Gators hoping to run in next week’s Midnight Fun Run may be left standing still.
Registration closed early for the eighth annual run, which is scheduled for midnight next Wednesday, due to an all-time high of 2,000 registrants.
Even though registration was supposed to stay open without a cap until the day of the event, it closed midday Wednesday.
“We’ve been watching it since day one, knowing that it is unprecedented growth for us,” said Andy Howard, assistant director of marketing and communications for RecSports.
The goal was to reach 1,500 participants, which would beat the previous record amount of 1,300, he said.
The run attracted more than 800 people within the first 24 hours of registration.
However, soon after hitting 800, Howard and a few other race coordinators went over the logistics of the event and ultimately determined that this year it would not be wise to accept more than 2,000 people.
Their concerns included security, the service of the breakfast and the administration of check-in procedures.
Howard said that within the first week, 77 percent of the registrants were first-time participants.
“It’s exciting for us,” he said. “It’s one of our goals to always encourage people who haven’t been involved.”
The department plans to accommodate more participants in 2015 due to the increase in interest.
He said the majority of respondents said they heard about the race through email campaigns from RecSports or through Facebook.
“Every time we sent out an email campaign, we had somewhere around 500 people sign up,” Howard said.
Toward the end of the registration period, RecSports stopped sending out email campaigns, so those not able to sign up wouldn’t be upset.
The organization also began to send out messages to inform people that the event was going to have a cap.
“We didn’t wait until registration was closed to tell everybody, hoping that everyone would have a fair chance to register,” Howard said.
Eduardo Rizo, a 20-year-old UF biochemistry junior, said he was not able to sign up for the run.
He said he is disappointed because he and his friends thought it would have been a good way to finish off the semester.
“We didn’t sign up in advance because we didn’t think it was going to fill up,” Rizo said.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 4/18/2014 under the headline "With 2,000 registrants, Midnight Fun Run spots full"]
