One Wedding and a Marathon in London

Meet my cousin, Celine.  I lived with Celine in New York when I ran the New York City Marathon last year.  Since then, she’s moved to Singapore.

– Cel and I outside her apartment in NYC. Don’t laugh. I had to wear my marathon shoes all over NYC during that trip because other shoes would leave me and my bunions in pain –

Cel’s mom and mine are sisters.  We were born a month apart.  We studied in the same school from Prep until Highschool.  We were in the same barkada all throughout.  Needless to say, she’s like a sister to me.

Several months ago, Celine shared some great news: She was engaged! She and her British boyfriend would get married in London. I was thrilled for her!

She told me: “You HAVE to be there.”  I said: “Of course!”  Then, within seconds I added jokingly: “Maybe you could set your wedding date close to the London Marathon.” (Hey, traveling ain’t cheap and I might as well hit two birds with one stone, right?!)

The London Marathon is on my must run marathon list. My dream is to finish the five World Marathon Majors–New York City Marathon (check twice!), Berlin Marathon (in less than a month!), Chicago Marathon (it’s our groups’ target next year), London Marathon, and Boston Marathon. (Okay, okay, I’m not sure if I’ll ever run fast enough for Boston so maybe I’ll be happy with 4 of 5)

I digress. Back to Cel’s story.  A couple of months back, Celine finally emailed the exact date of her wedding: April 19, 2013. I marked it on my calendar, then immediately googled the Virgin London Marathon. The date?  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  It’s on April 22, 2013!!!

What were the chances that these two dates would be just days apart?!  It was fate! Then, I quickly checked registration.  Bummer. Application for lottery was closed. So much for destiny.

Luckily, bulls like me never take No for an answer.  I asked Timex, the timing partner of the Virgin London Marathon, if they could possibly help.  One of my favorite people in the running community, Ms. Gemma Pagsibigan of Timex Philippines, sent out emails to her contacts in the UK and told me to just sit still and pray, pray, pray.

Either I’m really lucky or the gods of running just love me to death. Ms. Gemma called yesterday to share the good news: She got me a slot to London Marathon 2013!!!  May I say it again?!  IT’S FATE!

Looking forward to two happy events in London: a wedding and a marathon all in one week!