Why am I running the Chicago Marathon?
Maybe more than anyone, my friend Adam Welcome kept asking me when I was going to run my first marathon. His relentless persistence wore me down. He was attempting to run the Chicago Marathon in 2019. I decided that I was going to run the Chicago Marathon in 2019, too.
The Chicago Marathon is a big event. It's one of the six Abbott World Marathon Majors (along with Berlin, Boston, London, New York City, and Tokyo). Why not choose one of the best marathons in the world to run my first marathon. There are approximately 45,000 runners in each running of the Chicago Marathon, I want to be one of the 45,000. I wanted to run my first marathon along side (more likely behind) one of my most inspirational friends, Adam. And more than anything, I want to run my first marathon in my favorite city during my favorite time of year (early October).
However, it's not as simple as you decide to run the Chicago Marathon and then you get to run the Chicago Marathon. My next step was to join a lottery to see if I could run the Chicago Marathon. This is a competitive process. According to Runner's World, in 2015, almost 55,000 runners entered the lottery; approximately 53% of them were granted eligibility to run.
On Tuesday, December 11th, the Chicago Marathon notified runners if they were going to be allowed into the race, or not. Adam and I were texting back and forth throughout the morning. Neither of us were hearing anything. The more time passed, the less likelihood of a favorable outcome decreased. At 12:23pm, I got the email that my application was not selected.
I was dejected; more so than I thought I'd be about being told that I wasn't going to be allowed to pay $205 to run 26.2 miles. I'd committed to running this race. I was going to run the Chicago Marathon in 2019. I was going to need to find a backdoor entry into the race.
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| Donate to my Chicago Marathon for Action for Healthy Kids (linked) |
Coming-up, I plan to dedicate future posts to why I'm running for charity and why I chose Action for Healthy Kids for my charity; soon I'll start my training and I look forward to sharing those reflections with you, too. In the mean time, check-out my page My Chicago Marathon for Action for Healthy Kids. Thanks!
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