POORER BY TWO-SIXTEEN

There is a runner named Gene
Who likes things nice and clean
Chancy lottery, be gone!
He'd rather do 9 plus 1
Now he is poorer by two-sixteen!

I am in the 2012 NYC Marathon, thanks to the NYRR 9+1 program.  With the 9+1 program, an applicant would have to run 9 qualified races and volunteer for one event, during the year before the race.  There are other ways to get into the NYC Marathon but 9+1 is the only way that works for me.  For the 2011 race, I did not decide early enough in 2010 to participate so I took a chance with the lottery, which costs $11.  Sure enough I did not get in.  9+1 it was then!  The 9 races would count as part of the training anyway, nothing can go wrong with the 9+1 programs.

I am a pack rat but just not one of those extremists that would be featured on reality TV.  At one time I kept all the returned checks from bank accounts, but when I moved to the current house I threw them out.  Or maybe even before that.  Now I wish I still have them.  I want to find the checks I paid for the 1994 and 1995 NYC Marathons.  I am pretty sure it was below $100, maybe $75, maybe even as low as $45.  It costs so much to run the NYC Marathon these days.  Last year, for an NYRR member, it was $156.  Now it is $216!  The few marathons that I registered for in recent months cost $70 and up.  Sure, those other marathons do not pass through the five great boroughs of New York City, but triple the amount?  An article in the New York Times cited the cost increase as a direct result of the NYPD charging the NYRR more for traffic control and such.  I suspect it's all about milking the cow as much as possible.  If this trend keeps up, I certainly will not participate after the 2012 Marathon.