Registration for the 6th Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon opened at 8:00 am this morning. It closed before 8:04 am after selling out in less than four minutes. 3 minutes and 58 seconds to be exact.
The Monkey course is one of the most challenging road marathons in the United States. It includes 3,700 feet both of ascent and descent, nearly 7,500 feet of total elevation change.
Race Director ‘Monkey Trent‘ had the following to say when I asked him about the Flying Monkey Marathon selling out in less than four minutes:
Every year, my faith in humanity diminishes as more and more people want to come flog themselves in our useless, rinky dink race.
Even worse, many people don’t learn from their mistakes and come back, year after year. While I am not a terribly religious Monkey, I think this is pertinent: (Running Reverend) Dallas ‘Mt. Juliet’ Smith reminds me that Proverbs 26:11 teaches, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.”
Remember last October when marathon runners across the world threw a fit when the Boston Marathon filled in 8 hours?
Yeah, exactly! FOUR MINUTES!
If you didn’t have your credit card information memorized then you got shut out this morning.
An anonymous marathoner had this to say about the race filling up:
I was on at 8:00 a.m. August 1 to register, finished the first page, selected “continue” and was told it was full. What a disappointment.
I talked to several disappointed ‘fools’ this morning who had similar stories about getting shut out.
The race is popular because of the difficulty level and scenic views it provides overlooking Nashville. It doesn’t hurt that the Monkey has awesome swag, a unique finisher’s wood/medal, and a finisher’s potluck buffet of goodies and beer that would cost you $25 a plate in a big city.
All the goodies and food are included with your registration.
Monkey has a high retention rate of runners from year to year because the race serves as a bit of a homecoming for several elite and popular marathoners from around the country.
No one runs off after this marathon (even if they had the legs remaining to do so). Almost everyone hangs around afterwards for the food, drink, and fellowship among friends and with runners they have only read about or seen from a distance before.
The popular cult marathon takes place just outside of Nashville in the Harpeth Hills every November.
Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Website
RELATED: The 10 Best Marathons in Tennessee
Sure glad I ran this race before it got so difficult to get in. Great race, should be on everyone’s to do list.
Idiots. And what hope for us international entrants. Idiots.
Im in for my second trip around Percy Warner. I had jokingly said over the past couple years that the Monkey would probably be my first marathon. Turns out, it was my first.
But wasn’t there early regisration for anyone who had ever run it in the past (maybe a couple thousand people?)? I think the race director sent a private email with a password to all those people 6 days before the August 1st registration opened. 170 people were already registered…because of that there may have been barely 50 spots available at 8:00 a.m. on Aug 1st.
Anyway, I’m running it again, so no lack of love! Just sayin. It didn’t sell out in 4 minutes!