Can’t say I’m thrilled about the Lifetime member registration scheme nor adding Sea Otter as a qualifier though I understand it’s capitalism.
I’m still debating what I’ll do this year. I was leaning charity just to lock in my slot, but I’m now thinking about Breck Epic instead. I’m tempted by the 6-day, but more logical would be to do the 3-day and then see if I can still get in LT100 through Silver Rush.
What are the logistics of being a member of a lifetime fitness and Leadville? It says online that you get access to registration one week prior to registration on their website. Does that mean you can put your name in the drawing one week earlier, or does that mean you are guaranteed entry by being a member?
Guaranteed entry but you had to be a member for at least 6 months. Can’t join the week before.
7. Life Time Member Early Access
Life Time members who have held a digital or in-club membership for at least 6 months prior to the lottery (6/1/22) are eligible for guaranteed entry into the LT100 MTB & LT100 Run events! Members can begin registering on 12/1/22 and the deadline to claim entry for Life Time members is 12/8/22.
So I did end up snagging a charity spot. I’ve got a lot of work to do to get started on fundraising. And this will be my first Leadville, so I’ve got a lot of work to do to get ready! I’ve heard it discussed some on the TR podcast, and have watched some YouTube on it, but if ya’ll have any specific pointers for getting up to speed on the course, etc, for first time riders, I’d appreciate it. I believe there’s a Leadville MTB podcast or something, right?
At the risk of derailing this further (would like to get back to talking about the race):
Honest answer, this is one of those things that isn’t even worth complaining about. They’re pretty clear about entry options, basically where it leaves us is deal with it or vote with your wallet and go elsewhere. Same thing with canceling the only east coast qualifier and leaving a whole heck of a lot of people with a LOT of driving or needing to fly to do any of the series. They’ll follow the money.
I made the decision to pay for the camp this year, but I’m not sure that I’ll want to deal with the logistics and expense of Leadville year after year, so I’m going to bust my ass for a good result, and then in the future just move to doing different events - there are plenty of awesome ones out there. Let’s be honest, Leadville has a little bit of a FOMO / bucket list mystique to it, but there are plenty of people who have said “Never Again” and not just because of the physical aspect of the race.
I agree with @wistoon33 in respect to a Lifetime member signing up because they hear about the hype and want to try it on their $90 Huffy and end up not making it up the first climb. No disrespect to those people, but this race has been a bucket list race and I haven’t been able to get in the past several years.
I am a bit torn on the lifetime membership thing. On one hand, I’m a big believer in letting businesses run their business and Lifetime is doing more good than 90+ percent of the corporations out there. This race is a luxury item that none of us need. They aren’t jacking up the price of bottled water and generators during a storm… On the flip side, it adds another form of entry where wealthy folks can buy their way into the race. There are only so many spots and it would be nice for a reasonable amount to be earmarked for the average joe/jill (if that even makes sense in the context of a $500 race). In the end, Lifetime has laid out the options for entry and nobody has to do it, so I struggle to fault them. If I ran the zoo, it probably wouldn’t look too different.
As far as the huffy comment, that’s one of my favorite things about this race. You have the dude on the huffy and you have Keegan (and everything in between). Yeah, the person who doesn’t make it up St. Kevins might have “wasted” a spot, but if that motivates him/her to train and come back, I’m all for it. The best stories in this race are at the back of the field, not the front. Yeah, that sounds pretty hokey and I’m usually a pretty cynical guy about stuff like this, but that’s a hard fact.
We were looking at this angle last night for future consideration. We don’t have a Lifetime near us. But their digital membership for the two of us looked to be $20/month. At a 6-month minimum, that would “only” be $60 on top of a single-race entry fee for each of us - cheaper than guaranteed entry via some other methods I’ve seen (ie, spendy camps).
Jeez, if that’s the case, they just created a very cheap way for people to work the system and buy their way in. I don’t fault anyone for jumping on that, but that bar is way too low and I expect they won’t be able to honor guaranteed entry for folks going forward if $60 (or even $120) guarantees entry. No way that is sustainable once people catch on.
Leadville needs to take a look at how Western states manage their hunting and fishing draws. Each year you are unsuccessful, you get what is referred to as a “preference point”. From there, there is a few different routes Lifetime could go.
Some Western states for example grant 50% of the hunting licenses for that specific hunt code (species and mountain range) to those with the highest amount of preference points, while 50% remain random. This guarantees a successful draws for the loyalists who have applied the longest consecutively, without getting selected, while still granting 50% of entries to the random pool. The ratio varies state by state, some do 70/30 for example.
Other states for example, “weight” preference points. In other words, they square each applicants preference points to stack the odds in the favor of those who have applied the longer in the lottery without drawing, while still leaving the door open for people to get lucky and draw year 1. Meaning if you had applied 2 consecutive years without drawing, you would have your name in the hat 4 times going into year 3 (2x2), or if you had gone 4 years without drawing, you would have your name in the hat 16 times (4x4). People applying for their first time, or a year after having drawn, would still have their name in the hat one time.
Yup, I’d happily pay that… but I wouldn’t be surprised if they changed the rules next year as that’s insanely easy to game.
I sure hope people game it to the point they stop offering that option.
Yes! Western States endurance run is like that.
We will not be adding any East coast qualifiers in ‘23.
Wondering if that’s changed in the past 30 days with the post from LRS today teasing us with a new qualifier?
No idea where that is but I do wonder how many handlebars that tree has taken out…
Looks like it’s Big Sugar, Bentonville AR, October. Or, “Little Sugar”
MTB trails, you say? That’s right. In addition to Life Time Big Sugar Gravel presented by Mazda on October 21, kicking off our week in Northwest Arkansas with the brand-new Life Time Little Sugar MTB presented by Mazda
yup… should have seen that one coming!
Yeah, that picture had me thinking NW Arkassas because it looks just like the trails I’ve ridden there, but there are probably lots of other places that look just like that. But I swear I recognized that tree…
Will be interesting to see what they do with the course and how heavy they go on single track and whether they move it outside town or leverage some of the city trail area. You could make a huge percentage of it singletrack, but I don’t think that fits the mold of most of the other qualifiers
