Yesterday was a mixed bag of highs and lows, and I haven’t quite decided yet which note it ended on. I’ll just go through it in order:
1. Knocked out some serious work in the morning. HIGH
2. Figured out that it wasn’t in-fact peanuts in my throat, but instead that I was getting tonsillitis again. LOW
2. Had lunch with coworkers. HIGH
3. Did a drum circle team building exercise with coworkers. HIGH :)
4. Went to physical therapy. HIGH
5. PT ran over schedule and had to go straight to my shift watching my grandmother in the hospital. LOW
6. Watched as my grandmother had a very difficult night battling with severe pain. LOW
7. Ended up having to cancel my late CrossFit session to stay at the hospital. LOW
8. Came home around 8:30 to read on Facebook that the Lousiville Ironman had sold out. LOW LOW LOW
9. Realized that I can still buy a Foundation slot for the Louisville Ironman if I pay double the money. HIGH/LOW
10. Out of desperation, I immediately entered to win a lottery slot in Ironman Kona, the World Championships on October 8, 2011. HIGH
The Ironman Lottery is actually pretty cool, and I entered just in time before the 2011 cut-offs on February 28. There will be 200 people just like myself randomly drawn to win entry into the World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. The only other way to participate is to win a slot in a qualifying Ironman. While 200 lottery winners sounds like a lot, I’m sure they get thousands of people rolling the dice. It only cost $40 to put my name in the hat, and luckily you can’t purchase more than one entry (unless you take part in a special offer to get your name in there twice). So my chances are as good as anyone else’s in winning a place. They will announce the winners on April 15, the same weekend I compete in the New Orleans Half Ironman.
Which leads me to this… how the HELL did I miss out on Louisville??? I should have done better research to see how quickly it’s sold out in the past. I can’t beat myself up too much over it, b/c honestly I haven’t had the money to register yet and was anticipating the ability to do so next month. The entry fee was around $575 if I’m not mistaken, not pocket change in my book. My heart broke when I saw the little newsfeed pop up on my Facebook wall saying it had sold out. :( Big sad face. This was only my biggest goal of the whole year!!! I do find comfort in knowing that I WILL find a way to compete in an Ironman this year… whether it’s in Kona or another race. I’m going to keep my eyes and ears open until the lottery winners are drawn on April 15 and make a decision from there. It’s going to happen for me, I know it.
In what appears to be cruel irony, I am actually going to Louisville this weekend to spend time with some of my best friends. Whether or not I will be there again in August remains to be seen… but somehow I know it will all work out in the end because there is no one willing to work harder for it than ME.
Louisville Ironman - sold out.
