Beach to Beacon 10K sells out in under five minutes

Apparently, the marathon isn’t the only distance in high demand south of the border.

Hot on the heels of a Running USA report that marathon participation numbers were up in 2013, the Beach to Beacon 10K sold out in less than five minutes.

Registration for the Maine race has become its own form of competition in recent years. But instead of pounding the pavement, runners sprint through the online sign-up process in order to win a coveted spot on the start line in sleepy seaside town of Cape Elizabeth.

Roughly 4,000 people entered the race in just 4:32, selling out 16 seconds faster than in 2013. Would-be entrants that did not get through the form in time were immediately notified when the race sold out. They were then able to fill in a form for entry into a lottery to secure one of the 1,900 slots kept open for those that couldn’t compete in the online rush.

In total, the race will have about 7,000 runners on Aug. 2, which includes 800 charity spots as well as a deep, world class elite field.

In recent years, many big events, including the New York and Chicago Marathons, have gone with a lottery system. Last year, Chicago used Active.com for their registration process and their servers were overwhelmed in minutes, causing a crash. The company that does Beach to Beacon’s registration, RacePartner, have had seven years to practice the mad dash to get registered online. “Preparation is the key,” RacePartner’s Rob Anderson told the Cape Elizabeth Sentry. “It’s a luxury to know what’s going to happen.”

Beach to Beacon was founded by American marathoning icon Joan Benoit Samuselson and is now organized by Dave McGillivray, who is also the race director of the Boston Marathon.