Thursday, February 13, 2020

My New York City Marathon Plan

If you read my "Heartbroken" post, you probably know that although I ran a time-qualifying race for the TCS New York City Marathon, when I went to register, the spots for runners who had a non-NYRR qualifying time were ALL GONE... I'll be honest, I was (as the title of the previous post referenced) heartbroken. I never imagined not getting in. Ever since crossing the finish line at the REVEL Big Bear Half Marathon and running a 1:32:50 I started planning my NYC trip in my mind... And then this happened... And I was left shocked, disappointed, sad and stuck having to decide what to do next.


The first thing I did was allow myself to feel the feelings for 24 hours. I wanted to give myself the space to feel the disappointment for having put in the work and not being able to capitalize on it. I wanted to have the option to be a little bitter at my job since that was why I wasn't on the computer right at 9am PST when registration opened (I was working at a local elementary's jog-a-thon). I decided I'd give myself a day to wallow and then I'd have to let those feelings go.

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I figured I had two (main) options. First, I could enter the lottery for a FOURTH time and see if the lady luck would be on my side. Second, I could forget about the race (at least for 2020) and look into doing something else (at the time I was throwing around the idea of maybe running a 100K or something non-official like the Zion Traverse).

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Well, when the hubby was trying to console me, he mentioned something that he probably thought was just a nice thing to say, but I sort of grabbed the idea and ran with it... literally! He said, "If you don't get in with the lottery, we should just plan a trip there anyway and you can do your own marathon." And, that, folks, was what I would call a lightbulb moment!



So, now I have my two options. First, I am going to enter the lottery. If I don't get in, then I am going to run my own NYC marathon. I haven't worked out the logistics yet (since I don't want to "waste" my time if I end up getting in via the lottery), but the hubby and I will fly to New York (on a different weekend than the official race) and I will run 26.2 miles. I am thinking of maybe adding a virtual aspect of my adventure if folks want to join (or possibly even an IRL meet-up so people can run/ bike/ scoot along with me) and maybe a charity aspect in case folks don't want to run but want to donate to a cause. Again, I haven't worked out the deets, but I am pretty excited about the possibilities. It doesn't matter what cards I'm dealt, I'm gonna make the most of them... and RUN NYC (one way or another)! Who's coming with me?! 

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Are you entering the lottery for this year's race?

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