If I Can Make It There...New York, New York

One of my life dreams is to run the New York City Marathon. I’m sure everyone who actually reads this (or has ever talked to me) already knows this fact, but just in case, there it is again. When I got into the whole running thing I never had ANY desire to run a full marathon. Well, I actually never had any intentions to become a runner, but see how that turned out…. Anyway, when I was training for my first half I really only wanted to do that distance and be content with achieving that goal. Then, race day happened. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life, so I decided I wanted to run a full because how much cooler would that be? However, I knew there was a good chance that I will hate the distance and might only want to run one full marathon. My theory is go big or go home…thus the dream of running New York began. I hear it’s amazing (you get to run through all five boroughs and thousands of people come out to watch) and I love the city to death (I’ll take any reason to go). I can only begin to imagine how great it would be to participate in this race.

So, back in 2008 I submitted my first application for lottery admission. The only ways in to the NYC Marathon are to have your name drawn in the lottery, run for a charity, or have a fast enough qualifying time. Well lottery did not work for me, charity required me to raise at least $3000 and I certainly don’t run qualifying times that are tougher than Boston’s! This left me stuck waiting until 2009 to apply. For some reason I really thought I was going to get in this past year. I guess I figured they should know I was a serious runner at this point and I applied like the day they started taking applications, certainly that would count for something?? Sadly, I was mistaken. After waiting for 4 months I signed in to the website to find my rejection notice. I definitely cried when I saw that once again lottery had not worked for me. Why this silly thing matters to me so much I don’t know, but it does. In hindsight I realize that it was for the best as my summer of traveling through Europe and the Caribbean, moving, and changing jobs would not have allowed time for proper training. Still, doesn’t make me wish any less that I was in NY this weekend!

Anyway, I got some good news this week: the marathon is taking lottery applications the day after the race this year! That’s THIS Monday!!!! AND, even better, they’re announcing results in MARCH! Basically this means THIS MARCH I will know if I am running NY 2010 or NY 2011. Here’s how the lottery works: If you apply three consecutive years without being admitted you get an automatic entry the fourth year. So, if my name gets drawn this year, obviously I’m in for 2010, if not, then I know 2011 is my year. Hoping that I don’t have to wait that long, but I can be slightly stubborn so I KNOW I can make it to 2011 if I have to. Think of me Monday as begin the waiting game once again!

One last thing. Special thanks to all of my friends and family who have supported me in this little adventure…those of you who who’ve crossed your fingers through the application process, at least pretended to be interested in this ordeal and listened to me talk about it ☺, comforted me when I haven’t gotten in, encouraged me to keep pursuing NY when I’ve been frustrated that it’s been such a long wait, researched charities to find me an alternate way in, told me you would be there when I ran the race, and so on. It means the world to me and I know you will be my support system when it FINALLY happens!