The Rosy Wanderer

Today I wasn’t sure if it was spam, a joke, or if I was dreaming. The London Marathon communicated its ballot results today. London is one of the six World Major marathons and a very difficult race to get into – thus, this makes it a huge bucket list item.

On April 22, 2023, I entered my information for the ballot thinking this would be the start of a multi-year process to get in. On my goal spreadsheet, I had it penciled in in April for the next twelve years, since that’s what seems to happen to most people.

Anyway, the organization communicated that results would be announced on July 6 throughout the day. Just because you didn’t hear in the morning, didn’t mean that you couldn’t hear later on. Sure enough, I was ending an 8 am call, when I glanced at my personal email from TCS London Marathon with the subject “Your 2024 TCS London Marathon Ballot result.” I held my breath knowing it would say “Sorry not this year” but alas, I saw…

But what did “You’re in Kristin” mean in British? You know those Brits have a weird way of communicating with us Americans. Did it mean I was in for a long haul of rejections? Then there was the word delighted. This is a happy email? I can pay to enter the race?! No, this mustn’t be real. There is no way I could get into the LONDON MARATHON; let alone on my first attempt. This just couldn’t be happening! It took all of my energy to not scream until I was off of my call. Talk about self-restraint!

I sent my screenshot to two running friends to ask them to verify what it said. I’ve been off lately and can’t trust what I’m doing. They confirmed that it was real, but then I thought it was a weird kind of spam, so I had to check URLs.

My grandma passed away the day before on July 5. She was my role model and an amazing woman. She lived a long 96-year life that was full of love, family, and faith. I am fully confident that she is in heaven looking down on us, and I believe she had a hand in this. She always liked to hear about my races and made me feel special that I liked to run. The only other country she ever visited was the UK. There is no other explanation for how this happened.

Bottom line, I’m going to train for the 2024 London Marathon and do it in honor of my Grandma D. I am so excited and motivated to make this my best marathon yet!