Ooops... ZMan accidentally enters the London Marathon

Yesterday I was reading how the new Virgin London Marathon site was having trouble handling the volume of people who want to enter the 2010 race. Its no surprise - the 2009 was on Sunday so there's lots of people feeling inspired - many of of which will probably live to regret their enthusiasm and many of whom will do something that amazes themselves. I visited the site and found that due to the time differences everyone in the UK was asleep and the site was running just fine.

So I thought I would check out the process for overseas folk. The main thing I wanted to see was if it was possible to enter more than one person on the lottery and get either everyone or noone enter. It would suck for J and me to both enter and then only one of us got in and had to watch the other. (Well since J has not done her first full yet it would suck more one way than the other)

Well there was no instructions so I just started through the process in the hope that it would tell me. As always I was expecting a final confirmation type of page but either there wasn't one or it wasn't obvious enough and suddenly I get a screen telling me that I was done..... Uh Oh... and here's the confirmation email too....

Now obviously running a marathon isn't a big deal for me (Seattle Rock & Roll will be my 10th 26.2 or longer) so it not that I can't do it. In fact its a race I would love to run one day. The real problem is that I was planning my 50 miler next April and I think doing a marathon 2 weeks later isn't advisable. Oh and it also will cost a lot of money in plane tickets. I'm sure my family would be happy for me to have a visit and it would be really nice for them to be able to come cheer me in a race for once....

Of course it is a lottery - last year there was 120,000 people in the lottery and 35,000 finishers many of whom get in through charity, club or fast time programs (I would need a 3:15 so that's not happening) so I am guessing that I have a 1 in 6 chance at best. So maybe this accident won't be a problem. Plus I think if you enter so many years and don't get in then they guarantee you a place so that's another good thing.

The lottery results are in October.

Interesting fact from Wikipedia:
"It is the only Marathon course in the world that is run in two hemispheres, both the East and West, as the full course crosses the Prime Meridian in Greenwich."