Ironman Florida 2006 Part 3. Getting In  

I received an email from a reader last week who was enquiring about my experience with registering for next years race. I guess some people are actually reading my rant.

Anyway, I decided that it might be a good idea to post my reply right here so anyone else who have made up their minds to give it a go, don't get left out because the just didn't know what the procedure was.

I registered online. Registration started the morning after the race at 12:00 local race time.

I sat at my computer a little before the posted start time, and started clicking the register button on the active.com site, until I got through. I planned to go into my office where I could use a high speed connection, but as it turned out, I couldn't get away from my house that morning, so I used the dial up at my house. I had no problem getting through. The race filled up in 2 hours.

Last year I heard it filled up in less than 45 minutes, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it fill up faster this year.

If you go to http://www.nasports.com/news/fullstory.php?storyid=778 there is a press release from North American Sports outlining the registration procedure for all Ironman Races in North America. The general procedure goes like this.
1. Athletes registered for this years race, get first dibs on next years race. They have the option to register the day before this years race, 9:00am to 11:00am
2. General entry for next year then opens on site the day following this years race from 9:00am to 11:00am. You have to be there in person, and you can't get another person to register you.
3. Any remaining slots are then made available online through active.com starting at 12:00 noon.
Remember these times are local race times.

I would recomend if you live within a couple of hours drive of Panama City, Go down and register in person. That wasn't an option for me, and if it's not for you, try online. Make sure you sign up with www.active.com before hand so there are no delays, and then get ready the morning after the race at 11:55, whatever time it works out to be in your area, and find the fastest computer you can with the fastest connection you can, and start trying to get through a couple of minutes before registration is supposed to open.

If you don't get through, there are other options availble by way of charity slots etc. You could go that route as well.

Let me know how you make out. I might post this on my blog. I can't believe someone is actually reading this. Best of luck.