And now, the rest of the story...

First of all, I am very grateful for the overwhelming response I received from everyone on last week's blog. The comments I received on the blog and the people who I know who asked me about it, truthfully, surprised me. Thank you for asking about it and encouraging me. No truer comment was from Kelly (yes, the Blue Dawg Kelly) telling me that 'hey, I'm a marathoner. Don't let negative thoughts enter your head as you are about to finish. Think positive.' (Sorry, Kel, I'm paraphrasing here). But, she was right. So, I called the BAA.

I asked for my friend from last time but he was not available. I explained my situation, again, to 'Linda' this time (not her real name) and she said, all the numbers have been assigned to people. I'm afraid it won't be possible. But, I will look into it.' So, I thought, well, that's it. Time for Plan B. Except I had no Plan B.

A few days go by, I'm on a conference call when the area code (508) appears on my phone. Thinking it was Steve or someone I know from New England, I let it go into voice mail. Except it was the BAA and they wanted me to call back. Really? Could it be? So, I called and they were very nice about it. And, again, they are looking into it.

It has been another week since that call. And, it looks like this time, I will not be receiving my invitation for this year. Even if I did, I will be hard-pressed to make the necessary travel arrangements in my budgeted amount.

But, that's ok. I have no regrets. I did what I did knowing there were no guarantees of entry. I would do it again. I found out, in some ways, training for a spring marathon was easier than a fall one. Now, I was VERY lucky as the Philadelphia area avoided the snow with only 6.3 inches of accumulation the entire winter. And, it was harder to get started for my long runs because of the cold. But, once out, I found I had more energy in the cold than I did training in the hotter weather for the fall marathons.

And, in reality, there is sort of a Plan B. If the weather is nice and personal reasons work out, I might go down to Ocean City, Maryland to participate in their half-marathon on April 12. But, I won't know until April 10 if I can go down. Since its a point-to-point race, would it count as a marathon if i ran back to my car? :-)

(Notes: Thank you for participating in my poll of 'what is your favorite thing to listen to while running?' Not surprisingly, Kelly whining about the hills was the overwhelming choice with 50% of the votes. Least you think there was a hometown advantage to this voting, it wouldn't surprise me that Eric, author of the Running For My Life blog (http://ruralrunnere.blogspot.com/) from Missouri, Jodi, Confessions of a Runner podcaster (http://www.confessionsofarunner.com/) from Mississippi, Mom on the Run blog author and member of the Blue Dawgs Midwest (not sure if she wants me to reveal her name so I won't) (http://momrun.blogspot.com/) from Indiana, or even Nigel, Running from the Reaper podcaster (http://runningfromthereaper.blogspot.com/) from Staffordshire, UK, on a quiet Wednesday night and the wind blowing the right way, heard a faint 'I hate these hills!' from the distance. Chances are SteveRunner (http://www.steverunner.com/) didn't hear anything because he's just old and hard of hearing to begin with. :-) Thanks Kelly for being a good sport about this. Music came in second with 25% of the vote, followed by Podcasts with 16% and Nature at 8%.

Last Sunday, on a chilly morning, I ran the Central Bucks YMCA 5k race with a time of 25:02 (by my calculations). (And, I forgot my mini-camera. Darn!) It started off the Bucks County 5k series (http://www.bucks5kseries.com/) that goes from March to June. I did 7:30/8:01/8:12 splits. Considering it was my first 5k in awhile and the start of the last mile is going up a hill, I was pleased with my efforts. In fact, I think this was my best time for this course.)

Again, I can't thank you enough for your kind comments and your support. But, as a Phillies fan there is one phrase I know all to well---Wait until next year!