Everyone else is doing it, and I might not

Happy Summer Solstice! This is the time of year when the words "torpor" and "estivation" become my favorite vocabulary words. This past weekend I found it really difficult to get out and run with the rays of morning sun heating up the previous night's dew. I'm not quite ready to commit myself to the treadmill, but it does seem that the only sane time to be outdoors on the trail is at twilight. And because of the late sunsets, this ends up messing with sleep cycles. It's hard to win this game.

In the height of summer, the running community is already hot about the coming winter. I've been sampling some of the online reaction since the Houston Marathon announced the introduction of a lottery into the registration process. Most of the comments are angry and to be honest, I think they're misguided. Let me put this bluntly:

What will happen with a lottery: Registration hopefuls take their chances; some will be shut out.

What will happen without a lottery: Registration hopefuls take their chances; some will be shut out.

We saw what happened last July when the registration servers got pummeled. Just like a concert for the flavor-of-the-year pop act after Ticketmaster lights up the cash registers, the demand simply outstrips supply. Looking back, I now see how I was part of a cresting "running boom." My first Aramco Half in '06 was the last time that a sellout did not occur. Since then, the day the "SOLD OUT" press release has went out has gotten earlier and earlier, despite a rising registration cap.

If 22,000 is really the limit to the number of participants the George R. Brown Convention Center can handle on a single morning, then I have to ask if it's time to run the Aramco Half on another day. I have to believe that the convention center is the limiting factor, because surely organizers could easily alleviate on-course choke points simply by staggering wave starts more creatively.

Meanwhile, I think my chances are 60-40 (maybe dropping) that I'll even bother to enter the lottery. If I do enter and don't make it in for my sixth consecutive hustle past the ABC13 cameras, I won't be sad. It's been a great five-year "run" and nothing will change that now. The good part of the "boom" is that there are significantly more options now than in 2006. As for Marathon Sunday, I could see myself on the volunteer side of the fence this time in January.