NYC

The short story: Yesterday was the NYC marathon. I hope to run the next NYC marathon in 363 days. I’ve never run a marathon before.

The long story: My friend Rob got really into running a few years ago. Around this time last year he told a few of us he was trying to qualify for the Boston marathon.

We told him that if he qualified we would go to Boston with him. The planning was intense. We fought over the location of the proposed hotel. At one point a few of us decided we’d like to rent a houseboat in the harbour because it was cheaper. We were going to take in the annual Red Sox game that weekend. But in the end, we all bailed on Rob. He went by himself. He stayed in a hotel room that straddled a highway. It was the ultimate bail on our part, and for the most part, we felt shame. So when he announced a few weeks that he was going to try to qualify for the NYC marathon, well a couple of us jumped at the opportunity to tag along, tour the city, and redeem ourselves a bit.

But I got to thinking, why not run the NYC marathon? I’ve always wanted to run a marathon. It’s one of those things that would be nice to say. “Yeah, I did it.” And we’re not talking just your regular marathon, we’re talking the king of marathons. So I checked the web site…and my hopes were dashed. Damn, the qualification is tough! I could pretty much pick a marathon anywhere else in North America, pay my registration, and show up on race day. But not in NYC.

For NYC the marathon itself is the easy part. See they don’t let just anyone run. You need to be fast, or you need to raise a few thousand dollars for charity. But then, there’s the lottery. You can register for a lottery – with the winners picked in March or April 2011 – and not have to worry about meeting any of those pesky requirements like being able to actually run a marathon.

So today – the day after the 2010 marathon – I registered for the lottery. Depending on where you look online, the odds of being chosen are anywhere from 1 in 3 to 1 in 9. Not bad, and a hell of a lot easier than trying to qualify by running a marathon in 2 hours 55 mins! Or a half marathon in 1 hour 23 mins. So we’ll see what happens. It was $11. At the very least I got an email with my entry number confirming my application for the NYC marathon.

But…what if I get picked? I’ll actually have to run a marathon. The route looks incredible – through all five boroughs, past some incredible scenery. What a great way to see the city. But again, there’s that little problem that you’re running for 40+ kms.

So I’m going to start training. If I get picked in the lottery, I’ll be running the NYC marathon next November. And who knows, I might even train enough in the next six months to qualify legitimately. But not likely.

First step: buy some new shoes and a GPS watch. Rob is putting together a training schedule for me and I need to run a 5 K or 10 K so he can know what he’s working with.