Question:Just went to www.chicagomarathon.com and found out they have stopped
accepting registrations. This was to be my first marathon and I am really
bummed I missed the cutoff.
Is it normal for Chicago to fill up this early in the year? I am really
caught off guard by this.
Is there any chance to get in after registration closes? Do they open a
late registration later or anything?
Are there any other marathons in the area (Chicago-land) around the same
time? I hate to see my training go for nothing.
One thing I was thinking today was maybe I'd just run my own marathon that
day. My concern is lack of support...no water stations, no emergency
medical personnel, etc. Since this is my first 26.2 miler, I'm just not
sure I should tackle it alone.
I don't know, I'm just really bummed and disappointed that I missed the
deadline. I guess next year I'll check back with the website more often.
Answer:
What kind of preparation have you done so far ? For example, how many half
marathon races have you run ? How many miles a week are you running ? I mean,
from your comments, it sounds like you're pretty new to this.
There's a reason registration for most marathons closes early -- they don't
want people doing it on the spur of the moment because the kind of person who
does that is probably not well prepared.
Philadelphia marathon allows entry until quite late.
Don't see the point of doing "your own" marathon. If you're going to run a
race, then enter a race. If you're going to do a training run, go outside and
do a training run.
www.marathonguide.com will help you with a list of marathons. Fox
Cities is an option (2 weeks earlier) or Detroit a couple of weeks later
(probably a better option).
