These lucky Canadians are headed to Western States or Hardrock 100

Sunday, Dec. 3 was a big day in the ultrarunning world, but for lottery draws rather than racing. Two legendary ultratrail races, Western States Endurance Run (WSER) and Hardrock 100, held their annual lotteries to determine who will be running in their 2023 races.

Here are the lucky Canadians whose names were pulled on Sunday. They put in the work to earn a lottery ticket (or several hundred, as your WSER ticket count doubles each year that you run a qualifying race and enter the lottery) and were lucky enough to be pulled out of the more than 7,000 lottery entrants for the 2023 WSER, or 2,414 for Hardrock 100.

Western States

The 2022 WSER lottery was held at Placer High School in Auburn, Calif., near the finish line of the fabled 100-miler. To enter the WSER lottery, runners must either complete a qualifying race, be a top-10 finisher the previous year, earn a Golden Ticket at one of seven races, or gain entry through a sponsor. This year’s lottery had 7,169 entrants with a combined total of 41,392 tickets, and 271 names drawn on Sunday (with 71 added to a waitlist).

The race has one of the most sought-after start lines in the world of ultrarunning, and if you’re interested in how to earn lottery tickets you can read more here. For Canadians, there are currently just six races where you can earn yourself a lottery ticket without leaving the country, with a few others not too far south of the border. These runners will join fellow Canucks and pro ultrarunners Mathieu Blanchard and Marianne Hogan at the start line in Olympic Valley, Calif. on June 24, 2023.

Jamie Nott (Calgary)
Pascal Becotte (Oakville, Ont.)
Eric Hong (Collingwood, Ont.)
Heather Davis (Calgary)
Travis Bilou (Edmonton)
Doug Howson (Cochrane, Alta.)
Oleg Tabelev (Calgary)
Morgan Schick (Mississauga)
Casey Thivierge (Belle River, Ont.)
Francesco Ricadonna (Stouffville, Ont.)
Guy Doiron (Ottawa)

Waitlist 
Simon Marcil (Montreal)

Hardrock 100

Hardrock 100 starts and finishes in Silverton, Colo., and 100 miles takes runners up and down 10,000 metres of elevation, looping around the San Juan Mountains. Hardrock 100 is not only an iconically tough race but also notoriously hard to get into, with more than 2,000 entrants yearly (2,414 in 2022) and only 146 runners accepted.

The board for Hardrock 100 recently made some changes to establish a more fairly distributed start line, ensuring women are represented on the start line in proportion to the percentage that apply. For the 2022 race, this was 18 per cent. Separate wait lists have also been created for men and women in each lottery, to maintain this ratio when entrants withdraw.

The 2023 lottery was divided into two pools, the “never” and “finished divisions,” with the never pool containing all the runners who’ve never finished the race, and the finished pool containing runners who’ve finished at least one Hardrock 100. On December 3, entrants were evenly selected from the never pool and the finished pool. You can read more here about how the lottery works (and what the qualifying races are) or on the Hardrock 100 website here.

Becky Bates (Kimberley, B.C.)
Jocelyn Briggs (Whitby, Ont.)
Matt Barry (North Van)
Julian Vicente (Kelowna)
Allen Hadley (New Denver, B.C.)
Jason Oliver (Victoria)
Mauricio Herrera Cuadra (North Van)

Waitlist

Joanna Ford (Calgary)
Dana Samis (North Van)
Lourdes Gutierrez-Kellam (Calgary)
Larry Kundrick (Lethbridge, Alta.)
Mike Hearn (Calgary)
Randy Duncan (Victoria)

The 2023 Hardrock 100 will be held on July 14, 2023. Other well-known athletes that will be running the 2023 Hardrock 100 include course record-holder Courtney Dauwalter, Stephanie Case (Canadian), Nick Coury and Mike Wardian.