In the endddddddddddddddd, it doesn't even matter

There's a throwback for you.  If you know the song, I'm sorry if it's now stuck in your head.  So, as I mentioned, Adidas was giving away a free entry into Boston.  I don't know how they decided who got it, or how they even contacted that person.  Today though, a retweet showed up from some girl in West Virginia, about how she's excited to run Boston thanks to Adidas.  I guess that's it then.  I mean, it's March 4, just over a month before the marathon.  The BAA is being super strict about bandit runners and non-registered people running, which is understandable, given the events of last year.  As much as I hate to say this, I might have to just let it go.  There's no charity team to get in on, no way for a bib this late in the game, as far as I know.  I've tried every outlet, knowing I wouldn't have the time required to BQ.  It just didn't happen.  You know, I'm sure there are 100s of people out there who would like to run Boston this year.  Maybe they have good reasons, maybe not.  Though I imagine that most serious runners have already found a way in.  Like I said last time, there are a hundred reasons I want to run Boston this year.  Unfortunately, I think I have to just face the truth and move on.  With disappointment in my heart and lead in my feet....

March...EEEK!

Thankfully February is OVER.  See ya later Feb.  What a month.  Seriously, filled with snowstorms, wind chills, and a lot of not running.  I'm glad to be out of it.  Now, onward to March.  Hopefully the weather warms up...a lot.  I'm particularly tired of trying to run outside and having to dodge snowbanks, ice patches, and winter in general.  Seeing grass and sidewalk again is an exciting prospect.
Along with the *hopefully* melting snow, we're also basically at the two month countdown to the big wedding day.  Tomorrow is officially two months, but who knows if I'll have time to update this then, so we'll just call it today.  The other elephant in the room right now is the Boston Marathon.  It's coming up next month and I STILL don't have an entry.  Believe me, I've been trying.  I attempted every charity who had spots open with no avail.  Adidas running has a free entry their giving away, all you have to do is tweet why you want to run.  You better believe I did that.  My problem there is that I can't possibly fit into 140 characters all the reasons I NEED to run Boston this year.  There's just too many.  In no particular order, here are a few.  1) Because of last year.  2) It's Boston, it's the dream. 3) BOTH of my running partners are running it and it's likely the only chance I'll ever have to run it with them.  4.) It would be the 3rd marathon in 6 months.  How amazing would it be to have that accomplishment in my life.  In short, there are 100s of reasons why I want to run Boston, if only I could have the chance!  Plus, anyone who reads this knows my love of Adidas running gear goes deep, it seems only fitting that I would be able to run under the Adidas spot.  Seriously, it's a match made in heaven.  If only Adidas knew that.
On another note, we went for a 10 mile run today, because yes, I'm still training for it, even if I'm not in it yet.  I'm trying to upload my Garmin info and it's taking forever.  What the heck is up Garmin?  I've had to download extensions, re-work all sorts of info, and I still can't get my watch to upload.  I miss the old site, where you plugged in your watch and it uploaded.  None of this Garmin Express nonsense.  In an effort to make this all easier, I connected it to my Google + account.   Turns out, it didn't make it any easier at all.  Seriously, these updates are taking forever.  I just wanted to see my splits!  Sure, they're going to be slower than usual, but that's because we run pregnancy pace now, to stay with Cynthia.  But I still want to see them.  Sheesh Garmin. Get it together.

But dreams come slow, and they go so fast

I'll say this about the One Fund, they are efficient.  They said they would decide on a Boston Marathon team by January 10, and they did.  If you can't guess, I didn't make the cut.  But you know what, I'm mostly ok with that.  I think if I had, I would have had to turn it down anyways!  Thinking about it logically, it's $325 for the bib alone.  Then I would have had to go find a way to raise $8500.  Assuming that I didn't raise the full amount, I would have to pony up whatever I didn't manage to raise.  Considering the fact that I'm not sure I could raise $4000, let alone $8500, I'm sort of relieved I don't have to worry about that.  There's no way I could have paid that extra money, in any amount of time.
 (Sidebar: Thomas is a HUGE jerk.  I thought maybe the writers would have made him less of a jerk after the end of last season, but nope, carrying on in his terrible ways.  I would be ok if he left Downton for good.)
Anyways, so, all in all, I'm more relieved that I didn't get accepted, than I am disappointed.  Actually, I am in no way disappointed, just relieved, so I guess that right there tells me that I shouldn't have even bothered to apply for the team.  Live and learn.
And now for something completely different!
I feel accomplished in the way of wedding planning, for the first time in a long time.  I finished up our table numbers and they look awesome.  Using an idea from Pinterest, I up-cycled someone else's old numbers.  Today I also finished all the invites for the out of town guests, so I'm going to mail those this weekend.  I know it's a bit early, but I need counts for ceremony attendees.  Right now, I feel like the biggest problem I'm facing is the veil and undergarments.  I don't know much (ok, anything) about petticoats.  Plus, I haven't even looked at my dress since I bought it in July, except for the occasional picture.
Aside from that, sometimes I really feel like I relate to all the wrong fictional characters.  Scarlett O'Hara reminds me of myself all the time, and I tend to feel like I act much like Lady Mary in Downton Abbey as well.  That's not right! You're supposed to relate to the happy, friendly, bubbly characters to everyone loves, not the stubborn, pig-headed, grumpy characters.  I've been doing the 100 Happy Days challenge on Twitter, so maybe by the end of that, I'll find myself relating to a new group.  Who knows!

Hope on the horizon.

Well, sort of, even if it is a long shot.  Cynthia informed me today that the One Fund just received 50 more bibs for marathoners looking to get into Boston.  Of course I immediately jumped on that one.  Running for the One Fund is one of the only charities I would actually want to raise money for, along with any charity that funded families like Morty's or maybe the ASPCA.  I know I shouldn't be picky when it comes to charities, but I feel like if I'm going to ask everyone for money, it should be for a cause I feel strongly about.  Obviously the One Fund is high up on that list, being a fund that supports all those hurt by the bombings last year.  Filling out the form doesn't mean I'm in though.  I have to wait until at least January 10 to get a decision from the One Fund.  I'm fairly certain that there are going to be a ton of other people hoping to get in with this team, so who knows if I'll even make the cut, but if I do, I sure will have a lot of fundraising to do.  So, if that happens, expect to be bombarded with links and requests for donations.  But it's my blog, I'll do what I want! I'll keep you posted on that as soon as I hear back.

All I Want for Christmas

Right now is an entry into the 2014 Boston Marathon.  It's not what you think either.  I'm not just jumping on the marathon bandwagon or hoping to run it because it's the next year.  Of course being the year after the bombing makes it special, but up until 2 weeks ago, I really didn't want to even try to run it this year anyways.  There were a lot of factors included, but mostly the fact that it would probably be very crowded this year anyways.  Why the sudden change of heart?  Well, you see, a week ago, my two marathon partners found out that they were receiving an invitation to run this year.  As a way to help those affected last year, the BAA hosted an essay contest for anyone who wanted to run this year.  Since my marathon partners were at the finish line last year, one of them sent in an essay describing the after-effects of the bombings and why she and her husband needed to run this year.  Rightly so, the BAA agreed that they both deserved the opportunity to run, and gave them both an entry in.  Now I'm here all by myself, wishing I could run it with them, instead of watching from the sidelines.  Here's why.  I'm fairly certain that this is going to be their last big race, at least for a couple of years.  After all, that's what they've been working towards from the beginning, running Boston without having to run with a team.  With that opportunity at hand this year, this eliminates me from running Boston for at least a couple of years, maybe even more. Unless I want to run alone, which I don't.
I know Boston is a big marathon, even if I don't fully understand why.  What I mean by that is, there are plenty of other marathons throughout the U.S. and I'm fairly certain that no other marathon has such out of reach entry methods as Boston.  Even before the bombing, when I thought of running Boston, I always though, there's just no way.  Look it up if you don't believe me, but the minimum fundraising goal for teams running Boston is a whooping $4000.  That's not including the entry fee, which I believe is in the $300 range for charity runners.  I get that the BAA wants to raise money for charities and help out those in need, but do you really need to set such unrealistic goals?   Besides the charity portion, what if you want to just run Boston on your own accord?  In other cities, you rely on lotteries, or are just lucky enough to be able to sign up, pay your $150, and run.  Not so in Boston.  In order to run outside of a charity, you have to qualify.  Not just by running a marathon or two, but by running a marathon in a certain amount of time.  For someone my age, that qualifying time is 3:35.  That's an entire HOUR faster than I've ever run.
Ok, I didn't mean to turn this into a whine-fest about the Boston Marathon.  It just kind of happened.  I am well aware that even without all of this in place, I most likely would never have gotten entry into this year's marathon.  But for the future, I just hate knowing that I only have two real options: push myself into a zone i have yet to come close to reaching, or beg people for money so I can run 26.2.  I just don't understand why BAA can't consider a third route, for people who actually run marathons, in an average time, not fast enough to qualify, but that demonstrate the stamina and endurance necessary to prove that you are not just bandwagonning.  Think about how many other people would have a chance at running, who might previously have run other marathons, but don't have the resources to raise $4K or the ability to qualify.  It seems to me that you would be more open to having marathoners be able to run, instead of people that intend to run in 6 hours, just to say they did it once.  I guess there's no real point to this, unless it gets me a magic entry into Boston.  Unfortunately, I think most people are going to read this a whine-fest, instead of what it is meant to be, which was just a world wide vent.

My name is Allison and I'm a marathon addict

I'm going to credit this to the runner's high phenomenon.  Even though I KNOW I struggled in the last 6 miles of the last marathon, now that it's been a  few days, I want to run another one.  Right now you might be asking yourself, WTF is wrong with this girl?  If you are, just know I'm asking myself the same question.  There's no reason for me to run another marathon.  Now, I just want to.  Is that weird? Maybe.  Sadly, as the winter rolls in, marathon options around here are supremely limited.   Most of the big marathons are being held on the West Coast or the Southern states, where it's probably a good 30 degrees warmer than the East Coast in the winter.  Since Ryan basically ruled out all travel for the purpose of running a marathon, I'm kind of limited here.  Not that I can argue his point.  We have a wedding to pay for and spending money to run 26.2 really isn't the best idea.  I suppose if I could find a marathon in, say, Saugus, he'd probably tell me to go for it.  Unfortunately, the closest marathon I've found that's coming up, is in Delaware.  Aside from the fact that I don't really even LIKE the state of Delaware, it would require another road trip, and neither of us is up for that.  In regards to why I don't like Delaware, I really don't have a good reason, or any reason at all.  We just paid a lot of tolls traveling through, so that made me sort of hate the state.  Oh well.
Louisiana has a marathon in January, which COULD be do-able, since Ryan has family there, so at least we'd have a reason to travel, but I'm pretty sure that's still out of the question.  Airfare is expensive, especially for a weekend trip.  You know what's really funny about this whole thing?  My original goal was to run one marathon, and one marathon only.  Walt Disney World 2014.  You know what marathon I'm not running? WDW 2014.  Though, 2015 is certainly an option in my mind at this point.  I'd also like to run Boston, but I can't fathom asking people to give me $4000 just to run, and I'm not in any shape to BQ anytime soon.  Plus, that's sold out too.
You know what I really want though?  Another running club.  The Lynn Woods Running Club was great for the summer months.  I really enjoyed having a group of people to run with every week.  Since those runs are over though, and most of my friends don't run long distance, I'm left with two, occasionally three, running buddies.  That's great and all, but if the others can't run with me, I end up either not going, or turning around earlier than I plan.  Running long distances alone is harder than you may think.  I know I can convince myself to run to a certain point, but eventually I end up turning around, even if I didn't make the distance I intended.  With a running group, I feel like I would have more success in running longer distances more often.  Knowing that I had to meet others would get me moving on days I didn't want too, and having people keep pace would keep me moving even when I started to feel done.  Ideally, Title would start a running club on the side.  I'd run with the people I box with, and I think it would be good for their business.  Or at least for their trainers, who could add in some extra workouts on the side.  But what do I know? I'm not the head of that business, and really, what I think and what is true are not always the same.  Either way though, all I know is that I could really use a winter running club, preferably one that meets more than once a week.