Western States Deferral Dilemma

Change.org Petition:

Trueheart Brown earned a Golden Ticket to Western States Endurance Run by coming in first in the 2022 Black Canyon Ultras 100k. He was training for WSER but unfortunately was forced to bow out and decline his entry. His reason is heroic and honorable. He spent the final 2 weeks, as a firefighter, fighting a 30,000 acre wildfire that threatened the town and people of Flagstaff, Az. It would be unfair to require him to hope for a lottery draw or to take his chances and have to win another Golden Ticket.

Ultrarunnerpod on Twitter:

Interesting predicament for @wser. If I’m understanding this correctly, pregnant women get a deferral but first responders do not?

After years of pretty much zero tolerance policy Western States loosened it stands and allowed deferral for pregnancy, which seems more than reasonable, but of course, now the floodgates open.

Western States does have a board and can give out entries under “special consideration”. This might be a way out of their predicament here?

Also: Why did we need a Change.org petition for this? This might already be solved in private between the runner and the race organization.