Marathon registration status: Accepted

And just like that, I'm in.

Never been so excited to spend $255.

My lottery acception for the 2012 ING New York City Marathon was accepted, which means I now have plans for November 4. Hooray for me! Those four words -- "Marathon registration status: Accepted" -- means I'll get to run 26.2 miles through the five boroughs of New York City. It means I'll get to experience everything I've so far only read about: the bridges, the people, the crowd on 1st Ave, the finish in Central Park. I can't wait.

Did you get in? Tell us in the comments! You can check your status at the ING NYC site here.

The time has finally arrived, friends. The long-awaited registration for the Brooklyn Half Marathon will open at 12:00 PM tomorrow, Monday, March 26.

NYRR has changed the course map to allow for up to 15,000 participants, which would nearly triple the 2011 field of 5,921 entrants. In previous years, runners would do two loops of Prospect Park in Park Slope. Unfortunately, this change of course means that it will be very expensive to participate -- non-members of NYRR will pay $70 in early registration fees.

Half marathons have become very popular in recent years as athletes and exercise enthusiasts increase their participation in official races that take scenic routes through busy cities. Last weekend's NYC Half was a huge success with over 15,000 participants.

Don't forget to sign up for the Brooklyn Half Marathon tomorrow at noon! We'd love to see you out there, enjoying a nice hot dog on Coney Island to celebrate another big achievement.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The alarm hits my eardrums like a sledgehammer. It is 7:03 AM and I am immediately awake, turning off the noise and putting my feet on the floor. Coming into New York City on Saturday afternoon, my brother told me one simple fact: if I wanted to go out on St. Patrick's Day, I had to find somewhere else to sleep.

He had been fastidiously preparing for the NYC Half for the last fourteen weeks, and his drunk little brother wasn't going to crash his Brooklyn apartment at 3 AM and ruin his important night of sleep.

Mindful of this gentleman's agreement, one of my coworkers was kind enough to allow me to sleep at his cousin's apartment with him. The best part? It was located just two blocks away from the starting line of the NYC Half.

Getting up quickly, I threw on my bright green "Everything is bigger in Texas" shirt and headed to the elevator. Within minutes, I was strolling down 66th street, staring up at a big CNN animatronic billboard with the temperature and the time - 7:10 AM, 46 degrees. Twenty minutes until race time.

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Contrasted with the logistical nightmare that was the Rock and Roll USA Half Marathon, the Tobacco Road Half Marathon in Cary, NC was a smoothly-run event. The race was scheduled to begin at 7 AM -- we left the house at 5:30 by car and got dropped off a few yards from the starting line at about 6:30. There was a long string of about 50 cars ahead of us dropping off other participants, though this was not really an issue. The weather was extremely humid, and a bit warm (about 60 degrees at gun time). It had rained the night before, dampening the whole course and saturating the air with water.

Once we arrived at the starting line, the crowd of about 4500 runners packed in closely (though not too closely) and co-mingled. We settled around the back of 9:00-10:00 pace "corral" (there were no real lines of demarcation here) and waited for the gun. After the singing of the national anthem (I think, as we were so far back we couldn't hear) and some enthused emceeing, we heard the crowd roar and the bodies around us surged. The race had started.

As we set out, it quickly became apparent that we were running the grounds of the USA Baseball training facility. We headed over some lightly rolling hills as we made it around the facility, moving onto two-lane roads that weren't quite wide enough for the crowds running the race. We got stuck behind a 2:30 pace group and had some trouble getting by, as the cluster of runners dedicated to that pace spread out and stuck with their pacer. The course eventually widened at mile 2, allowing for more easy navigation as the race populous spread out.

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As I mentioned Tuesday, I've got a race coming up (Ryan does as well). I'm running a half marathon this weekend, which calls for a bit more preparation than a typical 5 or 10k race. As the weekend approaches, I'm mentally running through my checklist of what I'll need to take to ensure that I'm prepared for the race. As the weekend gets closer, I'm getting more cognizant of what I'll need to take (BE PREPARED).

So I've got my list. Mind you, it's a half marathon checklist -- but a checklist nonetheless. If you guys have anything else you take for races, let's discuss and learn from each other.

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This Saturday -- not long after Ryan runs the National Half Marathon through both of our DC neighborhoods -- I'll be driving down to sunny Cary, North Carolina to run in the Tobacco Road Half Marathon. It's been a while since I last raced. As such, the excitement of race week is a somewhat foreign entity at this point. Though the weekend is a few days away I'm already starting to think about it, the excitement of travel and racing slowly settling in.

I've never raced a half marathon during marathon training. This week's race actually falls on an up week in terms of my long run (I'm supposed to run 18 on my long run), and I'm somewhat behind in terms of my training. With an up-mileage week in training, I'm not actually tapering for the half. Instead I'm running a 7/4/6/5 week. The nice thing about this is the fact that right now I'm more focused on the week's training than the race. I'm really not sure how the race will effect my marathon training, nor am I sure how my mileage this week will effect my race time.

This will be my first race in a year. It will also be my first time running with anyone. I'm pretty sure she'll kick my ass; accepting that now means that if she does I've already tempered myself for it. If not, I'll probably just act all nonchalant and be a cool dude about it. (My goal, for those interested, is to accompany her all the way to the finish -- that's the kind of agreement that friends make when a bit tipsy on vacation. My guess is she can run between a 1:45 and 1:50. I hope I can do the same.)

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As a fan of Alabama football, I find few things more exhilarating than attending a game in Bryant-Denny Stadium. To be on hand for a key contest with 101,820 of my fellow Crimson Tide fans is an experience that can scarcely be put into words. The wins are electrifyingly ecstatic and the losses are devastatingly brutal. Never is it boring.

This experience is repeated to a greater or lesser degree for anyone who attends a sporting event where they are emotionally invested in the outcome. There is a tribal sense of purpose and a bonding in the shared experience that we cannot quite express to others afterward. "You had to be there" is less a cliche than a testament to the insufficiency of language in certain instances.

Yet for all this you remain a spectator at a performance. The athletic contest unfolds before you but almost completely beyond your ability to affect in any way (except for your lucky shirt, of course). In this respect, marathons are the exact opposite. Last November more than 46,500 people finished the ING New York Marathon. The spectators, in this case, were the participants.

Part of the appeal of the marathon (and other endurance events) is in being the athlete in competition rather than witnessing to the action. In this respect it is rather unique in the pantheon of modern sports; far more people participate in marathons than those who follow it simply as fans.

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If you plan on running a major marathon in the United States this year, you should probably prepare yourself for a bit of sticker shock. The registration fees for marathons has been increasing steadily over the past decade so and most of the big races saw a hefty uptick this year.

The priciest race in America remains the New York City Marathon which will set you back $255 if you are a US entrant. That's a 65% increase over the past five years for a race that cost just $60 to enter in 2001. While NYC leads the pack, it is not alone. The rest of the country's premier marathons have been steadily increasing their registration fees as well. Both Boston and Chicago will put you back $150 if you were lucky enough to register before they filled up.

Here's a graph comparing the prices of five major US marathons over the past half decade:

It's not just marquee events are getting more and more expensive. According to FindMyMarathon.com there are no less than 41 marathons in the United States this year with an entry fee over $100. Still, there are bargains are out there to be found. The site reports the median price to enter a marathon in 2012 is $65.

But the fact is, budget minded runners are feeling the pinch in their wallets.

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