Boston Marathon Update

So last year after the Boston Marathon I wrote about my experience and desire to run the 2014 edition.  Well apparently anyone who ever thought about running marathon said the same thing so in September when charity registration opened up they were inindated with applications.  It was like I was in high school again applying to colleges but instead of saying “Yes” I got a “Sorry” or wait listed.  I applied to Teddy’s Team, Mass General, Dana Farber, Healthworks, Team in Training, the American Liver Foundation and the Museum of Science, all of which turned me down.  All of these are wonderful causes to which I would have been grateful to support.  I think I was honest in my assessment on how much I could raise and since you have to back up that commitment with a credit card, I didn’t want to overreach and have to donate my entire tax refund check to run the marathon (even though I considered it).  The applications were pouring in so much that the Globe did a story about it.  Throughout the whole process I was getting a bit discouraged that I wasn’t going to be able to run Boston next year.  After the year I had with 10 halfs in 11 months I thought this would be the most logical choice and I wasn’t sure if I would attempt it in the future.

My last ditch effort was to apply directly to the BAA for an invitation for those affected by the bombings last April.  There were only 450 spots (and over 1200 applicants) and I figured there were probably people who more affected than me but it was either this, or watch it from my office again next year.  So I sat there and wrote and re-wrote my essay trying to stay within the 1500 character limit (I used 1493 of them) or about 250 words.  I think this probably helped me as the reader wasn’t subjected to too much of my poor writing.  I wrote about my experience on that Monday and the following Friday at my home.  I wrote about wearing my marathon shirt to all of my halfs this year and setting 3 new PRs along the way.  I submitted my application and had nothing to do until December 6^th when I would hear by.

After thanksgiving I started to look at 2014 and what to do, and to change it up I started to think about trying a triathlon.  I would need a new bike (mine is a $100 target special that weighs about 30 pounds) and join either Waverly Oaks Gym or the Boston Sports club in Watertown since they had a pool.  I started to look for races and plan out my transition from full out running to a multisport regiment, and going big as I like to do (see 10 halfs in 11 months) I had visions of a half Ironman dancing in my head.

Then came December 4^th.  I hit snooze and woke up late so I had to cut my run short, no biggie I don’t really have anything to train for, just a 5K next weekend and that’s it until St Patty’s day.  Checking out my twitter feed I saw that a new half Iroman was just added in Princeton, NJ and thought “I can already do a half no problem, if I could get my bike soon I could do that!”  Julie to her credit just rolled her eyes rather than try to dissuade me.  I went to work and started my day as normal.  Just after noon as I sat back down at my desk with my lunch I opened up Gmail to check my personal account.  I had a pretty good number of emails to go through.  Nothing on my primary tab, a couple of LinkedIn and twitter updates on my social tab and there on my promotions tab were three e-mails. 

 The first was the Nook daily deal of the day (another book with a guy without a shirt on the cover…pass).  The second, received at 10:59 was from the Mass General Marathon team announcing that they had gotten a number of additional bibs from the BAA due to their work on Marathon Monday and how to apply.  I got excited, I had another chance, but first I had to read e-mail number three which was a form letter from the BAA received at 12:20.  Apparently I read the date wrong and I was another rejection a couple of days early. Wait this worded really weird.  I think I’m being invited to run the Boston Marathon from the BAA.  I read the first paragraph again.  We got a lot of applications, limited number of entries, yada yada.  Then the third and fourth paragraphs and confirm it’s definitely a form letter.  Then the second “Upon careful review by a committee from the B.A.A., your request has been accepted.”  I’m in…I think…I forwarded it to Julie just to be sure, and she confirms I am in!

After the second time I read the letter to confirm that I will be running in 2014 I was ecstatic, shaking I was so happy. I'll be applying again to a charity or two as an invited runner (with a much lower fundraising goal) so I hopefully I'll be back soon with the details on that!