2017 TCS New York City Marathon, Here I Come!

On Monday, I finally put my money in to take the guaranteed spot for the 2017 TCS NYC Marathon!

If you remember, one year ago, I put my name into the lottery for the 2016 TCS New York City Marathon and was one of the lucky few who got this wonderful message that I was in! Out of around 83,000 people who entered the lottery, I was one of the 23,000 who got the awesome news that I was in.

Then, later in March, Brooke and I got even better news…after nearly 3 and a half years on the wait list for domestic infant adoption, we had been chosen to become the adoptive parents of this guy! I don’t think that March 2017 will live up to March 2016. In April, I contacted the New York Road Runners to see if there was a possibility of deferral. They told me that I could cancel my spot in the 2016 TCS NYC Marathon and have a guaranteed spot in the 2017 TCS NYC Marathon as long as I paid the entry fee during the window that they were accepting entries in the lottery for the 2017 race. This week was the last week I could do so and I finally had the money I needed. So, on Monday, after seeing an email reminder, I paid my fee to get in.

If you want a chance to join me, today is the last day to put your name into the lottery. So, click the link above to put your name in. You never know what will happen. Last year, while I hoped to get in, I knew that my chances were slim. So, if you want to run this race, put your name and take a chance. Unlike previous years, there is no $11 deposit to enter the lottery.

This video is what awaits me in November! I can’t wait!

Sadly, there isn’t enough money for me to make both the trip to New York City in November AND Orlando in January 2018. So, while I’ve watched many of my running friends sign up for the 2018 Dopey Challenge (or one or more of the 2018 WDW Marathon Weekend races), I was not among them. There will be no 2018 Dopey Challenge for me. Let me tell you, it was a much more difficult decision to make than I thought it would be. I can tell that the 2018 WDW Marathon Weekend is where the party will be at with so many awesome runners. I spent a day or two thinking about whether or not I should choose to go out to Walt Disney World instead. However, I know that doing so would mean I’d have to get lucky in the NYC Marathon lottery again to run that race. There’s no guarantee of that happening. I have a guaranteed spot this year. Dopey will continue to happen year after year. So, doing the Dopey Challenge will be there for me when I want it to be there. The NYC Marathon may not. So, no matter how hard it was to give up the 2018 Dopey Challenge, I KNOW I made the right choice. Not only will I be running my second world major marathon…

but, I’ll be running in Meb’s final competitive marathon! Can you really pass that up? I think not.

Next week, I’ll talk about my goals for the rest of the year. With the 2017 TCS NYC Marathon now officially on the calendar, a lot has cleared up for me to set some kind of crazy goals. My goal for the 2017 Rock n Roll San Diego Half Marathon is one that should help me get to my new goal for the 2017 TCS New York City Marathon. I’ll talk more about that next week. For now….