Welcome to iRunFar’s first Transvulcania ultramarathon prediction contest! Salomon, a Transvulcania sponsor, has graciously agreed to support the contest with great prize packages going to the top three entrants! Read on to learn how this contest works, to see what you can win, and to enter the contest.
The Basics*
What you need to do is simple. Pick the top five men and top three women in the order you think they’ll finish in this year’s Transvulcania. That’s it.
The winner will be chosen as follows:
- Inexact Top Finisher Picks – The first round is judged on the number of each contestant’s picks (up to 8) that show up anywhere in the top five men or top three women. In other words, a contest entrant gets 1 point for picking a top three woman or top five man who finishes in that range (i.e., finishes anywhere in the top five for men or top three for women) regardless of position. The contestants with the most points in Round 1 move to Round 2.
- Exact Top Finisher Picks – Contestants who moved on are now ranked by the highest number of exact matches (i.e., a contestant gets a point only when their second place pick finishes exactly second).
- Top Down Perfection – If a tie remains between two or more contestants, the winner of that tie will be determined (a) first, by the number of correctly predicted first place finishers (men and women), (b) if a tie remains, then by number of correctly predicted seconds, (c) and so on with random draw being last resort tie breaker.
We’re excited to announce that this prediction contest is open to everyone, no matter where in the world you live! Thanks so much to Salomon for making that happen!
The contest will close at 5 am WEST on Saturday, May 12 (that’s 10 pm MDT Friday, May 11 in the States).
To follow all of our Transvulcania coverage, subscribe to iRunFar via RSS or via email. In addition, following us on Twitter will insure that you receive all of the live coverage we provide before, during, and after the race!
The Prizes
As noted above, Salomon is providing great prize packages to the top three contestants in this prediction contest, no matter where they live.
To start, all three winners will receive their choice of Salomon Crossmax or Mission shoes. In addition, the top two contestants will receive a Salomon technical tee shirt with the grand prize winner also receiving Salomon 3/4 Exo Tights.
Oh, and you’ll also receive world wide acclaim from your trail running peers.
*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 eight picks, but be aware that a non-pick won’t help you win. You can only choose a runner once.
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
In an effort to help you, the iRunFar reader, to make the best picks, we’ll be providing you with previews and insight that could aid you in your selection. However, you’ve got to do the reading on your own…. and we’d recommend it, as some top “entrants” will not be running the race. That’s the only hint we’ll give here.
- iRunFar’s Transvulcania women’s preview
- iRunFar’s Transvulcania men’s preview
- We’ll also be publishing pre-race interviews
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 talk about your predictions or your race… we welcome it!
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[Editor’s Notes: As always, a 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.]
