Thursday, September 3, 2015

Whooooooops!

I am bouncing along at 40,000 feet, headed West to the "Happiest Place on Earth" to run the Dumbo Double Dare Challenge at Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend! As I am captive on the plane for another 2 hours, I thought, "What better time could there be to share the hilarious story of the time that I accidentally signed up for a marathon!?!"

Step into your time machine and set the dial for early December 2014. I was gearing up to run my very first half marathon! I had been training for months and I was so, so excited! Race day came and I DID IT! It was a *very* cold morning and the last three miles were all up hill, but I made it! So obviously, I was positively unstoppable!

A few weeks before my first half, I had started following a hilarious and inspirational blog written by a young runner in NYC. She had run the NYC Marathon that November, and right around the same time I completed that first half marathon, she posted an entry about her experience with the race because the lottery for the 2015 NYC Marathon was about to open.

So, exactly 5 weeks after I completed my first half-marathon and 2 weeks before I completed my second, my endorphin-addled brain shouted, "Hey Katie! You know what we should do???? Put our name in the lottery for the NYC Marathon! You know, just to say we've done it once! It'll be fun!" So my logical side thought it through like this, "Hmm, I don't particularly want to run a marathon in the near future, but if I were to, NYC would be a good one. 80,000 people put their name in that lottery every year! There's *no way* my name will get picked! I never win anything! Eh, what the heck! Just to say we've done it once!" So, into the lottery went my name!


The Reaping: March 3rd
I got up early to run before spending the day with my roommate. I was sitting on the floor of our bedroom stretching and chatting with her when I remembered that the lottery drawing was today! I logged in to my bank app to make sure the funds were in my checking account on the slim chance that my name was drawn. I continued to refresh the app before I hopped in the shower,  but I knew drawing was going to be taking place all day long, so it would be a while. After my shower, I got out and I checked my phone for new messages. I had an alert that my bank app was timed out. Did I want to log back in? Suuuuurrre, why not? "Oh sweet Jesus!" And that was it. I got picked. I am gonna have to run a marathon! 


I was totally in shock. I really couldn't believe that of *all* of those names, mine got picked. I later learned that people put their name in that lottery year after year and never get drawn. I feel like it was some cosmic sign from the universe that I am meant to have this incredible, once in a lifetime experience this year! 

So, now we're 9 weeks out and I am still terrified, but also ecstatic!  I have only been to NYC once and I hardly left Times Square. I've never seen the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building...I've never been to Brooklyn or Queens! And now I am going to experience the whole city as I take on this great distance! I can't wait!

Remember that you can do anything you set your heart to.

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