Preparing to Get Excited

My ticket to fame and fortune finally came in the mail today. No, it wasn’t MA and RB paying up for my superlative coaching skills in guiding them to run their first marathon this year. Nor was it the BAA mailing in a personal pre-registration form for the Boston Marathon in 2008, acknowledging that a qualifying time, given my diligent training world-class speed and unwavering consistency, was a mere formality. That would have been nice. Instead, it was a long index card with the words “Registration Card: The ING New York City Marathon” displayed in white capital block letters on a blue background on the upper left. My race number 4324 along with a blue box signifying my starting corral is printed in solid black letters on the lower right. I’m not sure why, but as soon as I pulled out this card from the envelope today, I felt a sudden rush of nostalgia. I’m taken back to when I was in the same position two years ago, holding the registration card for my very first NYCM. On that first go around, I was so anxious and excited that I had to set it back down on the coffee table and go outside for a five mile run before I could allow myself to come back and handle the card again. Needless to say, I’m much calmer about the whole handling-of-the-registration-card part of the process this time around. I’m not some happy-go-lucky marathon rookie that’s going to jump up and down over a registration card anymore. I’ve a lot more sophisticated than that. I’m just going to put it aside on this here table and not pick it up again until it’s time to bring it to the marathon expo in 2 weeks. That’s how a classy marathon veteran is supposed to handle his registration card, right? So, why has it already been 5 hours since I’ve been home, and I’m still stuck in a mindless ritual of picking up the card, casually examining it, then setting it back only to pick it up again 5 minutes later? Do I have OCD or am I just trying too hard to hide the nervous freak? Gosh, this is going to be a long two weeks…