Monday, April 5, 2010

Day 156: My Own Private Marathon

One day and a few hours left until the start of the lottery for the 2010 Marathon. It begins on April 7 at 12:30 PM. They're doing a live streaming event of the lottery itself, and there are lottery parties going on all over the city. Way to build the drama!

What exactly is a lottery party? I'm not sure I understand. You go to someone's house, or a bar, or a running store maybe, and stand there holding a protein drink, sipping nervously, and wait until G-d knows when to find out if your number has been picked? If it has - hurrah! If not, sorry, go home and sit on your sofa for a year and wait for the next lottery. You don't have to train until 2011. Might as well soften up a bit now... Pass the ice cream!

Well I don't think I'm going to look at the live streaming event. I'm going to just keep training as planned, and act as if I got in; and then when November rolls around I'll check my status and find out the truth. If I got in, great - I'll be ready to go. If not, well, I'll have my own private marathon maybe the day before, when the streets are all clear and nobody's expecting me. I'll provide a service to the runners by scoping out the route a day ahead. Then I'll blog about it - and by then I'll have 40,000 readers - and they'll all log in to read my tips about the terrain. I'll be their marathon bloodhound.

If I don't make it in through the lottery, there are other options. There are charities I could run through. The fundraising demands are high though - in the thousands. Or my company might buy a sponsorship - but that would only get us 10 numbers total and there's a high demand at the office. Running seems to be the hip sport these days among executives in the adult beverage industry! I also have the impression that the lottery is a rolling one, so if you don't get in right away, you might get in later, if say someone chickens out and gives their number back. But I find it hard to believe that happens very often.

Anyway, it's starting to hit me that within a day and a half I'll have more information about what I may or may not be doing on November 7th, 2010! And can feel my heart racing even as I type this. What if I don't get in! What if I do... I don't know which of those outcomes is more terrifying.

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