Six Foot Track Marathon 2013 Entry Information
SixFootTrack
To Newsletter Subscribers.
Entries for the Guaranteed entrants only will open as scheduled at 9am Thursday 29th November 2012 and will remain open for 48hrs.
Important changes have been made to this year’s guarantees and guarantees based on the number of previous 6 Ft finishes are now restricted to the following:
5 finishes…going for buckle
11 and over finishes…going for belt plus everyone above that i.e. long termers.
6-10, only with finishes in the last 3 races, i.e. those with buckle that are on a continuous streak.
This will be reviewed after the 48hr entry window, and if more spots are available then they will be opened to others in that 6-10 range. This is to get the target guarantee allocation in line with our original expectation.
The general entry for Novices and other Veterans will open at 9am on Saturday 15th December. The numbers allocated for these will be calculated after the guarantees have been closed, with the total intake for the race expected to be 900.
Please note that we still have a limit of 850 imposed on us, but my intention is to use this oversubscription in order to have a start list of ‘no less than 850’ on the day. This limit is no longer due to congestion on the track, nor Dept Lands/6Ft Track Trust, but mainly due to traffic and parking logistics which is largely influenced by competitor/spectator decisions. There will be advice to entrants later on how we can manage this to get greater numbers in future.
Qualification Status:
The qualification window of December 2011 – January 2013 has been relaxed for one group only. Those that were on the start list for 2012 and completed the 2011 race may use their 2011 finish time. There are no other exceptions, so please do not request special consideration because I simply cannot make decisions for some people without disregarding the entire qualification process. There really has been enough time and opportunity to qualify for the event.
On
the plus side, I have added a number of races to the list which now
stands at 24 plus of course general road marathons, and overseas ultras
with qualification standards- with a few more to be added. The list now also includes all three Oxfam TW’s.
If
you have done a trail race outside of that list please do not just
email me to tell me that you have done it – I do need a bit of
comparative data with 6ft finishers within that particular event, and it
should usually be accepted and added to the list.
Online Entry:
To re-iterate my earlier comments, the online entry provider that we have used for the last three years have once again been engaged because they are the only ones that have indicated ability to manage our requirements. We have made a few adjustments based on experience, but if anyone knows of any way we can further improve it then please send me a note.
The throttle will be adjusted to accept the entire allocated amount of spots available, and there will be no ‘landing page’ or queue.
You will be required to submit a new password, and I suspect the personal information page will thus not be auto filled. This is to do away with people forgetting password and to put everyone on the same level. Of course once the email and password has been submitted and you are allowed to proceed to the entry details pages then you are ‘in’- as long as you complete the entry within the expected 10min. So please fill out your details accurately.
There will be no merchandise images to view on the entry- trust us that it will look as good as always. I have been advised that the images slow process down.
The only real advice I want to give is that there is no need to log on with multiple browsers or computers to ‘increase your chances’- it won’t, it may in fact cause issues for yourself, but will certainly add to the volume of traffic unnecessarily, and stop others from getting in.
Waitlist:
Last year’s auto waitlist did the job well from my side in allocating and accepting entries, but with only email information I had no ability to rank and list the wait listers and/or tell people where they are on the list. So I have reverted to the waitlist form used for 2011 which will accept all details as if you are entering the ‘waitlist event’, but without paying at checkout. This was a burden to manually administer, but I believe that I will be able to at least manually submit the email addresses to the ‘auto wait list’ used last year (one by one unfortunately...volunteer?). So with a fair bit of additional work on my side I can have the functionality of both systems and give you the information you ask for.
2012 entrants will be favoured on waitlist. The waitlist form will have a checkbox for ‘2012 entrant’ and prior to forming auto waitlist it will be sorted by 2012 entrant in order of registration, then the rest in order of registration. Bearing in mind that each year we exhaust the waitlist, there should eventually be a spot for everyone.
Feedback:
Lastly, the place for feedback, comments and any question that is not answered on the website is our new “Race Director’s Blog” on the www.sixfoot.com website. I look forward to chatting with you there ocassionally.
Until next time, stay safe and healthy and I look forward to seeing you at the start line.
Colin