For those not in the know, Way Too Cool is a classic ultramarathon held every March in Cool, CA. It's pretty popular so they hold a lottery to see who gets the pleasure and privilege of busting their rump over 50 kilometers of hills that add up to about 3,600' in elevation gain/loss. Who wouldn't pay $95 to just maybe climb up 360 floors while running 31 miles?
I applied last year but the best I could do was #284 on the waiting list. This year I made sure to sign up the day the lottery opened (you never know) and when Ultra Signup asked me to pre-pay my possible entry, I not only blindly gave my credit card information but decided to raise the stakes by ordering as much extra race paraphernalia as possible (just in case the lottery judges were paying attention . . . I wanted them to know that if they didn't let me in, they were missing out on a real big spender). I liked my odds.
Well, two days later a package arrived from Ultra Sign-up. Hmm, how odd. When I opened it, I found a visor with "Ultra Signup" across the headband. WTF. I thought I had ordered a Way Too Cool visor contingent upon my entry to the actual race. Bloody hell! I just bought a $22 visor that is basically a billboard for some online race registration company. Bastards! It might as well be an ACTIVE t-shirt or an E-BAY headband. I felt a little played, to be honest. And I still had to wait another 5 days to see if I was in the race. What if I didn't get in? Do I send back the visor? Burn it?
Thankfully, a hectic final schedule at school saw the next 5 day pass quickly. When I looked online Wednesday evening to see if I'd made it in, I decided that I would let this one race (call it fate, or "the visor gods") shape my 2011 racing calendar: would it be WTC and a lot of trail races/ultras or would I go back to doing more road races and maybe "a marathon a month?"
So, yeah, I got in. And I'm pretty excited. I'm going in ranked just inside the top 100 registered athletes, so besides the obvious goals of making it to the race healthy and finishing the course, my next objective will be to finish somewhere in the top 50 or 100.
The post-acceptance elation has also lent itself to some much-needed short term motivation. Yesterday I came home late, dog tired and freezing cold, but just thinking of the WTC race helped me strap on my LaSportiva Crosslites and put in 6 muddy miles alongside some vineyards. It was a great run and I'm not sure what felt better: the fancy shoes LaSportiva hooked me up with for free or the $117 visor courtesy of Ultra Signup.
No comments:
Post a Comment