Boston by Way of Chicago and Maybe Dallas

In two and 1/2 months, or 73 days, I will be running in the Chicago Marathon.  It is my first marathon outside of Texas.  It is HUGE - 45,000 runners.  It was even difficult to register for this marathon.

You see, in April, I was all set to register for the marathon.  Registration started at noon, central time. Last year it sold out in 6 days, so I figured after I got off work at 3:00 was plenty of time to register.  But for this year, it was not.  So many people tried to register that the computer or server or something blew up.  Some who did get through got charged several times.  Those of us who did not get through before the blow up had to wait 3 days to  find out what to do next.

We found out that Chicago would have a lottery drawing for the spaces left. I registered for the lottery to win a place in the race.  It was another week until I got the message - I WAS IN.  And just so I knew I was blessed, I know two people, one being my husband, who did not get in by way of the lottery.

After several days, I started thinking about getting a hotel room near the race start.  I had to go through the Chicago Marathon group, and by the time I tried, there were only small rooms left.  I did book one, for October 12 and 13.  Currently I am trying to locate that information.  April was a long time ago.

Now, to qualify for Boston, I have to run this race at a pace I have never run , for any length of time, in my life. Plus I am running in a race with thousands of others in an unfamiliar city.  WHAT WAS I THINKING?  I've been working on this Boston qualifying for 19 months now.  This puts not a small amount of pressure on this race in October.  

What happens if I don't run a perfect race in Chicago?  What if I run slower than 4 hours and 10 minutes?   Well today a solution came in the mail/ email that is.  Today is the last day to register early for the Dallas Marathon that takes place in December.  So, as a backup, I'm going to plan to run the Dallas Marathon. 


 If I don't make my time at Chicago, I can stay in shape for 2 more months and try again in Dallas.  I would qualify for the 2015 Boston, not the 2014, but hey - qualifying for Boston is fantastic  no matter what year it happens.