Unlike road races that can accommodate thousands of runners, popular trail ultras are often limited to many fewer runners than would like to participate. As a result, lotteries are becoming a common theme.
You may already know the Western States Lottery is closed and the “lucky” runners will be drawn this weekend.
There are, coincidentally, a couple other big lotteries underway right now, too.
The Way Too Cool 50K lottery is currently open and closes on the 8th.
Do you feel lucky? Do you?
If, for you, luck is getting the opportunity to train and run for 100 miles in the extreme heat of summer and the extreme terrain of the Sierras, then you definitely don’t want to miss out on the Western States 100 lottery.
It closes tonight at midnight.
Of course, there are only about 270 slots available and (as of this writing) over 2,700 people who’ve put their names in. Your odds are better than zero but far from reasonable.
Of course, reasonable people don’t aspire to run this event.
In a move guaranteed to anger some and thrill others, the board of directors for the Western States Endurance Run has just announced new, more stringent qualifying standards for the 2015 race.
Noting the exponential growth in applicants (583 in 2000 and 2,295 in 2013) and the fixed number of entries available (270 lottery slots), they have set the qualifying standard to: 100 Km in 16 hours, or an official finish in a 100 mile race.
As before, not just any race will get you in. You need to run one of their selected qualifying races.
For years now, I’ve been telling anyone who would listen that the qualifying standards were too generous. Many locals had become convinced that this local race was essentially out of reach. So I applaud this move by the WSER board to attempt to improve a difficult situation.
Like most runners, Brian Miller gets sponged down at Michigan Bluff (SRN Photo)
The Western States Endurance Run was last weekend (June 29-30), and if I was a lazy reporter (and I often am) the race could be generally summed up like this:
The new face of Western States 100!
The Western States Endurance Run Board just announced their selection of a new race director to replace the departing Greg Soderlund.
As of today, all the details I have are:
The WS Board is pleased to announce the selection of Craig Thornley of Eugene, OR, for the RD position.
The Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run lottery is now open until midnight November 26th.
Cross your fingers and click here. You know you want to!
The actual lottery drawing takes place 9:00 AM on December 10th, at Placer High School in Auburn.
Starting before sunrise, runners make their way up the hill from Squaw Valley in the 2010 race. (Photo courtesy of Kerina Blue)
I woke up this morning at 7:30 and thought to myself, “The guys running Western States have already been running for two-and-a-half hours!”
I do this every year I’m not running. Then I turn on the computer and check out the live webcast.
Dave Mackey was the first into Talbot Creek (13 miles), but now Kilian Jornet is the first into the Poppy Trailhead aid station! Exciting isn’t it?
It’s a little less thrilling than when ABC’s Wide World of Sports covered the event wire-to-wire and had cameramen in helicopters capturing the race. Those were the good old days.
Of course, by the time it was aired, the race was long over and the result was well known by all who cared.
USA Track and Field Champs:
If you are sitting at home with the computer, you should also be checking out the US National Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The live feed can be watched here.
The sad thing is that USATF sold the rights to broadcast many of the premium events to ESPN, so they aren’t being broadcast live. Fortunately, these events seem to be available for viewing on-line after ESPN has had it’s way with them.
Hundreds of runners, as well as countless support crews and volunteers, are already congregating in Squaw Valley for this weekend’s 38th running of the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run.
Weather forecasters are predicting cool temperatures and the race is being run on a modified “snow year” course, which replaces some technical (i.e., rocky and slow) parts of the trail with some fast fire roads–including some pavement.
Add to this the stellar field being assembled and you can expect blazing fast times and an exciting race.
The Western States Endurance Run lottery was held today and some 200 “lucky” runners now have plans for the next seven months.
I see some familiar names on the list. Is yours one of them? Full lottery results are here.
A couple of hapless victims.
In case you’ve been sorta thinkin’ about running that crazy 100 mile race from Squaw Valley to Auburn, California, the day to actually “step up” and enter the lottery is upon you.
Is this the year you put your life on hold, alienate your family and your normal friends, tempt injury and snake bites, and spend all your weekends grubbing along the trails around Foresthill? Of course it is.
Sign-up here and wait anxiously until the names pop out of the computer on December 4th.
