Checkin’ It Twice
November 18th, 2008 Posted in StoryOn Friday, October 17th at 10:05 PM I stepped off a plane in Richmond, Va. on my way with Marcy to our son Drew’s soccer match at Washington & Lee University. As I quickly scanned my emails on the iPhone on the way to pick up the rental car (walking and reading emails simultaneously has become a refined multitasking skill of mine) - one in particular caught my eye - the one below…..
===============October 17, 2009 6:37 PM==========
Congratulations!
You are one of 54 TTL’s that were randomly selected (out of 229) to participate in the 2009 WS Run. You will have until midnight, October 30th to register online.
There are two requirements you should also be aware of:
- You must run a qualifying run by April 18, 2009. Proof of your qualifying run must be received in the WS office (via US Mail) by April 25, 2009. Refer to the Qualifying page of the WS site for details.
- You must complete eight hours of volunteer service by May 15, 2009. The volunteer service requirement form must be received in the WS office by May 15, 2009.
Again, congratulations and good luck with your WS training!
Greg Soderlund, RD
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I had to check the message twice since I was so shocked. I had completely written off any chance of getting into WS09 after the forest fires of the summer of 2008 caused the WS08 race to be cancelled (1st time in history). All WS08 entrants were offered automatic slots in WS09 as a gesture of consideration and fairness (which the large majority of the ultra running community acknowledged and agreed with). So I with my training partn
er, Chris “C1″ Haley, who I had entered the two prior lotteries with as buddies (one gets picked, we both get picked), had assumed there would be very few open slots for 2009 and given our prior luck, there was a better chance of us striking oil 
in our backyard than getting into 2009 and settled into the likelihood of a 2010 or even 2011 run. Turns out we were half right - I struck Texas gold and he got Mississippi mud. Chris was not selected for 2009 or 2010 and so has officially begun his 2 1/2 year preparation for WS11! The rules did not allow us to enter the 2009 lottery as buddies (an anomoly that I don’t understand) and so here I am running in ‘09 and Chris will run 2 years later.
er, Chris “C1″ Haley, who I had entered the two prior lotteries with as buddies (one gets picked, we both get picked), had assumed there would be very few open slots for 2009 and given our prior luck, there was a better chance of us striking oil in our backyard than getting into 2009 and settled into the likelihood of a 2010 or even 2011 run. Turns out we were half right - I struck Texas gold and he got Mississippi mud. Chris was not selected for 2009 or 2010 and so has officially begun his 2 1/2 year preparation for WS11! The rules did not allow us to enter the 2009 lottery as buddies (an anomoly that I don’t understand) and so here I am running in ‘09 and Chris will run 2 years later.