She's Done Lost Her Head

I signed up this week to run the New York Marathon on Nov. 1.  I have no idea where that came from.  I have often been known to say that I could not and would not ever do such a thing.  Mike has run five marathons.  He is not a hard-core runner, just likes the sense of accomplishment.  He signed up a few months ago to run New York.  He ran it several years ago and really liked it.  I had no intentions of doing anything but supporting him on the sidelines, but something happened inside my brain.

First, I need to say that I (we) have only entered the lottery to be chosen to run it. Approximately 100,000 people sign up, but there are only around 30,000 people who get to run.  We will know in early June.  It is totally in God's hands.  I asked Mike what he would do if I was chosen but he wasn't, and he said then he would just go and support me.  I don't feel like I could do it without him, though.  

So - back to how I got to this place.  I was sitting at the Legally Blonde touring Broadway show on Tuesday night and for some reason I started thinking about it.  I am not sure why then and there those thoughts were going through my mind but they were.  I was thinking that if I was ever going to run a marathon then New York would be the one for me.  I LOVE NEW YORK and everything about it.  I have often said that I think God made a mistake because I was supposed to be born there.  I know God doesn't make mistakes, so of course that is a joke, but there is something about it that just makes me feel like I am at home when  I am there.  It is the only place I go that I am never ready to leave.  In the marathon you run through all five boroughs so you touch many parts of the city.  Those thoughts quickly escalated into why don't I try it.  

I came home that night and looked online to see if the registration deadline had passed, and it hadn't.  I went to bed and woke up still thinking about it.  I got on my computer, and before I knew it I had pushed all the buttons and signed myself up.  It is not cheap.  It costs $11 to apply.  No big deal there.  If I am chosen, however, it costs $171.  That is incentive right there to see it through.  Now, one of the underlying (and motivating) factors is my 40th birthday which takes place 11 days after the marathon.  I wasn't thinking about this that night at the show, but I have been thinking about it a lot over the past few months.  I want to be in better shape, and I know it is not getting any easier.  I have been thinking about getting a trainer, but the way I look at it I am basically paying $171 for following a marathon training program to get in shape over the next six months.  That is a lot cheaper than a trainer.

And - about the marathon itself, I have no big ambitions except to finish it.  As I have said over the past few days, "Who says I even have to run the whole thing?"  I will certainly try my best, because I don't want to be one of those people running on the streets after all the barricades have been taken down and I am no longer considered an official runner.  I don't know exactly what time you have to finish under to be considered official, but I think it is somewhere around 7 hours.

I don't usually make such quick decisions.  I over think things for days and days before I decide to do something.  Something about this decision process makes me think this is totally a God thing.  Now - again - I still have to get in.  As Mike said, it is in God's hands.  If you would like to pray along with me that I would get in, I'd appreciate it.  I don't really see me doing this anywhere but New York.  If I don't get in I'll just have to figure out another way to be fabulous and 40!