Oh No FOMO!!!!!

Phew! That was a close one.

Despite having no plans whatsoever to run the New York Marathon this year, I still nearly entered the ballot.

A post from a friend on Facebook alerted me to the ballot being open, and despite a trip to New York not being either physically or financially viable this year, before I knew it I had logged in to the NYRR web site, updated my details, and was already to press the button under the guise of what the hell…..

Fortunately, I was distracted by the Guaranteed Entry button. A quick look through the qualifying standards for my age group and the half marathon time is one I have run many times before. Scratched my head to remember when my last half marathon was, turns out it was Berlin last year, checked my results, and a big pointy stick of reality burst my balloon. 3 minutes outside the guaranteed entry standard.

Last year was a pretty rubbish year for me with injuries at key times and very little racing. My one and only half marathon was a steady state effort on a couple of weeks training. That means for the second time in a few weeks I was not able to chase the races I wanted to because I wasn’t qualified.

I had wanted  to enter UTMB, but again lack of racing meant lack of qualifying points, which ultimately means this year I am not qualified to enter, just as I am not qualified for guaranteed entry to New York even though any other year I would have qualified with time to spare.

All of which opens up an interesting debate as to whether not qualified is the same as not good enough! Hard though it is to swallow, I guess strictly speaking, by the hard cold numbers, for these races, not qualified is the same as not good enough. Which rather chimes with one of my own insecurities that niggles away at me, namely You Are Only As Good As Your Last Race. As my last few races have been non-existent or at best mediocre affairs where do I stand as a runner.  Which incidentally is the theme of a super blog post today by Rhona Red Wine Runner.

The downside of running long distance races is that the lead time between training cycles and races is long, meaning redemption and restoration of self-esteem is not something which comes quickly. Until those points and times are back in the bag, you remain Not Qualified.

The upside of being Not Qualified is that missing out becomes a reality which forces you to seek new and different adventures and in this case was enough to kick my FOMO into the long grass and make me log back out of the NYRR website.

Plus if I was doing an autumn marathon I would probably rather enter the Chicago ballot  anyway……

Comments

  1. Amanda H
    Amanda H

    It’s an interesting debate indeed and Rhona’s blog was also very good and thought provoking. The hard work you’re putting in now will reap the rewards you need and open up a whole set of additional options for 2017!

  2. mrshmunro

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