Planning for New York

Yesterday was the big day; the drawing for the lottery of the New York City Marathon. I already knew that I was in, I had deferred for the past two years while waiting for a friend to be accepted. When you defer you actually have to pay for the year(s) you're not running in addition to the year you actually run. So far it's cost me well over $300 for this race so Sandy (who is in the same position) and I decided that this year we'd run no matter what, even if Petra didn't get accepted. Well, she didn't. Unbelievable that we were accepted our on our first try and she's been rejected three times! This was going to be her big running come-back, only not.

Lots of other people I know are going to NY in November, a couple of them didn't make it into the race but most of them did. According to the website 98,000 people applied for this race. Last year I think they had about 38,000 actually in the race. Yikes! I am SO not looking forward to those crowds. I looked at the results from last year and even at my speed it's going to be packed the whole way through. There were more than 30 finishers in the one minute between 5:59 and 6:00. I'm already feeling claustrophobic.

Why did I register for a race that I know will drive me batty? Uh, I dunno. I really want to run all the big races that I can (Boston being one I can't), and NY is one of the most important of those. Chicago's even bigger, more people, and I want to do that too. I think as long as I'm still running the little races like Avenue, where I get the road to myself, I can put up with the big crowds in a couple of races each year. Besides, it's a trip to New York. I mean, NEW YORK people, just having an excuse to go there is worthwhile! Yarn shops! Cheesecake! Real bagels! I think I can brave the crowds for that!

So now it's time to set up my training schedule. I'd like to do at least one training marathon in October, maybe a training-training marathon in September. I know I'm running a couple of half marathons this summer (Los Gatos and SF in July, Chicago Distance Classic in August) but I always prefer doing my longest runs as a race. Might as well get a shirt and medal if I'm running that far, right? But the idea is to be at peak condition for NY so that I can finish under six hours and feel like it was a cake-walk. I want to be able to feel like I'm taking it easy, play the tourist while I'm running, but still have a decent finish time. So the training marathons should be easy ones. Most of September's races are either hilly or mountainy or high altitude or trail or all of the above. None of those meet my standards for a training marathon.

Then Petra mentioned that the Baltimore Marathon is the same weekend as Stitches East. Uh oh. Houston, we have a problem. Now, if they gave a medal for attending all the Stitches events in one year the way Elite gives medals for running all their races in one year, I'd absolutely have to do it! But the only medals from Stitches you'd have to knit yourself. With hand dyed, custom silk yarn, in brilliant red .... excuse me for drooling. Anyway, I'm not sure that flying back east three weeks before NY is a good idea, and I'm not sure attending yet another fabulous yarn show is a good idea. It would certainly be cheaper and easier to just stay home and run Cowtown again but boring!

Oh, decisions, decisions!

Meanwhile we have our first heatwave of the summer, and our first Wednesday night run. Claudia and Olivia have agreed to run with me after work on Wednesdays, with the understanding that I'm (considerably) slower than they are. I think tonight we'll all be slow because HOT HOT HOT and we're not used to it. It'll be at least 90 and probably more like 95. Oy. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with them, although I doubt I'll be talking at all because I'll be panting from the heat and running too fast!