Fitting Remarks: I got in!

Today was the big day: the day I found out if the 4 minutes and 23 seconds under my Boston Qualifying time of 3:40 would be enough to get me into the Boston Marathon. It’s no longer enough just to qualify- nope, you need to qualify by a significant margin!

It was “Casual for a Cause” day at work; we could pay $5 to dress down. I took advantage of this and wore my London Marathon (Boston copycat) jacket for good luck!

To recap, I completed my online registration last Monday and my time was validated almost instantaneously. But I had to wait almost a week to find out if I was actually accepted. I was in the last wave of registrants, which was anyone with five minutes or less under their qualifying time.

Dustin had about eleven minutes under his BQ time, so he received confirmation within a day. He was good to go!

Our flights are booked, our hotel rooms are reserved. I was going to be going to Boston no matter what, either as a spectator or as a participant. The question was, which one?

The marathon organization announced late last week that they would have to set a cutoff again this year. The race was too popular. Too many people had registered.

Yet even so, all the blogs and models were showing a very small cutoff, maybe just one minute.

I, (along with I’m sure many others), was shocked to hear that the official cutoff was 2:09. To explain, you had to qualify by more than two minutes and nine seconds to actually register to run. The margin was much bigger than expected.

But it was enough for me- I had 4:23 under 3:40.  That means I made it!

I received my email at 10:55 am today.

I’m so excited!

I know that I wrote a whole post about “What’s the big deal about Boston?” I do feel that there are hundreds of other marathon experiences that I hope to have in my life but Boston is still one of those experiences. It’s one that I never ever thought was a possibility. It’s one that I had to work really hard to achieve and one that I am proud and excited to be a part of.

Boston is one of the six World Majors (Boston, New York City, Chicago, London, Berlin, and Tokyo). I have the goal of completing all six. If all goes well next April, I will only have New York City left!

I understand that my moment to celebrate is also many others’ moment to mourn. Maybe “mourn” is a bit dramatic, but the disappointment is legit. I am sad for my friends that didn’t make in this year. Some of them were so close- again. In fact, one of my sister’s run club friends had 2:08. She missed it by ONE SECOND. Can you imagine? Ugh.

It sucks that qualifying for Boston isn’t enough. I understand that these are “first world problems,” but the Right Fits is chock full of first world discussions, isn’t it?

But seriously, I know what disappointment feels like.  It’s real and it sucks. I could very easily have been on the other side of this.

But this year, I am not and I do hope I can use this space to celebrate and I am very excited to run the Boston Marathon in 2017!

I look forward to continuing to share my training with you here. This goal was definitely not my only goal- 50 states, World Majors, see the world through running, improve my times and just continue to share my love of all things running (and fitness and fashion!) here.

Congratulations to all the other runners who will be running next April! I look forward to connecting with you. If you’ve run Boston in the past, please share your tips and insights!

**By the way, Matilda got a new Orvis collar with her name on it…and it matched my jacket perfectly! Maybe SHE is my good luck charm!

The collar glows in the dark too! Buy it here.

Yay for Boston and yay for running 🙂 I’m so excited to have a new goal to work towards. Boston here I come!