Ok, not to sound too much like a silly little child, but...I GOT IN, I GOT IN, I GOT IN!!!!!!
Ever since I've gotten into running, I've been on the lookout for fun and intriguing races to run. Last year, I was turned on to the Nike Women's Marathon that has been taking place in San Francisco, California for the past 8 years. The race is an extremely popular one, due in no small part to the fact that the "finisher's medals" are Tiffany & Co. necklaces designed exclusively for the women who run and complete the race. Another not insignificant selling point is the fantastically beautiful race course, which starts at Union Square and ends along the Pacific Ocean. With these, and several other, amazing perks, it's no wonder that this is a sell out race every single year. In fact, the demand to run the race is so great that in the past several years, they have turned the registration into a lottery system: there is an open window time frame where women can submit their names, and then once the window closes, they choose 25,000 women who will get to participate. Now while I'm sure you're thinking "wow, that's a lot of people, it must be pretty easy to get a spot", I've heard that at least twice that many people submit their names for the lottery.
Now when my friend Leila told me about this race last year, we had missed the sign up window by literally days. I was bummed that I didn't even get the opportunity to try to sign up for it, so I promised myself that I was going to be diligent this year about finding out when the registration window opened so that I could get my name in for a shot at this fantastic race. April 9th arrived, and even though I was in the hospital and in a great deal of pain (it happened to be the day before I had my gallbladder taken out...see previous post) I was on my computer at 9am submitting my name into the lottery. The lottery window remained open until the 20th, and then all I could do was wait with my fingers, toes, eyes, arms, legs and everything else crossed, hoping and praying that I got one of the coveted emails saying that I had been chosen to run.
They had warned us when we signed up that if we were to receive an email letting us know that we had been selected, we wouldn't get it until the end of this week, which I took to mean Saturday or Sunday. So when I got to school this morning for my first day back to work since my surgery, I wasn't expecting anything more than work-related emails when I opened up my inbox. *Quick side note, look at the cute little welcome back elephant that my students left up on the board for me to find this morning...
...aren't they the sweetest students ever?!?!?! I almost cried when I saw it, it was so nice to be missed!
Anyway, I started up my computer this morning, and what do I find in my inbox but an email from Nike Women's Marathon with the subject line: 2012 Nike Women's Marathon Random Draw Results. I stared at the title in disbelief for several long seconds before I finally, with a shaking hand, clicked open the email and read these glorious words...
Dear Teresa Antonoplos,
Whether it’s your first or fiftieth race, there really is no other feeling quite like standing at the starting line.
We’re so glad that in 2012, you’ll be sharing that moment with us.
That’s right, you read that correctly. You’ve officially been selected to run in the 2012 Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco. Congratulations!
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