Registration For Virtual Boston Marathon In October Underway After 'Technical Difficulties' At Start
BOSTON (CBS) - Registration began Tuesday morning for the 2021 virtual Boston Marathon and it got off to a bumpy start.
The Boston Athletic Association is opening up the virtual race to the first 70,000 people who register. The process started at 10 a.m. in the Athletes' Village and demand appeared to be high. Some complained they were denied access because they tried too may times to get in to register.
The B.A.A. tweeted at 10:15 a.m. that they were "experiencing technical difficulties" and were "working to resolve them as quickly as possible."
The issues were resolved about 15 minutes later.
You must be 18 or older to enter the virtual race. The B.A.A. says it's open to runners "of all levels and abilities."
The virtual race will be held October 8-10, just before the in-person race on Monday, October 11, if road races are allowed in Massachusetts then.
The in-person race field will be reduced to just 20,000 runners this year, after last year's marathon was canceled because of the pandemic.
Virtual participants must complete the 26.2 miles "in one, continuous attempt" to get their medal, but there won't be any time restriction.
Last year, more than 16,000 runners finished the virtual race.
Anyone still having issues registering can email the B.A.A. at registration@baa.org.
