I Won The Lottery! (But It's Not What You Think)

If life were truly ironic, then according to Alanis Morissette I should have died today.  Because yesterday, I won the lottery.

But before you starting writing letters asking me for a few bucks to help pay your rent or perhaps to get little Johnny the ten-speed he wants for Christmas, this ain’t that kind of lottery.  No, I didn’t win millions of dollars; I won something better.  I won entry into the 2016 NYC Half Marathon.

And for you non-runners, let me explain further.  When you win this kind of lottery, instead of getting money, the New York Road Runners Association immediately takes money from you.  In this case, they hit your credit card up for $128.00 – a charge you agreed to months ago when you first entered. 

“But there has to be some benefit,” you’re probably saying to yourself.  And yes, yes there is.  I doubt they could legally refer to this whole process as a “lottery,” without the winners getting something in return.  In this case, aside from the right to have money taken from you, you also win the chance to wake up ridiculously early on a mid-March morning in New York, head over to Central Park and run 13.1 miles among thousands of other people, most of whom “won” the lottery the same way you did. 

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!

If you want to do well in this race, you’ll have to spend the winter training to prepare yourself.  This means you have won the benefit of dealing with a lot of pain and mental adversity.  You may quit, you may not.  But on March 20^th, it would be waste of 128 bucks if you didn’t show up.  So you’ll stand there – maybe it will be cold, maybe it will be rainy.  Maybe it will be cold and rainy!

The gun will go off and you’ll run.  And you’ll look around and realize that maybe... maybe it’s not all that bad.  In fact, you'll probably feel like you’re accomplishing something.  You’ll take in the sights.  You’ll thank volunteers, who also woke up early just to hand you a cup of water precisely at the moment you needed it.  You’ll hear people call your name and cheer you on.  You’ll run through Times Square.  You’ll get a tour of New York unlike any other.  You’ll push yourself – perhaps to the point of discomfort, but only if it’s worth it.

It may take you 90 minutes.  It may take you twice that long.  When you cross that finish line, you'll likely be in some pain.  Your legs may feel like mush.  You'll wonder why the hell you do this to yourself.

But then you'll have a beer... and maybe a burger.  You'll relax and remember all the details of your race.  Maybe you could have run harder up that hill.  Maybe you could have paced harder on the way downtown.  The legs will feel better now, and you find yourself smiling and wondering...

...when can I enter next year's lottery?