Thanks for the input...I'm not feeling too good about our chances but we'll keep our fingers crossed.

quote:

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Originally posted by dhuey:

Thanks for the link. I just can't understand how they say 50%. I thought they said there were 90,000 lottery entrants last year. There are only about 37,000 slots. A good portion of those slots go to guaranteed entrants/charities/locals, etc. I looked at lists of lottery entrants last year, and saw a lot more "NO"s than "YES"s.

Regardless, good luck to all.

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They let in way more than 38,000 (I believe 38,3xx started last year). My guess is that from 42,000 - 45,000 were accepted. There are a whole bunch of people who do not show up, or defer due to injury etc. etc.

I've done the lottery twice missed in '05, got in '06. I'll try again this year, but am think I can't get in two years in a row. Also, how can the weather this year be any better than last year??

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Originally posted by desertrunnergirl:

I'm confused about this lottery thing...I understand they save a few spots for returning runners, for road runner members, for charity runners. Are ALL the other spots given by lottery, or did I just sign up too late to be entered?

In other words, if I had signed up before May, would I have automatically been in?

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No. If you don't have a guaranteed spot you have to enter the lottery.

May I join the gang? I'll also be running NYC. Whohoo! Always wanted to do it (I mean... always since 3 years ago since I started to run and exercise...). I'm currently trying to become a triathlete.. former runner. Did two Marathons so far, very slow, but this time I want to get under 4 hours.

So Sailsman, will Lance run this year again? I remember last year he wasn't sure about it.

Desertrunner.. if only one of you gets accepted, I think you can postpone your entry by one year, so next year the other one can apply again.

Chris

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Originally posted by chrisuletz:

So Sailsman, will Lance run this year again? I remember last year he wasn't sure about it.

Desertrunner.. if only one of you gets accepted, I think you can postpone your entry by one year, so next year the other one can apply again.

Chris

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I believe Lance is running again, but I also heard he had a stress fracture from the last race.

Also, if you postpone/defer you still have to pay this year and next year. Kind of a drag. I just signed up today for the lottery, we'll see if I can get in two years in a row. I thinking not.

Also noticed they are charging $20 now to take the shuttle bus from the SI Ferry to the start. It was free last year.

quote:

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Originally posted by dcv2002:

They let in way more than 38,000 (I believe 38,3xx started last year). My guess is that from 42,000 - 45,000 were accepted. There are a whole bunch of people who do not show up, or defer due to injury etc. etc....

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Okay, let's say 45,000 acceptances out of 90,000 entrants. That's still nowhere near 50% once you subtract from the 45,000 all of the guaranteed, charity, NYRR, foreign, etc. slots. Like I said, last year I looked through the entrant database by searching for common last names. There were about three NOs for every YES.

I suspect that whoever posted the 50% claim on the marathon site is being sloppy with the numbers.

Boot the foreigners out!!

Just kidding - I don't blame them.  In Cincinnati, they try and recruit people from states that have no entrants so they can legitimately say they have people from xx # of states in the marathon.  At Air Force one year, they announced they had people from 49 states and the commander made a point to ask the runners "If you know anyone from Rhode Island, tell them to run this race next year!!"

The New York City reserves more places for foreign runners than any other marathon. I think this fits in to the NYC image as "cross roads of the world".

In 2006 there were:

3,483 finishers from the UK
2,896 from Italy
2,577 from France
2,439 from Germany
1,024 from Scandinavia
740 from Canada
615 from Mexico
511 from Japan
406 from Spain
288 from Brazil (including the winner)