Please Don't Let Me Win the Lottery...

This week I played the lottery.  And while everyone else hopes they win the lottery, I kinda hope I don’t. 

That probably has to do with the fact that if I win my lottery I don’t get any money. As a matter of fact, if I win I have to pay money. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars by the time it is all said and done. 

To run in the 2012 NYC Marathon. 

I applied for a non-guaranteed entry spot into the NYC marathon which will be held on November 4, 2012.  I am not fast enough to qualify for a guaranteed entry spot; in order to do that I would have to run a half-marathon in 1 hour 37 minutes (my fastest half-marathon time is 2:09).

Epcot - 5:30am

I have only run one other marathon: Walt Disney World in January 2011. That was a great experience (except for the wanting to die around mile 22 part). At the WDW marathon you get to run through all four of the theme parks: first through Epcot, then Magic Kingdom, the Animal Kingdom, and finally Hollywood Studios. Running through the parks makes it almost worth having to be at the start line at 3:30am.

Stopping for pics...

The Disney marathon is exceptionally well-organized and a truly magical experience. I would suggest it to anyone who wanted to run a marathon – especially people, like me, who aren’t fast. Unlike Boston, Disney loves the five hour marathoners too. (I would like to say in my defense, I probably could’ve done it in about 4:30 if I hadn’t stopped to take so many pictures with Disney characters).

NYC will of course be very different from Disney.  The NYC Marathon is one of the “Big 5” marathons (for those who don’t speak Runner’s World, the Big 5 marathons are those part of the World Marathon Majors: NYC, Chicago, Boston, London, and Berlin). NYC will actually be shown on live television this year, for the first time in 20 years. Probably because they heard I’m applying.

Besides Disney, NYC is the only other marathon I’ve ever been interested in running. It is on my Bucket List. The course is completely fabulous and goes through all five boroughs.  It begins on Staten Island, crosses into Brooklyn, up through Queens, flips around in the Bronx and ends in Manhattan smack in the middle of Central Park. 47,000 people ran the NYC marathon in 2011 and will again in 2012.
The marathon basically shuts down the entire city for most of a day. 

I have to be honest; my chances of winning the lottery are not good.  The marathon organizers estimate the percentage of accepted lottery applicants will be between 8-12%. So there’s a 90% chance I won’t have to run the hundreds and hundreds of training miles needed to adequately prepare for a marathon. I would get to keep all my toenails this summer, not have to get up at 6am to run before it gets too hot, and could eliminate the words foot cramps, runner’s gel and porta-potties from my regular vocabulary. 

The good news for me is this: I will run the NYC marathon.  They used to have what I call the “three strikes, you’re in” policy. If you apply and are denied entry for three consecutive lotteries, you move into the “guaranteed entry” section for the fourth race.  I applied in 2011 and was rejected. That means if I am denied this year and 2013, I will automatically be able to run in 2014.  I’m fortunate because the race organizers eliminated the policy in 2012(because of the growing number of applicants), so I am in the last group who will be grandfathered in.

I’ll be sure to announce in late April when I hear if I "won" the lottery.  And if I do, I'm sure I'll be complaining about my luckiness all the way to the first weekend of November...