The ING New York City Marathon Athlete Alert FAQ
Listed here are frequently asked questions, which will help ensure your success with the Athlete Alert service for the ING New York City Marathon.
How much does it cost to take advantage of the Athlete Alert service?
$2.99 in the U.S. / $5.99 International.
How many runners can I track using the Athlete Alert service?
If you register on the website before race day, you may follow up to 3 runners for both domestic and international.
If you track via our On-Demand service available on race day only, you can only track 1 runner for $2.99. To follow additional runners, it costs $2.99 per runner.
How does the On-Demand service work?
On-Demand athlete alert tracking will be available on race day and is only offered for US handsets only. Users can text the [BIB NUMBER] to the short code 99731 to request the latest recorded split at any time.
Once you have registered for our on-demand service, you will receive the last split times of the runner you are tracking. To receive the next split time, you must text in again. You may text in as many times as you would like.
What's the process that allows me to get athlete alerts?
Runners are tracked using timing technology and the time data is sent from the timing company to us, the texting company, to your carrier, and finally to your phone. While the process is almost instantaneous, delays or even failed delivery can occur in these instances: If you are A. out of range, B. in a dead spot, C. your carrier delays delivery, D. your carrier is blocking messages sent to your phone, E. you have depleted the credits in your texting plan or F. Your phone is turned off!
How do I register a phone to receive athlete alerts for a particular runner on the ING New York Marathon website?
Once you have submitted on the web, you should get a text message that includes a verification code, which will expire in 10 minutes after you receive the text. Once you have received this message, be sure to go back to the site to complete your registration before the code expires.
Then follow the rest of the screens to track your runner.
I didn't receive a confirmation text message - what could be the problem? Here are the possible reasons:
- You may have a corporate issued phone connected to Blackberry or Microsoft Enterprise Server. This will not allow you to receive text messages from our system. Please contact your company or your carrier to try and get messages unblocked.
- You may be in an International Country that isn't supported.
- You may have a prepaid service like MetroPCS, TracFone or Cricket that isn't supported.
- Make sure you have responded YES on your cellphone's SMS messaging client.
What countries are covered for International?
Most countries are covered, however, please check the country and carrier list on the drop down menu when you register. If both your country and carrier are NOT listed, that means we do not support your country and you will not be able to receive athlete alert updates at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience.
For all others, questions, please email support@textingforward.com.
