Sweet!!. No wait, Bitter and Sweet!

On Sunday I was surfing around on the computer and came across some triathlon events listed here in California. As I was checking them out, I noticed the banner for Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon in San Francisco, June 14, 2009. I clicked on the banner and was taken to the home page. I read all the stuff and links and pull downs. When I got to the Registration tab I clicked on it and it said it was a Lottery drawing. I really didn't know it was a lottery type race but thought, what the hell. I filled out my information and clicked the submit button. It then said that the first drawing would be Monday, Dec. 15th and that results would be posted on Tuesday Dec. 16th. and the following:

"Applicants will be entered into each of the different pools that they are eligible for: The first drawing will be for triathletes who have competed in 5 or more years at the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. Those not selected will be added to the drawing for triathletes who have competed in 3 or more years at the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. Those not selected will be added to the regular random drawing for triathletes who have not completed at least 3 Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. There will be special random drawing of one male and one female triathlete from each of the 50 states. There will be an international drawing for those triathletes who presently live outside the United States. All random drawing entries"

After the first drawing there is a second drawing in Feb. for anyone not picked (obviously). Anyway, I thought whatever, like I will get in based on the above criteria, so we shall see what happens but it would be cool to win!

Today in my email:

2009 Escape from Alcatraz- Random Drawing Winner!

Congratulations JOHN VIGIL! You are one of the exceptional triathletes that has been selected as a Random Drawing Winner for the 2009 Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. As a Random Drawing Winner, you receive a slot in the 2009 Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon to be held in San Francisco on June 14, 2009. You have until January 9, 2009 at 11:59 pm to register for the race and pay your registration fee. Your slot is non-transferable and will be void on January 10th. We recommend that you register right away to make sure that you are able to complete the process, don’t wait until January 9.

On June 14, you will get to jump off a perfectly good boat into the frigid water of the San Francisco Bay, swim with 2000 of your best friends from Alcatraz to Little Marina Green. You will climb out of the water and run (with or without shoes) one half mile to the transition area, jump on your bike and ride 18 miles (most people say that it is all up hill) and then run 8 miles under the Golden Gate Bridge, through the sands of Baker Beach, up the infamous sand ladder and back to Marina Green to the finish line. What a great way to spend the day!

Now as excited I was like, hell yea! Score!!! so I clicked the registration link and all of a sudden every ounce of excitement got sucked out and I slumped over. $400 registration fee! Are you freakn' kidding me? Nope they are not kidding. Now I must say that when I signed up on Sunday for the lotto entry I did not know it was $400. Come on! That's damn near an M-dot fee. I thought maybe $250 but $400.

After considering the options and yes, weighing in the fact that I won a lottery slot and may never win again, it is just crazy for me to pay $400 at this time for this race, so now my excitement of just winning the slot becomes BITTER SWEET! Would I do it if I wasn't doing Cozumel, probably without a doubt. It's close, I could drive up and it would be cool to join the ranks of Bigun himself, although I am not sure I could get the Buzz Light Year look alike pic like him, but it would be cool.

For the time I will enjoy the thought of winning a slot and hope that some day it will come around again and in the mean time continue to train on. As far as that goes, things are finally moving along and I have things working. I will be getting with my new swim coach on Jan 3rd and am excited to kick off the new year with some awesome hard grueling workouts to come.

rockon`