ultra running

I've entered the lotteries for both Hardrock 100 and Western States 100 for several years, without any luck so far. Both races hold lotteries in December to draw the "lucky" winners that get to run their races. Both end up posting the odds that everyone has based on how many tickets you have in the lottery. They do this by running a Monte Carlo simulation several thousand (or millions) of times. Out of curiosity, this year I decided to write a program to do the simulation myself. Now I can find out my odds before the races officially post them! But I didn't really do it for that but just as an exercise to do as programmers are wont to do.

On September 6th, I took part in the Wasatch 100 as my fourth 100 mile attempt. It would become my third finish and best finishing time of 28:27:14. It was the hardest course that I've done, but things came together so well that I was able to get my best time and feel good doing it. That's why I want to document the race and point out what went well and what didn't.