Here are a few tips to maximize your chances of winning:
- Buy a T-shirt. If you buy a shirt, you get double tickets. Last year, the shirt cost $24, which is expensive, but you got a nice technical shirt as well as a pint glass, and if you go to only a few runs, odds are it will pay for itself with a gift certificate or two. Also, you can loan the shirt to a friend or spouse if you can't make it.
- Go to the runs where fewer people are likely to show up. They give out the prizes whether people are there or not, so your best odds of winning are early in the year (when fewer people know about it) and/or on a day when the weather is bad. They have a bag check, so pack a few extra layers and change into some warm clothing while you wait to collect your loot.
- Attend the after party. If you buy food and/or a drink at the after party (the details here are hazy; ask if they don't make it clear), you get a raffle ticket. Typically there are only a couple of dozen raffle tickets here, so your odds are particularly good. On the other hand, if it's in the middle of summer and the after party location is packed, feel free to skip it.
- Poke around the vendors before the race starts. They have raffle tickets to give out, but you may not want to 'pay the price'. The price is usually that you put your name on a mailing list, but it could be something as simple as trying a free sample or as complicated as checking out a pair of loaner shoes to run in.
- Figure out how to organize your raffle tickets. When the raffle is going on, you can't rifle through your tickets quickly enough to tell if you've won. A popular strategy is to get a long strip of tape and tape them into one long band of ticket 'ribbons'. I used to do this, then decided a better solution was to just record the ticket numbers and colors (e.g., White 2743). But writing while running is difficult, so this time I'm trying to use my new Android phone to my advantage: I downloaded a speech to text app called ListNote, and hope to speak the numbers into the phone as I go. This will save me some time if it works. Whatever you do, group your tickets/numbers by the color of the ticket, as they are announced that way ("Blue 7387").
Another way to save time with tickets is to separate them in advance. Each ticket comes in two halves. For the raffle, you hold on to one half, while you turn in the other. Rather than spending time at the finish tearing up your tickets, you can do it while jogging or waiting for stoplights, but you have to be careful. You should have 2 containers, one for the halves you want to keep (doesn't matter which half) and one for the halves to turn in. They usually give you a ziplock bag that works for 1 of the containers; bring another one or something similar for the other. Also, if you get multiple tickets at a checkpoint, you want to separate the ones you turn in, but keep together the ones you keep. If this is too difficult to handle while you're jogging, best to just finish early and do it at the finish line rather than potentially spoiling all your tickets.
Finally, be sure to protect your tickets from water (rain, sweat, Slip and Slide checkpoints [those come later in the year]). Don't just shove them in your pocket - Visit the Secret Checkpoint. One checkpoint is revealed only online before the event, and it's usually worth more than 1 ticket (and hence, worth visiting). Often you will need to say a 'password' to get the tickets. See the Facebook event page for the location and password.
Cascade Orienteering Club also has an 'orienteering' checkpoint, which you can checkout on their Facebook page in advance, or by visiting their tent in the start/finish area before the event begins. - Have a route planned. This requires a bit of knowledge, and it helps to have run a few of these before, but the checkpoint locations are usually at businesses only, and there are only a few possible business districts nearby. The most popular locations have been the businesses near Ravenna Blvd/Green Lake (i.e., the start), north Green Lake (i.e., Duke's), Phinney Ridge, Stone/45th, Tangletown, 65th and Latona, and Roosevelt near 65th. Can you run around Green Lake in an hour? Can you run around the lake and climb Phinney Ridge in an hour? Those are often the two best routes. Another good basic route is the south side of Green Lake, down Stone to 45th, to Tangletown, then Roosevelt and back. Note that the nearby checkpoints are often mobbed at the start and quiet near the end, and Roosevelt is close enough to get mobbed easily, so ending with Roosevelt and the checkpoints near the start is usually a good idea.
Also note that they usually reveal the location of the after party in advance, and that place usually has a checkpoint. So with that checkpoint plus the Secret Checkpoint you know at least 2 locations for sure. - Group locations based on the number of tickets they will give you, and evaluate your route based on that. If Roosevelt gives you 5 tickets and Phinney Ridge 4, and you can't do both, you probably want to skip Phinney Ridge.
- If you have a smartphone, register in advance. They will mail a link to the map to your phone, which will save you having to write down the locations. Supposedly it will also route you to locations, but I doubt that's very useful.
Check-in starts tonight (March 7) at 5pm. Run is at 6pm. Raffle at 7pm, After party at around 7:30 at Tacos Guaymas. Hope to see you tonight!
No comments:
Post a Comment