I didn't have the luck needed to get into the Hardrock 100 this year. Best I could come up with is #42 on the ordered wait list. I am bummed but I know damned well there are a hell of a lot better runners who deserved a shot on that course who didn't even do as well as I did in the lottery, IF you want to consider #42 on the wait list as doing well.
The numbers broke out like this basically... approximately 600 applicants for 140 slots. 39 of those 140 slots were for auto entries, like people who have done/survived that race 5 or more times. The rest of the slots 101 were up for grabs in the lottery, so 101 slots for approximately 560 runners. So after the primary 101 slots were drawn then they selected the ordered wait list. I am 42 on the wait list which means there are about still in order 400 or so behind me... it's nuts.
And it is really, really a damned shame because if the right talent made it into the race there could have been a real slug-fest for the top finishers.
What bums me out the most is that none of my friends or associates that I personally know made it in either. As my friend JT said, "bad day for the front range crew." There isn't anyone going that I know whom I could volunteer to crew, pace, go root for, or even live vicariously though their experience. Robbed!
140 slots just makes it too exclusive of a race. The ultra cat is out of the bag now and race directors across the board are going to have to start accounting for that. Some races are going to need more slots whereas other will need to be capped. The San Juan Solstice which is really a small race, allows 200 entrants. Why can't Hardrock which is just over the hill basically do the same and allow 60 more?
So, that being said, I am urging Mr. McDougall to write his next book and to entitle it, Born to be on a Wait List, because that is the general direction Ultra running is going these days.
And to the Hardrock 100 Lottery... I didn't want to run in your stupid run anyway! ;)
Hardrock is capped by the government. Something about the areas they run over/through, whether it's a national forest or a designated wilderness area or whatever.
ReplyDeleteSo it's a government conspiracy then eh? Figured as much. Seriously tough, seeing the race does go across public forest lands and a permit would be required, I figured there was a regulatory cap instead of it just being some arbitrary number pulled out of the sky.
ReplyDeleteHave a great run in NOLA this weekend.