mile at a time

Who would have thought?  After my marathon debut in 2005, I clearly remember promising my friends and family that I would “NEVER do that again”!    A half marathon, 13.1 miles, I can handle…26.2, that is another story.

 Spring forward to Valentine’s Day morning 2009.  While enjoying a cup of coffee and a bagel with a few of my running buddies, one proceeded to mention the New York City Marathon.  “We should enter our names” Ronnie said so enthusiastically.   A little background here for those of you that are not familiar with the NYC Marathon.  There are basically only three ways to get in:

1. You can have a qualifying time. 
2. You can run for one of their designated charities. 
3. You can have your name put in a hat with 90,000 other people and see if you are lucky enough for it to be drawn.  With 38,000 entries total, the chances of you being chosen are a bit on the slim side.  

“What are the chances we will all get in” were my friend’s next words.   I knew that that moment, at least one of us was going to NY. 

I decided I needed to give this some serious thought.  After all, I had been running since my half marathon in January, however I had not logged near the miles needed for a fall marathon.  If I were to get into this race, the all out training would start in June which would be a huge commitment for the hot, summer months.  Once the sign up time arrived though, I registered.  I figured if I got in, there was some reason I was meant to run this race.

We had a few months before we would be contacted on our entry, so I had honestly put the race behind me.   While on vacation, the fateful email came across on my phone…  “Congratulations.  You have been accepted to run the ING New York City Marathon 2009 on Sunday, November 1.”  After a few days and no word from my friends, I knew that they probably did not get in.  I had two options at this point: acknowledge the email and go run, or ignore it and tell my friends I didn’t get in either.   I knew the guilt would set in come November 1 if I was not running.  There was only one real option.  Pack your bags honey, we are going to New York!!

I was correct, my friends did not get in this time, which actually worked out for the best.  Ronnie has completed the marathon twice, so missing this year was not a big deal.  She has offered tons of training advice and thoughts on the race which has helped me prepare for the big day.  My first purchase upon arriving home from vacation was my new running watch.  With a GPS system plus other fancy stuff, this watch makes it possible for me to log exact miles and then transfer the information to my computer which helps me monitor my training.  The official training kick-off day was June 15.  Allison, another running friend, was kind enough to send a training schedule my way.  I have it hanging on my running room door (another story) and I mark down my miles religiously.  Weird how that piece of paper has become such a big part of my training, not to mention my life.

The Team Teen runners are so excited that I got in.  They all laugh when they hear the number of miles I log each week.  They laugh too because they all know that I never planned on running another marathon.  Something has brought me back to this challenge, however at this point I am not exactly sure what that is yet.  Maybe it is the fact of doing one of the greatest marathons EVER and for its 40^th year!  Maybe it is for what the training will bring to me along the way.  Maybe it is to show the teens that anything is possible.

Run on friends,

Karen