checked several times throughout the evening: No Spots ever opened up.

Hmmm….I just noticed this newsbit on Setup’s NCTS series page about a snafu in the Lake Norman registration process. They’ve had many website problems since hiring Kelly Marcom to revamp their website. Looks pretty, but doesn’t work very smoothly.

1/4/2008: (6:15 PM) Lake Norman YMCA Triathlon – Registration

Registration for the Lake Norman YMCA Triathlon will open up as advertised at 7PM tonight (Friday – 1/4). The registration process inadvertantly opened up at 6PM and some folks were able to register. We have de-activated the registration link.
At 7PM, the registration link will be re-activated for registration