Lottery

"Thank you for your application for the Tokyo City Marathon. We had applicants far more than our scheduled maximum entrants, thanks to you.
As the result of a fair and strict lottery, we are sorry to inform you that we cannot meet your wish this time.
In case many lottery winners do not pay the participation fee, we may need fill-ins for vacancies. In that case we will let you know by the end of December."
This email came last Sunday to me and my wife. As it turns out, only one out of 7.5 applicants will be able to run in the marathon. Last year it was one to 3.5. It is getting far more difficult to win the lottery than running the full distance of marathon.
So my wife or I can't run with 34,998 people in the major Tokyoite's event unless someone suddenly wants to stint on \10000 for the participation fee.
If you think I quit jogging practice because of this bad luck, you are wrong. In fact I ran last night. It was refreshing as always.