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Broad Street Run Registration Begins Wednesday

By Hadas Kuznits

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - If you plan on participating in the city's 33rd annual Broad Street Run, make sure you register on time. Registration for the May 6th race is expected to sell out within a matter of days.

"We've sold out the past three years and we want to make sure that they all have an equal opportunity to register this year."

Blue Cross Broad Street Run registration opens this Wednesday, and race director Jim Marino says once they hit 30,000 participants, no one else will be allowed to register.

Listen to Hadas Kuznits' interview with Jim Marino in this CBS Philly Podcast:

Podcast

"We obviously want to get the word out early, so all the runners have an equal chance to get into the race this year."

With such high demand, why are they capping the race at 30,000?

"The most important consideration obviously is the safety factors. Obviously we have to make sure that they're protected medically along the way. We want to make sure that we have enough water stations available, enough EMT services along the way and just to make it comfortable along the way. I mean, it is a long stretch -- 10 miles."

The way to register is online.

"This year, we're going to open registration on February 15th, so it's the day after Valentine's Day, so everybody can remember the date.  The most important thing is go to BroadStreetRun.com."

He says they've made improvements to the registration process.

"This year, one thing we are going to offer is we're going to offer electronic transfer in the event that a person registers early and they cannot run, we're going to be able to give another person an opportunity later on to transfer into the race and take their place."

Marino says they're not telling exactly when the website will be accepting participants, because they don't want their server to crash. But, he will say that it will be sometime in the late morning on Wednesday.

"We do ask everyone to be patient as they go to enter and make sure that they fill out everything carefully the first time so that they don't get shut out of the event."

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