I haven't run a bay area event for years, but here's my 2 cents.
Pre-registration is a tremendous amount of extra work. Who is going to
handle it? If the only purpose is to put a limit on the number of entries,
pre-registration is not necessary to do that. It seems logical that the
only solution, especially during the winter when days are so much shorter,
is to limit the number of entries. I don't think having registration close
earlier will help. That just forces the afternoon people to show up earlier
and makes it a longer day for them. Since, I believe, you have eight run
groups (4 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon), you could simply set a
limit for morning and for afternoon. First, establish a number that you can
reasonably handle in one day, let's say 150. This would mean that 75 people
could run in the morning and 75 people in the afternoon. In order to keep
registration from being a nightmare, simply establish a new rule (possibly
just for the slush series). Registration for the four morning run groups
closes when first run group is scheduled to start (they should be there by
then anyway if they want to walk the course). Registration for the
afternoon run groups opens for a specifically designated time...maybe from
11 am until noon (don't you close registration at noon? If your afternoon
groups don't start until one, you could have registration open from 12 to 1
or maybe 11:30 to 1). In the morning, you pull out 75 registration cards
and when they're gone, the morning group is closed. Same thing for the
afternoon groups. Yes, this means of course, that there will be a BIG line
of people waiting when registration opens. However, if you have one person
doing nothing but selling the cards, the line would move quickly enough.
Someone else can help with waivers, worker sign up sheets, classing/numbers
questions, etc. How would you make sure afternoon people didn't sign up in
the morning? Personally, I would think that the honor system would be
sufficient. However, it would be easy enough to write "am" or "pm" on the
registration card. Or if you really wanted to get fancy, print them in two
colors...a different color in the morning than in the afternoon.
Does this solve the problem of someone driving a long way and not getting to
run? No. There is simply no way to prevent that if you get more people
than you can handle. It will be the people who show up well after
registration open that don't get to run, though. And it ensures
(hopefully!) that the afternoon groups don't run into the dark. If the
rules are posted in advance (web page, fliers, NA Pylon, etc), then everyone
has the same chance of being able to run. It has the added advantage of
shortening registration hours, although it seems like you would want someone
there anyway to answer questions. A drawback, of course, would be if your
morning and afternoon groups are not balanced.
Well, it's just an idea. I just recently joined your little group and am on
the digest so I'll go back to that now and stay out of the rest of your
discussion!
Mary Flinn
Sacramento
BS, 1994 Miata R
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