Recently along with most of the British running population, I was unsuccessful in the ballot for the London Marathon. I didn’t mind as I knew that due to my foot issues, London would be a case of too much too soon for me. I already had one of my bucket list races; the Berlin Marathon, pencilled in as my target event for 2015.

I was unsuccessful in the Berlin Marathon ballot last year so deep down I was pretty certain I would get a place in the marathon this year. I was so confident I had already booked my accommodation. There were 40,000 places up for grabs and I read that there was a 50/50 chance of getting a place, surely one of those places would be mine?

Right?

Wrong!

The Berlin Marathon ballot results were published earlier today and it appears that I was too confident.

Convinced that there had been a terrible mistake, I checked the list of participants a dozen times. I searched by my first name (just in case I had misspelt my surname) and I searched by my surname. The computer said no!

The “Congratulations” email didn’t arrive, and I eventually received the dreaded “thanks but no thanks” email. Thanks for ruining my day Berlin marathon organisers!

Afer receiving the “we don’t want you” email I cancelled my hotel booking. The money will be a bonus before Christmas :o)

The majority of people I follow on twitter and facebook, however, appear to have got places in Berlin. Congratulations to all of you! Please can you share the secret to ballot success?

At the moment I am suffering from yet another case of marathon ballot rejection related envy and blues.

I’ve already been unsuccessful in the Royal Parks Half ballot and the London Marathon ballot this year. In theory I should be used to the feeling of rejection, the feeling that for whatever reason I was not deemed worthy of a race place.

But I’m not!

So now I need to look for the positives, pick myself up and formulate a Plan B.

I believe that everything happens for a reason and that for whatever reason the Berlin Marathon 2015 wasn’t meant to be. Perhaps I need more time to build up my mileage, perhaps the organisers knew that I couldn’t really afford to run a marathon in 2015.

Hopefully 2016 will be my year!