Cascade Crest Lottery
Late last year, I signed up for the Cascade Crest 100 lottery. I’ve wanted to run a 100 mile race for a few years now, but I’ve never gotten super serious about pushing my training past 50km. This year, my primary goal is to complete the PCT Section J hike from Snoqualmie Pass to Stevens Pass (70mi, 15k gain), so I’d need to start trending in that direction and maybe by next year I’d be ready.
While researching 100 mile races to do, I discovered the Cascade Crest 100 and it immediately became my first choice.
- It is a classic race that has been around for 25+ years
- It is known as a challenging mountain ultra (23k gain)
- It runs through some of my favorite mountains on trails that I haven’t fully explored
- It starts 1.5 hours from my house
- It is a qualifier for Western States (meh) and Hardrock (yay!)
- It has the coolest belt buckle around
Unfortunately, the lottery chances are pretty slim. Only 180 runners are allowed in, 300 make the waitlist, but somewhere around 750 apply. That means you have a 25% chance of being initially selected and a 33% chance of not even making the waitlist. The good news is that every year you don’t win, your chances are doubled. I figured I’d start applying now so that my entries will compound over the years, and when I finally get in, I’ll be more prepared to run it. There’s no way I’ll get it the first year, and if I do, I’ll just defer, right?
Right?
Obviously I got in the first year and immediately went into panic mode thinking I’ll never get selected again, so I shifted my training to focus on 100 miles in July as my “A” goal. We’ll see what happens during training and go from there.