ING NYC marathon 2012 & Superstorm Sandy

Bucket list, what I was hoping to be a part of this year

     The last race of the year for me, was supposed to be the ING NYC Marathon. After healing the dog induced bike crash broken clavicle, I was really looking forward to this experience. Even though the training was lacking, due to the healing process, I was invested in making the trip from Chattanooga Tn to NYC with my family.

Great local race!

    My longest training run was the Chattanooga's 7 Bridges half marathon, only a few weeks after being cleared by my ortho MD. But I was prepared to suffer through, for the "experience". So as the storm clouds gathered & headed towards NYC,  I started paying close attention to the radar & TWC.
      Needless to say, watching Anderson Cooper reporting from Statton Island gave me serious pause. He described the devastation around him; people missing, homes without electricity or water, people without homes & worse...This is where the starting line for NYC marathon was supposed to take place. My mind began to swim with concern & doubt. How could 50,000 runners just show up in the wreckage & then run through a town during a state of emergency? How could the race organizers still be announcing that "the race will go on"? Even the mayor Bloomberg was all over the news telling us, "the NYC marathon will go on". WHAT??? I sat at my desk, perplexed for hours. Even though my heart knew the right thing to do. Pictures of porta-johns taped off for runners & pallets of fresh water bottles reserved for runners flashed across the screen, followed by reports of furious residents who had NO homes. Pretty much seemed insane to hold a race there.
      If it wasn't for the $15,00.00 in plane tickets sitting in my purse & the $1000.00 in hotel reservations that were not cancelable, it would have been a clear decision NOT to go. But, since money doesn't come easily to this family, letting all that money go down the drain caused me to have 2nd thoughts. Plus, the fact that so many people had donated $$ to my charity, the Make a Wish foundation & now I couldn't run??? UGH!  However, Thursday night, I cancelled my flight that was scheduled to leave at 6am the next morning. I cancelled my NYC 26.2 spot as well as my hotel that was located on 37th st. The entire town from 36th street & lower was under water.

This is from CBS news 

The very next day the race director made the right decision to cancel the race. Leaving me with the choice between a full refund or guaranteed entry into 2013 NYC marathon (still have to pay the entry fee). Not sure what I will do. This is something that I have been trying to do for 5 years; ever since Lance Armstrong ran it in 2006.

grrrr

Ive put my name in the NYC lottery 3 years in a row. In 2011 they accepted me into the race, only I had to defer it to 2012 because the race date conflicted with my Ironman Cozumel race. So, I thought, this was my LAST chance to run this blasted race! But, it looks like I may have yet another chance.

Not sure how I feel about that...