crushed dreams

today i received an email from the world triathlon corporation that was headed with 'congratulations you are going to kona'.  my heart felt like it was going to explode.  i had entered the lottery program and so what this appeared to be was my winning notification.  i read through the email and could not believe it.  i got some of the guys in the office to read it. i kept looking at it as i tried to detect if it was a scam email but it looked authentic.  i sent text messages to a few of my triathlon friends who were understandably just as excited as i was.  i also sent one to a friend who had actually won a legacy spot and knew more about these things than i did.  in my head i was trying to figure out how i was going to pay for it and how would i manage doing cairns as well as hawaii.  i told my boss i would need some time off in october.  about 90 minutes later when the initial shock had settled down i started to think and no matter how many times i looked at the email i still could not believe it.  so i went to my go to for all news triathlon and looked at the transitions website.  and sure enough my suspicions were confirmed.  wtc had sent the email to all lottery entrants in the asia pacific region.  apparently it was a data base error.  by then one of my tri buddies had also called to let me know. wtc finally managed to send out an apology email two hours after the fact and even then included a back handed slap in the face by saying it was only intended for those who had qualified through race performance. 

i understand that mistakes can happen but how do you fuck up and send the most anticipated email in the entire triathlon world to the wrong people.  the mistake i made was not understanding that the email wasnt correct but unless you have received one before you would never have known.  but what i did know was that it was too good to be true.  good things like this do not happen to people like me and this is what i kept coming back to and why i didnt post it on twitter or facebook.  luckily i had only told a few people.  i would imagine that some people might have got carried away.  it was amazing the thoughts that went through my head.  it is a tough course but you know that no matter what you would be out there giving it one hundred percent.         

the official lottery draw is yet to happen so who knows.  maybe i could get lucky.  maybe the world triathlon corporation will learn how to write a proper apology.