The Lottery

The lottery! What a crazy way to determine the fate of almost an entire year of your life. For weeks leading up to the lottery all plans were met with the response” let’s wait and see what the lottery does.”

Basically it looks like this. About 500 people want to pay around $200 to run 100 miles through the Wasatch Mountains. The race allows about 350 runners in the field. The way that they determine which 350 are in is by the old fashion pull names out of a hat.
The drawing took place at the clubhouse of the Soldier Hollow golf course. Luke Larsen, also in the lottery, and I made the 45 minute trip from SLC to Midway. As we drove up the canyon our guts turned in and out. I had not felt that level of emotion since my last son Cooper was born. I am not joking, I wish I was!

Luke and I walked in and met many members of the race committee. They were great! The names began to come out of the bowl. The emotions increased. Luke got off relatively easy. He was roughly pulled in between 30 and 50 ish. Then the Marks started. They kept coming. Mark…Jenkins. Mark…Reynolds. In all 10 Marks would be drawn. They took a break at 150 and still no Mark Robbins. The second half began and clipped along. My guts were in knots. I began to think of what I will do this year in lieu of the Wasatch. I nervously ate a lot of watermelon. Runner 266 MARK…ROBBINS, Holladay, Utah.

Tears welled in the bottom of my tired eyes. I had only slept 4 hours the previous two nights respectively. Luke and I were both pumped! I could not stop my nervous giggle. We waited for Brian Robbins name to be called but to no avail. I was bummed for him.
As we left the clubhouse I still could not believe what had just happened. My mind was flooded with thoughts of training, possibility, expectation, accountability and simply put EUPHORIA. I had a strong sense of responsibility to my friends, family and really those 141 names that were not drawn.

I came home and ran 12 miles before it got too dark. I thought for a minute about taking the day and celebrating with the family. I gave the excuse that I was tired and worn out due to lack of sleep. My next thought was that I better get darn good and used to running tired! I had kind of a cool thought while I was running. KEEP YOUR HEAD UP. In several sports that I have played in my life the main rule is to keep your head down. Maybe I like running so much because you, ideally, want to have your head up. I relate keeping your head up to positivity. This journey is going to take all the heads up that I can muster.

Throughout the day I received calls, texts, FB messages and tweets congratulating me and offering support in any way. I was pretty touched by the support crew that I have right now. I imagine that it will grow as WE train and get closer to the race. Thank you now and then for being such great people.

View the post video here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puWOA3bw0IE&context=C31e923cADOEgsToPDskJS7OblT1eLH2QpKV-osqa4