We have put together a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the lottery system. If you have a question that is not covered here, please get in touch via our contact form.
Race entry fee is $30 and includes county parking fee of $10. T-shirts are optional and cost is $18. You will only be charged if you are selected in the lottery.
Q: I never got the notification email from the lottery, was I selected? Was my credit card charged? Why didn’t I get an email?
A: We sent out all notifications via email on 1/23/12. For those who won a spot, RaceIt charged your credit card on selection 1/23 as stated in the lottery registration form.
If you haven’t gotten your email, use the search fields on this page to look up your registration: https://www.raceit.com/Register/registrantSearch.aspx?event=7698. If you search and find your name on this listing then you are registered for the 2012 Loop – you can even have the search page send you a new confirmation email by clicking the button labeled “Resend Confirmation” and typing in your name and birthdate.
We are not sure why a few emails did not reach runners (possibly spam filters, corporate blocks, deleted accidentally, job change, email typo, etc?) but if you search and find your name in the above link under “Leatherman’s Loop 2012″ then you are all set.
Q: Why did you move to a lottery system?
A: In 2007, registration closed 3 months after opening. In 2008 it closed 34 days after opening. In 2009: 16 hours. In 2010 the registration system blew up, was partially restored in an hour, ran agonizingly slowly when it was restored, and still sold out in 3 hours. In 2011 we split the registration into open and lottery sections. The open registration spots filled in just over 20 minutes (are you sensing a pattern here?). After the 2011 open registration ended, we took 1,100 lottery registrations and awarded the remaining 700 spots to those that won the drawing.
The trend is clear—we tried to keep it alive, but open registration is no longer an option.
Q: Is there a charge to enter the lottery?
A: No charge for entering the lottery. BUT — we do require a credit card authorization for the lottery entry since that makes the lottery draw and registration a single step (i.e. as soon as you are selected in the lottery, your card is charged). This greatly simplifies the registration since we do not have to send out a round of “you won” emails that runners then have to remember to click on to sign up AGAIN to pay for their registration. It is also one way the registration system spots possible duplicate entries.
Q: What will happen if I am selected for the lottery? How will I know?
A: You will be notified via email of your selection and your credit card will be charged right away. We ask for your credit card information up front in order to secure a spot in the lottery. At the same time we ask for authorization to charge your credit card if you are picked in the lottery. We will also have a searchable list of lottery winners available online at the registration provider. For 2012 this is here: https://www.raceit.com/Register/registrantSearch.aspx?event=7698
Q: What are the odds of getting in?
A: It will depend on the number of runners who register for the lottery. For example, in 2011 we had a total of 1,700 registrations for 1,250 spots. That is a nearly 75% acceptance rate — pretty favorable. However, If the number of entries goes up, the odds will go down. Conversely, if we get the same number of entrants as spots then everyone gets in! 
Q: [GROUP ENTRY QUESTION] I want to sign up for the lottery but don’t want to run if my friends/group/family are not also selected. Can you accommodate us?
A: YES – but read below carefully about the “all or none” group entry process.
When your group members sign up for the lottery, you can put yourself in an “ALL OR NONE” group:
- Put the name of your group in the “group” field in the lottery registration form. We will assume that all groups with the same name are “all or none” so pick a unique name and make sure your fellow runners know the name before signing up.
- Groups can be as small as two people — it is up to you.
- You can combine as many people into a group as you want by entering the group name in the group field when registering.
- If you forget to put a group name in and want to add it BEFORE the lottery drawing, contact us immediately via email with your name and the name of the group you want to be part of.
- IMPORTANT NOTE: If some runners in your group don’t put the group name in and the group gets in but the individual runner does not, we can’t let the unfortunate runner in as part of the group after the lottery drawing.
- ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE: If you register your group/family/friends on one credit card transaction, this will be an “all or none” group by default since once the credit card is authorized for a dollar amount, we can’t change that amount (that is a credit card company rule put there for a good reason: it prevents people from charging you more than you signed off on).
- In other words, if you register yourself and your spouse and a friend on one credit card transaction, we will either pick all three of you or none of the three (“all or none”) in the lottery. (This does not mean if you sign up two different times with the same credit card that we can match you all up — we can’t! Use the group field to make sure you stay together.)
- YET ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE: Putting your group in as “all or none” does not increase or decrease your chances of being picked in the lottery when compared to individual entry.
- Below is what the registration (page 2) will look like where you can type a group name if needed:
Group registration entry (optional) on page 2 of loop lottery registration - Click to view larger
Q: How will you deal with the possibility of multiple entries by runners trying to increase their odds of being picked (i.e. “Stuffing the Ballot Box”)?
A: We don’t anticipate this being a big problem, but we have various means to deal with this issue. It is fairly easy to check for duplicates before we do the lottery selection since we can see everyone’s entry into the lottery.
We will start with sorting the list by last name and looking for obvious dupes. Then we will proceed to other checks the registration company has available that match likely dupes in other less obvious ways (they have done this before and know the potential ways this can happen).
We realize honest mistakes can be made — and these are the majority of cases (spouses registering a couple and then the other spouse registering the couple a day or so later not realizing they were already entered—or a person registering a team and adding the same person twice by mistake). We will address each case individually before the lottery selection is made.
In cases of obvious and continuous abuse (which we do not expect) we will notify the runner and eliminate the runner from the lottery, effectively banning them from the event.
All we are really trying to do is to keep a runner from being charged twice for entry into the Loop if they happen to enter twice by mistake, and we don’t catch it for some reason, and then they get picked twice (pretty unlikely, but it did happen once out of over 1,000 people in last year’s lottery). We don’t think the other stuff will happen — but we are prepared for it if it does.
Q: I was rejected by the lottery last year, does that increase my odds for this year?
A: No. Everyone has the same odds each year. Trying to keep track of everyone’s status over the years is complicated and conflicts with our desire to keep things as simple as possible. Contact us if you have had any registration problems with this year’s lottery BEFORE the drawing.
A random aside: If you are interested in why we want to keep things simple, there is a great article about the “lottery math” for the Western States 100 mile ultra run here. We’re nowhere near their league (100 trail miles?! 2500 entries for 250 spots?) but the article outlines some of the unexpected consequences of adding complexity (in this case, better lottery odds for past lottery losers) to a race lottery selection process. When people introduce terms like “Hypergeometric distribution” we tend to want to keep it simple and take each year as new.
Q: I have run the loop for [X] years… This is not fair! How can you do this to me?
A: No easy answer to that. We feel your pain. We have always accommodated our longtime runners — please contact us for assistance. If you don’t make it in via the lottery we encourage you to volunteer at the Loop to be part of the day and support friends and family. Plus there are pre-Loop course checks in the weeks leading up to the Loop that draw increasing interest each year (in 2011 over 50 different runners did the full course on the sundays before the Loop). There are lots of other trail races out there (Run the Farm!). We encourage you to get out with a local running group as well. NY Trail Running Meetup group is a large and growing group that runners post events and group run meetups!
Q: Why are there multiple charges on my credit card? Who is Competitor Group Inc in Virginia? Are they related to RaceIt?
A few registrants may see a debit/credit for the same amount (net result of $0.00) prior to the real charge posting. This is normal and should only appear for a day or at the most a few days before disappearing from your statement/account.
The Competitor Group Inc are the merchant “gateway processor” that RaceIt uses. The Merchant Gateway shows the account owner’s name temporarily on credit card accounts during the authorization period only. The double charges are the card verification step and reversal (negative charge) to verify the card when you enter the lottery. They should cancel each other out.
If you have duplicate charges and it is more than a week after the lottery drawing, let us know and we will contact RaceIt to fix it right away.
The final charge will be under “RaceIt-LeathermansL” on your card statement.
Q: My credit card company rejected the charge for the lottery, will this impact my entry into the Loop?
A: It depends. If you get it straightened out before the lottery drawing then there won’t be any problem.
If not, we will hold your spot for a limited time (up to a week or so) if you are picked. We will try to get in touch with you during this time to let you know you are not registered (even though you were picked in the lottery and got an email). If we can’t get in touch, we will move on to the next person in line.
How the lottery works from a credit card standpoint is the following: The registration company does an authorization for the amount of your total entry (and shirt if ordered) plus processing fees at the time you sign up for the lottery. When we do the drawing and your lottery entry is picked, then the registration company charges your card for the amount that is pre-authorized.
Sometimes, your credit card company refuses a charge or the card company calls you up and says ‘Did you make this charge?’ Since you did the lottery entry a week or more before the drawing, you don’t remember and might say “No I did not make that charge” and it is rejected. This happened to a few runners last year in the lottery (and it has also happened in the past during regular open registration). If this happens we will contact you and advise you either to call the credit card company to re-authorize, or use a different card.
If you are picked in the lottery, you won’t lose your spot right away due to problems like this. However, if we can’t get in touch with you via email to straighten it out then we will move to the next person in line and award the spot to them.
Have a question that is not addressed here? Contact us!
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