New York City Marathon lottery day: The rare time a bank charge is a relief

“The #TCSNYCMarathon drawing is taking place all day beginning now. Runners will be accepted into the race in waves throughout the day, so some runners may find out their status before you do. If you’re accepted to run this year’s TCS New York City Marathon, here’s what will happen, in order: 1. Your payment method will be charged the Marathon entry fee. 2. An alert will appear in your My NYRR account. If you’ve been accepted, the alert in My NYRR will say, “You have been accepted into the 2016 TCS New York City Marathon.” 3. Your registration status for the TCS New York City Marathon will change in My NYRR. If you’ve been accepted, your registration status will change to “Accepted.” 4. You will receive a confirmation email that you have been accepted. All applicants who have provided a valid email address should be notified via email by the end of the day on March 8, 2016, regardless of status (accepted or not). If you have not received an email by 9:00AM EST on March 9th, 2016 please make sure to check your spam folder. You can also confirm your status by logging in to your My NYRR profile and viewing your entry status under Races & Registration. More FAQs answered here: help.nyrr.org and http://www.tcsnycmarathon.org/plan-your-race/run-in-2016.” by @nycmarathon

A photo posted by newyorkroadrunners (@nyrr) on Mar 8, 2016 at 7:01am PST

Today is one of the few occasions when seeing a charge to your credit card is a good thing. Successful applicants vying for a spot for the TCS New York City Marathon will be notified today of their lottery status for the Nov. 6 race, the world’s largest 42.2K event.

According to the New York Road Runners (NYRR), the non-profit association that organizes the annual marathon, 19,083 lucky people will earn a spot on the starting line. That’s an increase of 108 per cent from 2014 and a 33 per cent increase from 2015.

RELATED: What running attire could you buy with your New York Marathon entry fee?

As the world’s largest race, the odds of receiving non-guaranteed entry remains slim. Though more than 19,000 applications were successful, there were 82,172 non-guaranteed entry drawing applications sent in to the NYRR. That’s a 23 per cent success rate.

Non-guaranteed entries are for runners who have not run a specific time standard and don’t qualify for guaranteed entry.

@nycmarathon drawing is today. This about sums up how I feel pic.twitter.com/LpLNdIyW9u

— danieldumas (@danieldumas) March 8, 2016

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the five-borough race that begins on Staten Island before finishing in Central Park, one of the city’s most iconic landmarks.

RELATED: ASICS ends 25-year run as New York City Marathon sponsor.

Canadian applicants will be paying significantly more than local runners because of a separate international entry fee paired with a poor Canadian dollar in comparison with the U.S. dollar. Including the non-refundable application fee, the race entry will set a Canadian runner back approximately $500.

RELATED: New York City Marathon finisher’s medals allegedly stolen and sold on eBay.

More than 50,000 runners are expected to finish the New York City Marathon in 2016.

Details on the process of receiving a successful application can be found below (in order):

– Your credit card will be charged the entry fee;
– You’ll see an alert in your “My NYRR” account saying you have been accepted into the 2016 TCS New York City Marathon, and your registration status for the event will appear as “accepted.”
– You’ll receive an email confirming that you’ve been accepted. If you have not received the email by 9 a.m. EST on March 9, it may be in your spam folder.