Denied!

Well, just like tons of other New Yorkers, I too was denied entry into the NYC Half Marathon this year. At first I was just like "Boo. Guess I'll try again next year." Then I started going through my facebook feed and realized that out of all my NYC runner friends (and I know a LOT of NYC runners) only one got in! Then, some of my runner friends started posting links to other blogs like this one.

Seems like the entire New York running community was PISSED.

Why?

Well, first of all, we were supposed to know about our status at "the end of November" and this deadline got pushed to December 15th. But more importantly, all of us entered what we thought was a lottery to get into this half marathon. (Whereas everyone had an equal chance of being chosen for this race.) As I understand it (though am still fuzzy on all of the details) there were three lotteries: one for tri-state area runners, one for out-of-state runners and one for international runners with the number of accepted runners being equal for each lottery. Obviously there would be more NY runners applying and not getting in. (Make sense?) And none of us knew this beforehand.

Presumably this is because NYRR is trying to make this a bigger, more nationally/internationally known event.

Here are some stats on what happened which sort of confirms all of this:
• Of the 27,737 tri-state area runners who applied 3,344 were accepted. Of those people 1,000 qualified for automatic entry.
 • Of the 5,200 out of state runners who applied 4,300 were accepted.
• Of the 1,710 international applicants 1,500 were accepted.

Seems like the best chance of getting into this half marathon in the future is to move out of the country.

My take on the whole thing?

I am mildly angry that I didn't get in, but I am ticked about the transparency on the whole process.

This is a really great race. There is nothing like running down 7th Avenue in this half marathon. It makes you realize that we really do live in an awesome city. And the NYC running community is a GREAT community. So I guess it just makes me kind of sad that we weren't given a fair shake at this event. We are the lifeblood of the NYRR and spend oodles and oodles each year to run a bunch of less glamorous races. I welcome the opening of our events to a larger audience but I sort of feel like this kind of premiere event should also celebrate the local running community.

I just watched this documentary called Run for Your Life about Fred Lebow, the man who is credited with making the NYRR what it is and also for bringing the 5 Borough NYC Marathon to fruition (and therefore popularizing marathoning as a sport). I can't help but think that he would have handled this differently.

I don't know. Just my opinion.

That being said, I look forward to cheering on my friend Gina, as she crosses the finish line in March :)

Running Misc (Or Not Running Misc)

I never realized how hard it would actually be to get out and run when  you have a newborn. In my mind I was just putting him in the BOB every morning and going out for a nice little jog...you know, since I would have "so much time" since I was on maternity leave.

Hahahaha. I have been choosing sleep over running because I get sleep when I can (since it sometimes only comes in 2 hour increments).

Even on the weekend it is ridiculous. I planned to do a nice 6-mile loop with my friend Gina this weekend. I was so excited because I haven't seen her in forever and I haven't run without the stroller since Liam. Well, all this would involve Liam having a milk supply and since I knocked over the bottle and lost an entire ounce of milk, and I pretty much hate pumping so I don't have a big store of it, the run didn't happen. Of course I didn't know this until right before the run and had to text Gina. Luckily she is a great, super-understanding friend. But I was still very very bummed about the whole thing.

I have actually found that it is MUCH easier to do workout videos. This is not as fun but it means that I am getting a lot of toning in. Which is great because...

...this weekend I found out that I fit in my old clothes! I am not back to my old weight, but I AM back to my old measurements!!! (except for a little more that I need to lose in my belly). Whoo-hoo!!! This made me very VERY happy.

I had planned on doing the Manhattan Half Marathon, because I am really really trying to do all five in the Grand Prix series of half marathons this year. Manhattan is first and is at the end of January. I am not very sure I can do this seeing my current mileage. I would have to have a pretty aggressive schedule from here on out and I just don't know if I am going to be able to count on doing that. It makes me appreciate mom-runners like my friend Lauren, all the more. They are hard core.

I also entered the lottery for the NYC Half Marathon (different from the Manhattan half marathon, but run in the same borough). And get this! We were supposed to know if we got in by the end of November. I just checked the website today and it says the drawing will be on December 15th. Boo! I want to know now!

This week I am going to really try and get some good mileage in...even though it is colder than cold out.