Welcome to iRunFar’s second annual Western States 100 prediction contest! Last year’s contest was so much fun that we had to bring it back for another year. To add to the excitement, Montrail and Mountain Hardwear are once again supporting the contest with some great prize packages going to the top three prognosticators! Read on to learn how this contest works, to see what you can win, and to enter the contest.
The Basics*
You select, in order, your top 8 picks in both the men’s and women’s field. Points are accumulated based on the difference between a runner’s projected placing and their actual placing. (Placing is gender specific.) Given the reality that some top runners will drop out, only your five most accurate picks per gender will count. All DNSs and DNFs will be scored as if the runner placed one spot behind the final finisher. You’re goal is to have the fewest total points among your ten scoring runners.
Here’s an example of how points are awarded for a single pick. If I pick my pacee, Andy Jones-Wilkins, for fifth man and he wins, I’d accumulate 4 points (|5-1|=4). On the other hand, if I pick AJW to place fifth and he finishes as ninth man, I’d again accumulate 4 points (|5-9|=4). I’d get the same 4 points even if he’s beaten to the track by an additional woman.
Ties will initially be broken by the lowest number of points accumulated from the contestants’ picks for the men’s and women’s masters winners. (You can choose masters winners who you previously chose to place top 8 overall.) If a tie remains, the accuracy of picks of the overall winners will be the second tie-breaker. Any persistent ties will be resolved through a random drawing.
While anyone can enter the prediction contest, the Montrail/Mountain Hardwear prizes will only be awarded to folks with US or Canadian mailing addresses. That said, we’ll do our best to reward any winners from further abroad.
The contest will close at 3 a.m. PDT on Wednesday, June 23 – exactly one week after it opens. That’ll give me time to print all your picks and bring them with me up to the big dance. I’ll be up there for five days providing the best coverage I can.
To follow all the Western States action, subscribe to iRunFar via RSS or via email. In addition, following us on Twitter will insure that you receive any live coverage we provide before, during, and after the race!
The Prizes
As noted above, Montrail and Mountain Hardwear are once again providing great products to give away. To start, all three winners will receive Montrail’s new Sabino Trail shoe. (iRunFar Montrail Sabino Trail review) First and second place will also receive their choice of one Mountain Hardwear’s Refueler short models (men) or a MH Pace(r) short or skort model. In addition, the grand prize winner will take home a shirt from Mountain Hardwear’s Wicked Lite performance line. Third place will win a Montrail running hat to sport along with their pair of Sabino Trail.
For those of you who like bullet points, here goes:
- First Place – Montrail Sabino Trail, Mountain Hardwear Refueler/Pace(r) bottom, Mountain Hardwear Wicked Lite performance shirt
- Second Place – Montrail Sabino Trail, Mountain Hardwear Refueler/Pace(r) bottom
- Third Place – Montrail Sabino Trail, Montrail Hat
You’ll also get fame. As proof, we’ll once again recognize last year’s winners, as they topped nearly 200 entries. Nice work guys! 1st: John McAllister, 2nd: Evan Cestari; T-3rd: John Medinger & Andy Holak. For those who are interested, here are the results of last year’s contest as well as the “group-think” predictions the contest entries provided before the race.
The Contest
The contest is now closed.
*The Details
Only one entry per person. If you enter early and wish to change your picks before the deadline, you may replace those picks – please just use the exact same name and email address on subsequent entries. We suppose you don’t need to make all 18 picks, but be aware that a non-pick will be treated the same as a DNF. You can only choose a runner once per gender, but you can pick someone like AJW to place overall and win the men’s masters category. No hedging bets, finding loopholes, or other funny business – we reserve the right to invalidate any entry that doesn’t follow in the spirit of fairness.
The Hints [Last Updated 6/18 @ 11 a.m. PDT]
We know that many people will be publishing posts with their Western States picks. In an effort to help you, the iRunFar reader, to make the best picks, we’ll be providing you with others’ publicly published picks as we become aware of them. However, you’ve got to do the reading on your own…. we’d recommend it as some top entrants will not be running the race. That’s the only hint we’ll give here.
- iRunFar has published the following resource, which might be useful:
- Andy Jones-Wilkins has some useful info on his blog.
- He predicts the men’s and women’s winners at the bottom of this post.
- Women’s poll results are found in this post.
- AJW also put together a list of top men’s competitors.
- As usual, Karl Metlzer’s odds contain a thorough analysis of both fields.
The Closing
If you want to talk through your ideas before making picks, go for it. For those wishing to go public on their predictions, please leave some or all of your picks in a comment after making your official selections. Go ahead, put your mouth where your mind is! Want to talk some smack about your predictions or your race… we welcome it!
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[Trail Goat Notes: Special thanks to Mitchell Goodman for once again being the brains and brawn behind this contest. There would be no contest without him.
Also, props to the VHTRC Bull Run Run Pick-the-Winner contests of yore. My enjoyment of those contests gave rise to this contest.]
