Western States 100.    Last Chance Entry

Page authored on November 9th, 2011.

As the Striders run one of the aid stations at this famous annual 100 mile race, Last Chance at mile 43, the club is able to nominate a runner each year to participate if they fail to get in by the lottery process.

After a commitment in August 2008, after the forest fires forced the cancellation of that year's race, the board invited comments from the membership on the selection procedure and in October 2009 reviewed that input and the process and decided on a procedure that was based on Striders service over the preceding years. In February, 2010 the board tweaked the procedure to account for the scenarios where board members might serve less than the full year and the case where a candidate received an entry without having won it through this procedure. In March, 2011 the board again adjusted the rules to give more weight to service on the board and added recognition to those who have never started the race before.

The dates for this Strider's activity are driven by the lottery procedure at the Western States organization. In 2011 the entry for the lottery closes on November 26th. Then the lottery is drawn on December 10th. At that stage the procedure below can be executed and the WS100 race director and the successful Striders entrant notified. Often the board strives to announce the results at the Holiday party but clearly that would not be possible if the party is before the drawing of the lottery.

The procedure as it stands:

After having notified the board of their desire to be considered for the entry having
applied and failed to get a place in that year's race, points will be allotted to
contenders on the criteria listed below. The member with the highest number of points
will be given the entry. In the event of a tie, the entry would be allotted from a draw
from the names of those tying. The entry is not transferable by the winning entrant. If
the entrant decides not to enter the race, the board would put forward the next highest
point applicant and so on.

      a) Stevens Creek Striders currently paid up member: 1 point
      b) Last Chance aid station worker: 1 point for each of previous 5 years, max 3.
      c) Quicksilver aid station worker: 1 point for each of previous 5 years, max 2.
      d) Last Change aid station captain: 1 point for each of previous 5 years, max 3. (In addition to Last Chance worker points).
      e) Quicksilver aid station captain: 1 point for each of previous 5 years, max 2. (In addition to Quicksilver worker points).
      f) Board member: 2 points for each of previous 5 years, max 6.  1 point for service during each of these full six-month periods: July–December, January–June.
      g) Never received the Striders' WS entry, 1 point.
      h) Never started the WS100: 1 point.

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