HOW DOES THE REGISTRATION BLITZ WORK?

money
 
Many of you want to know how the registration system works and how to get your best shot at the deeply discounted prices. Here is a quick tutorial on how it works and what you can expect in the next 3 weeks if you are trying to register for Jacksonville 2017, Safety Harbor 2017, or Orlando 2017.
How RunSignup Works:
RunSignUp calculates race price availability upon credit card checkout.
The reason they do this is it is the most reliable mechanism to handle a sell out situation in regard to the price buckets. There is a very accurate count and a very accurate time stamp on when someone clicked on the submit credit card information and it successfully completes.
What does that mean for you?
That means when 2,000 of you go on the website at “exactly” 12pm EST you will select your race and will all more than likely see $1 next to each race option.
You will then fill out your information and get to the check out page.
When you get to the checkout page page you will see what the current price is.
For this example:
Let’s say you are registering for the Half Marathon and it took you 60 seconds to get to the checkout page. If 100 people have already checked out before you then you are going to see $45 for the Half Marathon price.
If you then spend another 30 seconds putting in you credit card info and 250 more people finish their registration in that time, then you hit submit,  it will then give you a message that says “your price has changed to $55”. You then will need to hit submit again to lock in that price. This is why its KEY for you to setup an account with them and have all of your info (shirt size, emergency contact, credit card) stored on your account. (More on that below)
Why does it not hold your price on checkout page? 
Trying to hand out tickets like a deli when people first start registering is a very messy way to do this. The fact is people do not complete the registration process. So say we gave people 15 minutes from the time they got their “deli ticket”, that means there would be a bunch of expirations after 15 minutes.  And this would repeat several times with unknown periods of deli ticket availability.
For example, if there are 1,000 participant slots and 1,000 deli tickets are handed out within 3 minutes Only 800 complete within 15 minutes, then 200 deli tickets are available again 15 minutes later. Of those 200, only 150 are used. Which means there are 50 more available 15 minutes after that. This is obviously not very fair or easy.
How can I checkout faster?
Runners can speed up the process by following these instructions to Registration Blitz Success. Please note that even if you follow all of these directions, many of you will still not get the $1, $5, $10, $15, etc. prices. On top of that, many of you will get the “your price has changed” message 1 or more times as explained above.
We know many of you get frustrated with this process. Trust us, It would be easier for us to just charge the going rate for a Half ($65-$105), 10K ($30-$60), 5K ($20-$50), but everyone loves “The Blitz”. Everyone wants to “win” a $1 entry. We were the fist race on the planet to offer entries for only $1, but unfortunately we can’t give them to everyone.
PLEASE TAKE THESE STEPS TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCE AT WINNING 
  1. Mark your calendar for 12PM EST on Tuesday March 8 (Jacksonville), March 15 (Safety Harbor), March 22 (Orlando)
  2. Use a desktop, mobile, or tablet device with a solid Internet connection. (Chrome is typically fastest)
  3. Setup and/or Edit a RunSignup Account
    1. Before registration opens, make sure you have an account (and remember the password) on RunSignUp
    2. Login to RunSignUp, and verify that all your profile information is correct (or correct it!)
    3. From your RunSignUp profile, use the “Update Info” button to pre-set your preferences, including emergency contact info and your preferred t-shirt size. This will auto-populate these fields during your registration.
    4. Have your credit card on hand or IF you added it to your profile when you signed up last year, that will save you even more time.
  4. Register 1 person at a time. The system will slot you in line when you get to the payment screen. This means the quicker you select the race distance and basic info, the quicker you get to the payment screen and better chance at the discounted prices. If you want to register more than one person, that is ok, but it will take longer to get to the payment screen and get a place in line.
PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE USING A THIRD PARTY COMPANY TO PROCESS OUR REGISTRATIONS. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES YOU MAY EXPEREINCE WITH YOUR REGISTRATION. THIS COULD INCLUDE LOSS OF WIFI SIGNAL, LOSS OF CELL SIGNAL, INPUT ERRORS, SERVER ISSUES OR SOFWARE ISSUES. RUN SIGN UP WILL DO THEIR BEST TO MAKE SURE ALL REGISTRATIONS GO THROUGH WITHOUT ISSUE.