I know they aren’t supposed to announce the winners of the lottery until friday, but a guy in my tri club (who i don’t know) posted something today stating that NBC showed up yesterday with a camera crew and handed him an envelope that said he was accepted to IMH.
sounds bogus to me…why wouldn’t NBC just wait until friday, since that’s when the lottery results are “supposed” to be announced.
anyone else hear anything weird like this?
ah, why would NBC choose him and why do they care about random Hawaii slots anyway? If that is really the story then it sounds strange to me unless there is more to it?
When I got my lottery slot to Hawaii in '97 I had been counting down the day. I found out 3 days earlier than the expected date when a local news crew (NBC affiliate) suprised me with the announcement “Publishers Clearininghouse Style”. Very exciting moment!
I figure that Ironman utilizes new crews to get some PR for the Ironman brand name. Great local interest story for the station and free advertising for hte Ironman brand.
Are you serious? That sounds cheesy to me but I guess free PR is free PR.
The NBC affilliate has done the same thing here over the last 6 years or so when there is a local lottery spot winner. I see it as a positive for the triathlon community.
I heard a couple lottery guys in 2003 tell similar stories. They got qualifier certificates/t-shirts. Other folks find out on friday 12pm Eastern and get no further fanfare.
HC
I saw the story on the news and it was pretty cheesy. The guy just smiled and said thanks. It looked like they were waiting for him to start jumping up and down or something. I liked the part where the anchorman stated “triathletes train 18 to 24 hours a week.” I need to step up my training so I can call myself a triathlete.
They did this with a guy in Cleveland last year. Had him on the local NBC morning show he thought just to talk about triathlon, and when they had him on the air live they sprung his lottery spot on him. The guy was truly surprised and gracious about it and it was fun to watch.
Unfortunately, no one’s knocked on my door or invited me to the local studio yet this week…
I got excited when they gave me my spot. In fact they showed part of my newsclip at the carb dinnner the Thursday before the race. On Friday several people asked me if I was the guy in the film clip. Pretty neat experience.