2012 Transvulcania Ultramarathon Prediction Contest
May 9, 2012 by Bryon Powell · 38 Comments
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!
If you enjoy what iRunFar provides, consider becoming a fan of iRunFar on Facebook or subscribing by the methods noted above.
[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.]
Related articles:
- Transvulcania Prediction Contest Results The results from our 2012 Transvulcania ultramarathon prediction contest....
- 2012 Western States 100 Prediction Contest iRunFar's fourth annual Western States 100 prediction contest with great Montrail and Mountain Hardwear prizes!...
- 2012 Transvulcania Ultramarathon Live Coverage Live coverage of the 2012 Transvulcania ultramarathon....
Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
All posts by Bryon Powell
Bryon, how come there is Nick Clark in the drop down menu? I thought he was running Zegama only?
Nick is only running Zegama, but he is on the official Transvulcania entrants list. Hence, he’s in the drop down. There are others in the drop down who are known to not be racing. It pays to read the previews before making one’s picks. :-)
Ah ok, makes sense. And if you look at my picks, you will see that I picked those that are supposed to run :)
Sorry couldn’t find Miguel Heras, last year’s winner and course record holder, in the drop-down.
Not running I think!
ok thanks!
Marco Gasperi is on the list. You didn’t mention him not running in the preview? Do you know if he is running?
Yeah, neither here nor running. Nearly any top athlete coming to Transvulcania OR Zegama was entered in Transvulcania.
That would be De Gasperi…
I also thought it was strange, I don’t have much info but as long as I know Marco doesn’t run ultras, he sticks to shorter and faster races (where, BTW he is a BEAST!!)
Looking forward to studying up and picking.
One comment: There are more “big names” on the men’s side (at least to someone not familiar with the European women’s scene), but I would prefer a contest that was symmetric with gender. If that means 5/5, 4/4 or 3/3, whatever, but while the 5/3 may represent participation or elite depth… it just doesn’t feel right to me.
Other than that, awesome previews, and cool contest.
It was a hard call, but 3/3 may not provide enough separation and even 4 deep on the women’s side might have been quite tricky if there are any drops. It’ll be back even at other races.
Looks like you are encroaching on solarweasel’s ultra fantasy franchise although I guess there is no overlap with Miwok/Transvulcania…
Uh… ok, except I was doing prediction contests on iRunFar since 2009. ;-)
I apologize…A little too tongue-in-cheek…
No worries… my sense of humor was probably a bit dulled by the 25 hours of travel. :-)
That was fun. I anticipate the top 5 men will be separated by less than 5 minutes. Minimum two american boys. And I hope we don’t see a tie like last year.
I believe in Dakota Jones.
I played too-always fun to try and figure out who everyone is and how they are going. Right now it’s very much a crapshoot/guessing game.
Is Max King running?? I see he’s on the drop down list. I thought I had my picks sorted ’til I saw his name. He’ll stir the pot if he’s in.
Argh. Of course i was thinking of his recent success at Chuckanut before taking a wrong turn – that was 50K not miles. a big difference. perhaps this is too far for him, but it’ll still be interesting, if he’s in.
Max King isn’t running Transvulcania, even if he was added to the entrants list.
Any news on Monica Aguilera? Is she running?
I’ve not heard any word on her running.
Ian Corless, who is there in La Palma, reported that she will be running. http://iancorless.com/
Good to know.
Thank you Byron and thankyou Trail Plodder for your answers.
I’ve received confirmation that Monica is here and racing.
Is Andy Symonds missing from the list?
No, he isn’t. Ignore me.
For me Sebastien was the top favorite for the men’s race. After winning Transgrancanaria he was full of confidence. So I gave him the first slot. Sorry he had to drop out. I did have Dakota, Kilian, Andy, and Iker in my top 5 though. But none of them in the right place.
Frosty seemed to be a safe bet for the girls win. I got her correct but I am sure I was not the only one :-). Luckily I put Nicky Kimball in third place.
So altogether 6 out of 8 inexact and 2 exact matches…
How does that look?
Looks like you’re going to be running in new shoes soon! I also included Seb, but missed Andy and Nicky. I trusted Kilian with No. 1 spot and was surprised by his performance, did Salomon forget to tell him to take his skis off or what? I only got Frosty 100% right.
Nice work Thomas. I was able to pick both winners correctly but only got Kilian and Iker (neither in the right spot) on the men’s side and no additional runners on the women’s side.
In the men’s side i have picked them all but Dakota, although neither in the right spot, and in the women’s side i have Anna in the right place (as almost everyone, i suppose…) and the other 2 DNF… Random draw in sight?
Bryon, who won this thing?
Waiting on the technical end of things.
Hi Bryon, any update on this competition?
There sure was – http://www.irunfar.com/2012/05/transvulcania-prediction-contest-results.html . :-)
Uuuhhhhh, so close!!!
Thanks Bryon!