Chicago Marathon registration temporarily suspended

Registration for the 2013 Chicago Marathon opened at 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, and lasted just about four hours. But it didn't sell out -- organizers are having technical difficulties forcing registration to be "temporary suspended."

Our registration provider Active.com is still working to resolve system-wide technical issues that have caused the temporary suspension of registration for the 2013 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. We will provide another registration update this evening at 6 p.m. Central Standard Time.

Please note that the 2013 Chicago Marathon has not yet sold out. We will reopen registration once the issue has been resolved. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

The marathon's official Twitter account attempted to explain the situation to hopeful runners with its first tweets in over four months:

If you're registering for the 2013 #ChiMarathon and are experiencing error, we apologize for the inconvenience. We're working on a solution.

— Chicago Marathon (@ChiMarathon) February 19, 2013

If you think you may have been charged more than once during registration, you will be refunded. Please email: office@chicagomarathon.com

— Chicago Marathon (@ChiMarathon) February 19, 2013

"If you think you may have been charged more than once during registration ... " Yeah, that's not a good look. And a quick look at their mentions would indicate their messages are doing little to help quell people's anger and frustration.

In fact, the company that is handling the registration, Active.com, has been more vocal and informative than the marathon itself:

We are working closely with @chimarathon to resolve this issue and will provide another update at 6pm CT.

— Active.com (@active) February 19, 2013

Additionally, Active established a special page that allows runners to check their status and see if their registration actually went through.

The 2013 Chicago Marathon is set to be run on Oct. 13.

UPDATE:

We are incredibly sorry that runners interested in signing up for the 2013 Bank of America Chicago Marathon experienced such difficulties today. We have been working nonstop with our registration provider to find the root of the problem and a solution. Many runners were able to sign up before the registration process was suspended. There are currently 15,000 entries remaining. Before we re-open registration, we need to make sure all technical issues are permanently resolved. We will provide ample notice regarding when the registration process will re-open.

For those who were able to successfully complete the registration process, you can confirm your registration by going to www.chicagomarathon.com/confirmation. For those that were charged more than once, our registration provider Active.com is in the process of refunding any duplicate charges and will notify these participants.

We do not plan on reopening registration within the next two days. We will provide another update on registration by 5 p.m. Central Standard Time on Thursday.

UPDATE #2:

At 3 p.m. CST on Thursday, February 28, we will announce an equitable plan for how and when we will reopen registration.