This past November I watched the New York City (NYC) Marathon on tv. I thought it was awesome. You run through all five boroughs of New York City – Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx. The race had great crowd support. 50,000 people running. No real stringent time requirements. Close to my in-laws and other family who could hopefully cheer me on. I fell in love and wanted to try it on my own.
Registration opened for the NYC Marathon on December 2. I applied. I mean after all, one only has a 12% chance of getting into the actual marathon via the lottery. There were 77,087 applicants for only 9,170 spots. I figured I would apply every year, and the year that I got in would be the year that I actually run a marathon. I figured there was no chance I would get in, especially my first year applying.
Well, I was wrong. I was actually accepted into the NYC Marathon. I’m still in disbelief. It is surreal. Talk to my sister and she will tell you how excited I was.
Yesterday was the drawing. I knew the drawing would occur during the whole day Wednesday, March 26th. My husband took my daughter to school so I was able to start working a little earlier than usual. The first thing I did once I sat down at my computer was to check the New York Road Runners (NYRR) website (around 8:30 AM). When I logged onto that website there was a pop up (see screen shot below) that said “Welcome, Class of 2014”. I was surprised at how excited I was seeing that. Then I realized that probably everyone was getting that pop-up. What a cruel tease the NYC Marathon was playing on us. I confirmed a couple of hours later that everyone was getting this message regardless if they were in or not. 
After I realized the pop-up was probably being displayed to everyone, I checked out my NYRR page. I noticed that at the top it said I was registered (see screen shot below) in the NYC Marathon. I had never paid too much attention to this before but I swore it never said I was registered previously. Now I was starting to get nervously excited. I had not realized how much I wanted this until I started getting excited. A friend of mine told me that her page still showed her as not registered, so I was hopeful. 
So now I’m starting to go crazy. Did I get in? Am I still in the drawing? I clicked on the Races and Registrations link and saw this (see below): 
So apparently I’m still in the drawing and not in the marathon? I decided to check the bank account associated with my credit card. I noticed a pending charge on there (and forgot how much the marathon cost). I clicked for more details and found out it was a Pending Charge from NYRR! I had never been so excited to see a pending charge. The NYRR instructions said this (see screen shot below), but I was still afraid to believe it. It basically said, if your card was charged, you were in. I know it said this and I re-read it several times…but when you want something so badly you are afraid to believe it without more concrete evidence. I called my bank to confirm and they said the charge went through at 6:41 AM. 
I had people trying to talk some sense into me telling me I was in for sure. I was still afraid to accept that. I’ve only applied once yet I know people who have applied several years and have never gotten in. I knew of people who knew for sure that they were in as their status had changed on their NYRR page. But mine was not changing! Finally, around 1:13 PM I noticed this tweet (see below). After seeing that I double checked my bank account. For some reason the NYRR charge was no longer showing. OMG. I could not believe this. First I thought I was in, then I thought I was not in, then I was pretty sure I was in, then I was convinced they realized they had made a mistake and cancelled my bank transaction. I called my bank yet again to confirm the charge was still there. They confirmed it was but it was just not visible at this time for some reason. Around 1:30 PM I finally accepted that I was in the NYC 2014 Marathon! 
At this point since I was pretty sure I was in I decided to make a hotel reservation for the night before the race. I noticed on twitter a lot of people seemed to be in the same position as me – they thought they were accepted but they were not sure. I realized once everyone got the official notice that they were in, people would be booking hotels. So I made a reservation at the race headquarters hotel around 2:00 PM. I thought it was kind of pricey, but it was refundable and the race headquarters….and it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I booked. Well, I am glad I did. Later that night I started looking for other hotels with cheaper rates – I could not find anything. I also checked the Sheraton Times Square website around 11 PM and at that point all rooms were booked. My advice is reserve early, even before you know if you are in the marathon or not. Anyway, now that I was “in” I still wanted real confirmation. I finally got the email confirmation at 5:42 PM. 
Once I received the official email I immediately posted in on Facebook. About an hour later I noticed my NYRR page was finally updated: 
Looks like I am officially part of the TCS New York City Marathon Class of 2014! I am excited and scared all at the same time.
Family Vacation Adventures 