Feb. 28th----the day every runner looking to do a fall marathon had their eyes on their bank accounts---and fingers on the refresh button of their computers.
Why you may ask?
Today marked the drawing day for the NYC Marathon lottery. A day that over 100,000 people were looking forward to (or dreading, depending on how you look at it).
It's crazy to think that many people applied to run this year----as NYRR reported, more than any other year. And just over 15,000 made it in (less that 15%)
And I was one of them.
It's crazy to think that lightning can strike twice, but for the second time, I was accepted into the marathon via the lottery.
(Note to self: Maybe I should play the real lottery someday.)
After failing to get into the Chicago Marathon, I wasn't planning on getting my hopes up---and with the sheer number of applicants, and my luck with the first lottery in 2016, I figured, maybe 2018 wasn't my year for running.
But I won't lie, I prayed to have something to motivate me through the rest of the year and was really, really hoping it would be this.
I woke up crazy early, not intending to automatically look up my account, but alas, I did.
6:45 am Kansas Time (whatever it's really called): Nothing.
I checked a Facebook Group I'm a member of and it looked like some people were already getting their credit cards charged. (That's how you find out first---if you get a whooping $295 charge on your card: You're In!) It's rare a massive group of people are hoping for such an expensive surprise.
I figured since I was awake, I might as well throw on some running shoes (a last minute sacrifice to the Running gods) and get at least a few miles in on the hotel treadmill (blurg).
It paid off, because by the time I was finished, and refreshing my account---what did I see:
HOLY CRAP.
I'm pretty there was a squeal. And a dance. And an Oh, shit.
Because for one glorious second you can celebrate. But then reality sits in and I knew all the hard work ahead of me.
(But I won't really think about that until June)
Later in the evening, once the lottery is finished---for some reason, it takes all day, I got this email:
After bawling last November watching Shalane Flanagan cross the finish line to be the first US woman to win in 40 years, getting to see her beaming face on my acceptance letter into the 2018 event makes it just that much sweeter. I know that there is a lot of hard, humbling, gritty work
ahead, but excited to be getting another chance to run the 5 boroughs.
Now, I know I haven't written in a very long, long, long time (Yes, 2017 did happen---but I was busy doing other things. Like crushing the patriarchy). But I do remember wishing I had kept a better log of my time training the first go around. It's my hope that I'll write at least once a week just as a way to not only log the miles and the work, but to also remember to slow down, process and be grateful.
Here we go again....feet, body, mind...hope you're up for it.
(FYI: You don't have a choice).
