Broad Street Run 2013 Lottery to Open February 4th

You'll have 12 days to enter, race director Jim Marino says.

The time has (finally!) come for more details on how the new lottery-registration system for the Broad Street Run, to be held on May 5th, will work this year. In a letter posted on the (brand-spanking-new) Broad Street website, race director Jim Marino says the lottery will open on Monday, February 4th, at 12:01 a.m. and will remain open for 12 days, closing at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, February 15th. Runners will be selected “electronically,”  and the 2013 race will be capped at 40,000 runners.

According to the lottery’s procedures, all registrants will have to enter a credit card number; your card will not be charged the $40 entry fee unless you are chosen. Only one entry per person will be accepted. So as not to overwhelm the system, organizers are asking runners to adhere to a lottery-entry schedule as follows:

Last names between A and F: register on February 4th and 5th
Last names between G and L: register on February 6th and 7th
Last names between M and R: register on February 8th and 9th
Last names between S and Z: register on February 10th and 11th
All others register on February 12th through 15th

As the site points out, when you enter the lottery won’t improve (or diminish) your chances for selection. “You will have the same chance as the last person to register on February 15th,” Marino writes.

This year, you can also register as a group, a move to allow runners who plan to train and run together to all be selected for registration. Groups of between two and five runners can sign up together. If the group is selected, all runners in that group get bibs; if the group is rejected, no one does. “A group has the same chance to get into the race as an individual,” the website says. Runners may not sign up as both individuals and groups—it’s one or the other.

The names of all runners who enter the lottery, along with whether or not they were selected for registration, will be posted on broadstreetrun.com by 10 a.m. on February 19th. In addition, all lottery registrants will receive an email saying whether or not they were selected.

As promised, the race is making accommodations for veteran runners, defined as those who’ve run 10 Broad Street Runs, either consecutively or non-consecutively. Veterans must enter the lottery with everyone else, but if they aren’t chosen, they can “gain a guaranteed veteran entry which will be accepted if submitted before March 1, 2013,” according to the website. If you don’t make it through the lottery, you can check on whether you qualify as a veteran using a searchable database on the Broad Street Run website, which will be up and running after February 1st. The site also says, “If you ran under a different name (maiden name, nickname, etc) please send an e-mail and we will update our records accordingly.” These requests should be sent to bsrveterans@aol.com.

Also of note: The website mandates specifically that this is a running race and that walking is strongly discouraged. Participants must be able to run a sub-15 minute mile and finish the race in 2.5 hours.

Check out the race’s FAQ page for more.

>> What do you think of the new lottery and registration procedures? Share your thoughts in the comments.