This week we learned I would not be running the Boston Marathon in 2026…and then on Thursday the Chicago Marathon lottery results were e-mailed out.

That’s what you see there at the left. I did not get a spot.

Last year’s acceptance e-mail was very much the aberration - this is much more along the lines of the e-mail I expect to get from these lotteries.

I did not have the feelings about Chicago that I did about Boston, where my hopes were up - Chicago was not a surprise. I felt it immediately after last year’s marathon that it might be a while before that happens again.

So now here I am with a whole calendar in front of me…but unsure what move to make next.

I was about to sign up for a New Year’s Day 5K and then realized it’s not even one of the races that factors into anything with the running club…so I’m second guessing whether it’s worth the effort on a day I like to sit around and do nothing.

(There’s essentially one designated 5K a month that counts toward running club events - the Thanksgiving race was one, I missed the December one [well, I chose not to run it], and the January one looks unlikely because it’s the day I need to take my daughter back to the airport.)

The other running club races are trail runs, so I suppose there’s a chance I’ll try that out this year…but I don’t know if I want to do a winter one.

So I’m unsure what’s going to unfold in this first quarter of the year.

The nice thing is I know I have the New York City Half Marathon coming in mid-March, so I can train for that and build around that.

(And I know I don’t need a race to run but I enjoy running a lot more when I have the structure of something to prepare for rather than running aimlessly. I’m not a terribly disciplined runner, is the problem. So unless I have a reason to run 6 miles or more…I might not run 6 miles or more. And I like running 6 miles or more. But my brain can’t just do it without knowing why I’m doing it. This feels like a good thing to expand upon on Instagram in the new year, where I hope to get more active again.)

I kind of have half a mind to still run a marathon in the vicinity of when I would have run the marathon in April.

I was thinking about Pittsburgh, a city I love and would love to run through, but that’s on May 3 and this year my sister has a big birthday and I figure I maybe shouldn’t be traveling for running around that time when we might be seeing her. Also, that’s prime college pick-up time.

But May 3 is also the Long Island Marathon, a race someone told me about a couple of years ago and I think people have been positive about.

So I’m going to look into that a bit - that’s a lot more manageable in terms of family stuff since it’s not far from Queens. (Certainly closer than Pittsburgh.)

I’m going to spend some time this week thinking about a half marathon training plan. I figure I’ll start that the first week of the new year - that will be roughly 10 weeks until the half and that feels like enough…so long as I continue building up a bit until the new year.

And as long as I’m working hard to get ready for the half, I can maybe pick up from there if I need to continue into marathon training.

So I think that will buy me some time to make a decision.

And along the way maybe I’ll mix in some 5Ks (there’s always parkrun) and any possible other races that come along.

And don’t forget…there’s always the New York City Marathon lottery.