Online glitch stops Pikes Peak runners

A crashed server halted registration Thursday for the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon, causing frustration for hundreds of would-be competitors and headaches for baffled race organizers.

Less than three hours after registration began for the Aug. 18-19 races that are limited to 2,600 runners, the server at www.active.com crashed because of a flood of entries for the races and other events across the country.

Race organizers closed registration before noon, having fielded hundreds of phone calls and more than 575 e-mails from people asking questions they could not answer.

Most people who attempted to register were stonewalled by a Web page displaying an “unexpected error” message after they entered their payment information. Some received a confirmation number after several tries but did not get a confirmation e-mail from The Active Network showing proof of payment.

Race organizers fear that many of the hundreds of people who successfully regis- tered had their credit cards charged multiple times. Registration costs $85 for the Pikes Peak Ascent and $75 for the Pikes Peak Marathon, plus Manitou Springs’ 5 percent excise tax and an Active.com fee of about $5.

Race registrar and former Ascent and Marathon champion Matt Carpenter said he expects Active to grant refunds to those with duplicate registrations. Phone messages left with Active representatives were not returned.

Registration likely will resume next week, although confirmation numbers might not be honored, said Ron Ilgen, president of the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon.

Ilgen said the race’s board of directors has two options — honor confirmation numbers and fill the remaining entry slots or invalidate confirmation numbers and “do a complete do-over.”

Ilgen said details of the board’s decision likely will come by Monday and will be posted on www.pikespeakmarathon.org. Information also will be available by calling 473-2625.

“We feel bad about it,” Ilgen said. “We’re going to try to make this as right as we can and as fair as we can. We apologize, and we hope our runners understand.”

Colorado Springs insurance agent Mike Everson said he probably completed “$4,000 worth” of registrations in 3½ hours. His registration went through after he reported to work two hours later than he intended.

“They need to contact the people who registered,” Everson said. “There are a lot of people that got registered and don’t know there’s a problem. People who think they’re in are not in, and that’s going to create some problems.”

Nona LaValley of Colorado Springs needed two hours to complete registration for her husband, who was away on a skiing trip. She plans to call her credit card company to make sure she was charged only once.

“It wasn’t supposed to be this big of a deal,” LaValley said. “I’m going to cry if I was charged every time I clicked it. My husband owes me bigtime.”

There’s an 1,800-runner limit for the Pikes Peak Ascent, a 13.32-mile race that starts in Manitou Springs and ends on the summit of Pikes Peak.

The Pikes Peak Marathon, which stretches 26.21 miles up and down the mountain, has an 800-runner limit.

The Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon is in the final year of its contract with Active, a San Diego-based company.

“They’re supposedly the top in the business,” Ilgen said. “Their servers couldn’t handle it, and they locked up. They had trouble even shutting the system down because they couldn’t get in themselves. It was the worst-case scenario.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0256 or brian.gomez@gazette.com

PIKES PEAK ASCENT AND MARATHON

Race dates:

Aug. 18, 19

Entry limit:

2,600 runners

Updates:

A decision on what to do about registration issues likely will come by Monday and will be posted on www.pikespeakmarathon.org. Information also may be available by calling 473-2625.