Follow Michelle in the Morning at the NYC Marathon

"I know I spent a lot of money when we were in Hawaii, but there's NO WAY that I spend THAT much."

Those were my exact words when I logged into my bank account at the end of February. Hubby and I had just returned from our delayed honeymoon to Oahu and I wanted to see how much damage I did while we were there...and I just about heart attack when I saw how much money was missing from bank account. I started scrolling through the pending charges looking for anything that could've been fraud or identity theft.  That's when I saw it. A $200+ charge from the New York Road Runners Club.

By some miracle, out of 117,709 hopefuls that wanted to run the TCS New York City Marathon but weren't quite fast enough to qualify for it, I was part of the 9% that won a entry through the lottery! I refreshed my bank account over and over that day, hoping the charge didn't vanish before I got the official confirmation e-mail later on that afternoon.

It's really happening. I'm running the TCS New York Marathon this weekend. I'm running my first Abbott World Marathon Majors race (actually, I'm running my first marathon outside of Idaho which is crazy to think about to begin with.) I'm running the same course that where one of my heroes, Shalane Flanagan, became the first American woman to win the race in 40 years.

18 years ago, I couldn't finish the junior high cross country course without walking (although, a cash bribe from my dad to not walk during one of the largest invitationals in the state changed that rather quickly.) So to say I'm running this race, well...it's surreal!

Our LITE-FM listeners are like my extended family, so I want to share my journey this weekend with you! If you want to track what's happening to me on the course, download the TCS New York Marathon App HERE. When you open the app, click "Track Runners," type in my bib #28741and hit the (+) button to make me one of your runners. I start the race at 8:10 a.m. Boise time, so that's when you'll start getting notifications from the app!

BTW, this is also my first trip to NYC. I'm not able to stay very long or do a lot of sight seeing outside of the race, but if there's something you think I MUST do while I'm there, post your suggestions! I'm pretty easy to entertain.  Let's be honest...I'm just as geeked out about riding the Staten Island Ferry to the start village as I am about the race because well...Spider-man.