Hardrock Lottery Hack

The dreaded Hardrock 100 lottery opened up for registration this week. Thousands will apply, a few will run. But Stephanie Case has found a hack offering a possibility at more gender parity for the 2023 race.

On her Instagram she posts:

Calling all women ultrarunners! The @hardrock100run lottery opens on Monday!

Did you know that the lottery policy changed last year to help improve women’s representation in the race?? Now, the percentage of women chosen to start will not be less than the percentage of applicants that are women. 

What does this mean? It means that if you are a woman and you have qualified for Hardrock, you should enter. Period. Even if you have no intention of running. Because 1) once you get in, you will likely change your mind quickly. 2) if you get in and you don’t want to run the race, you can decline your spot and it will go to the next woman on the waitlist 3) if you don’t get in (most likely scenario), just the fact of entering as a woman will increase the likelihood of other women getting picked. How cool is that??

So apply. Please. Last year when I ran the race, it was the highest number of women in any year (27?). But it’s still too low. Let’s keep pushing forward.

One caveat: the refund policy is only 50% of the registration fee. But Stephanie (and others have come forward since) and are offering to pay the $200 difference if you register and then withdraw to allow other women to run. Currently 18! refunds are covered by Stephanie and other donors if you sign up and decide not to run.

It will be fascinating to see if this effort has a sizable effect on the gender split for the upcoming race.