Welcome to iRunFar’s first Ultra Race of Champions (UROC) 100k prediction contest! Ultimate Direction, a UROC sponsor, has graciously agreed to support the contest with great prizes 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.
[Editor’s Note: We’ve posted the results of the 2013 UROC Prediction Contest.]
The Basics*
What you need to do is simple. Pick the top five men and women in the order you think they’ll finish in this year’s UROC. 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 10) that show up anywhere in the top-five men or top-five women. In other words, a contest entrant gets 1 point for picking a top-five woman or man who finishes in that range 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 the 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 Ultimate Direction for making that happen!
The contest will close at 8 p.m. MDT on Friday, September 27.
To follow all of our UROC 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, Ultimate Direction is providing great prize packages to the top-three contestants in this prediction contest, no matter where they live.
All three winners will receive their choice of an Ultimate Direction running vest* and an UD Jurek Collection Endure.
Oh, and you’ll also receive world-wide acclaim from your trail running peers for your race-predicting abilities.
(* Some size/model combos might result in delayed delivery.)
The Contest
We apologize that the contest does not include all UROC entrants, including some very strong runners. However, we’ve not been able to procure the full entrants list. In light of this, we’ve had to use the elite-runners list on the race website as well as a few additions that we were made aware of earlier. Don’t worry, you’re all in the same boat! ;-)
[The prediction 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 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, make the best picks, we have 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 UROC women’s preview
- iRunFar’s UROC men’s preview
- We’ll also be publishing pre-race interviews, check out the previews for links to the 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 about your predictions… 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.]
