Confirmation!

Life is busy for me, as usual, I just finished an 8 day stretch of work, one day off, then another 6... this is normal, so I'm well conditioned to it, and I don't have too many complaints. I have enjoyed every moment of the last two weeks, because I can honestly say that there has been very few moments where I haven't had Boston on my mind. I'm sure the novelty will wear off, and if it doesn't, I may stand to lose the remaining of my few friends (those who have decided to stick with me thru this ultra-busy year), as I'm sure they will be sick of hearing about everything-Boston.... But I think I'll reveal in the moment for just a short while longer!

Until a few days after the fact, I didn't realize how incredibly close to not registering in the Boston Marathon I had come! This year was a record breaking registration year... the entry's sold out in exactly 8 hours and 2 minutes. Apparently the norm is more like a few weeks, even two months before maximum capacity is reached... in fact, I know that the Las Vegas marathon is historically a favorite for Boston-wannabe's, it runs on the first weekend of December every year and is the last qualifying race for the upcoming April Boston Marathon. I guess if that is someone's plan this year, they won't have any hope at all. On registration day, I was actually working at 7am, the same time that online registration opened. Being the Boston virgin that I am, I didn't really know what to expect for the registration process. I didn't really think it would be a huge panic to register at 7am on the dot... but yet I didn't want to risk it. For my first Ironman, I lined up at 3 am, with a massive crowd of other hopefuls, and waited paitently until 9am when registration opened. That year, the 2007 race, was the 25th anniversary, so it was projected to sell out in record time. The stress of that Penticton trip aged me a good 3 additional decades! It's quite an emotional commitment (let alone financial!!!) to plan for these events, and I particularly loath things that I don't have complete and utter control of, so until confirmed confirmation is in my hands, I don't sleep, I have hot flashes and I feel particularly irritable. I sailed through the Ironman registration and was confirmed by about 9:15 (sadly the damage was done, as seen by the additional lines on my brow). As for Boston, I couldn't handle the stress of missing registration, so I got team-Boston leader Alison to fulfill her sisterly duties and register me. Alison is incredibly organized, worked as an executive assistant to a government cabinet minister, holds a Master's degree, etc etc etc. If there is one person in the world who won't let me down.... it is her! But she failed, and she failed miserably (luckily to redeem herself in glorious triumph). As an incredibly amazing turn in my fate, I was only working an 8 hour shift this day and I slipped out of work about 10 minutes earlier than usual, about 2:55. I have a usual routine when leaving the hospital (everyday), I turn my phone on for the first time after 8 or 12 hours, and before checking various important things (like facebook), I always call Alison. Usually to check in, debrief the day, sometimes I offload a million things (aka "bitching"), and mostly to hear if there has been any breaking news (on TMZ) in the real world that I missed while being consumed in my hospital world. When she didn't mentioned anything about Boston registration, I was a little bit confused, because I was certain that it is ALL that she thought about ALL day (just like me)... eventually we got there.... and for the first time in her life - Alison forgot to do something (potentially at my expense... panic... stress induced aging commences....). We hung up, she immediately registered me, called me back, we laughed about it, and then carried on with the more important details of the day. It wasn't until later that I learned that Alison was LITERALLY 4 minutes away from the cut off time. I just gained another wrinkle by writing that! The stress still sends me in to a third degree heart block - and my registration has actually been confirmed! Oh my gosh - I just re-read the sentence and I feel the skin under my chin sagging! The stress! Can you imagine!?!? I would still trust Alison to do anything for me - she redeemed herself (and more!) when I recieved this in the mail exactly two weeks later:




Arrived via first class mail, direct from Boston: the word's I have been dreaming to read my entire life. Let the celebrations begin, because it is official. There is no turning back.

My demographics - It states that my citizenship is American here, which has been since been corrected - otherwise those are the details that will forever be with me Qualifying Time: 3:35:17


Even the cats couldn't contain their excitment (as per usual daily routine when I pick up the mail and they immediately sit on it).