Better luck next year

This morning I joined hundreds of other hopeful runners in the Placer High School cafeteria for the 2008 Western States 100 lottery. This was to be my first experience.

Tim Twietmeyer addresses the crowd

Tim Twietmeyer addressed the crowd with the bad news: after adding up all the 2-time losers, top 10 men and women from last year's race, 25 foreign spots, Gordy, Cow-man, and a few others I forget, that only left 189 spots left to draw for. That equated to about a 1 in 6 chance of being drawn, the lowest chance in the history of the run.

The crowd waits anxiously

After a couple of hours of not hearing my name drawn, they were down to the last few names. Greg asked those in the crowd who had their name in the hat but hadn't been drawn yet to raise their hand. About 90% of the people raised their hands. Incredible. So they decided to add 7 spots for those present only. I still wasn't chosen.

Gordy picks out a name

I decided to stick around for the 2009 drawing (2 spots) since I had purchased about 20 tickets. I was happy with my 20 tickets until I saw the guy next to me: he had 184. I didn't get chosen. But then neither did he. The final thing to be done was to draw for the many (and very nice) door prizes. I had 1 ticket. I heard my name called and hurried to the front of the room to receive my gift certificate for a pair of Montrail shoes! Wow, that's pretty cool. So it turned out not to be a wasted trip.