That's a lot of money!!!

As I posted earlier this week, my next marathon will be in Chicago in the middle of October. It was a toss up between 3 marathons that I wanted to do. Chicago, Marine Corps, and New York. The Marine Corps was the one I initially wanted to do, because I have never been to D.C., and I thought I could kill two birds with one stone, by being able to run a race and see the monuments at the same time. Well my son's birthday is around that time, so I threw that one out the window. So, it was between Chicago and New York. New York is the premier marathon in the US.... all marathoners have told me that I have to do New York at some point in my marathon "life". But check this out... it is $155 to register for the race... $11 to process your application, and you are not guaranteed to get into the race!!! Over 100,000 people attempt to get into the race, and only 40,000 get in... so it is based on a lottery system.... isn't this quite strange??? People (including myself) will pay a pretty penny, to be placed in a lottery system to get into a race, where you are going to punish your body for hours... classic!!! If you really sit back and think about it.... it's pretty stupid in some aspects.... pretty smart in others.
The stupid part needs no further explaining.... paying money to run 26.2 miles is all that needs to be said....
The smart part is that, people are willing to invest in their well being and health.... they are willing to challenge themselves to do something that seems quite out of reach for the typical human, and push their bodies to further levels, and commit to at least attempting to train and complete a beast of a task like this... and most importantly...putting their money where their mouth is.
When I look at it, spending $155 for a race, is somewhat comparable to many people that spend hundreds, if not, thousands of dollars to purchase pills, invest in fad diets and go to the extent of having costly procedures done to lose weight. Actually, I would say it is much safer, much more rewarding, but obviously much harder.... what do you think?

So, this morning I ran my longest distance since the Ft. Lauderdale Marathon.... 10 miles this morning... and it was cold (well for us warm-blooded folks here in Florida). Check it out....