New entry process for Kepler Challenge - will you be on the start line?
Pleasing all the people all the time is even harder than running a 60km mountain race.
Just ask Kepler Challenge organising committee chair Steve Norris.
The Kepler Challenge, created by three Fiordland College teachers in 1988 to celebrate the opening of the Kepler Track in Te Anau, has become one of New Zealand’s most respected and anticipated ultra-distance events.
It’s so respected and anticipated, in fact, that every year there are a host of disappointed people who miss out because the Fresh Choice-sponsored race’s Department of Conservation concession allows for only 450 entries.
No one really knows just how many people actually want to pay to run the Kepler track in the space of 12 hours or less.
Up until this year entry has involved a madcap internet dash in the early hours of a Saturday morning in July, a first-come-first-entered system which has prompted plenty of complaints by those who believe their slow internet, lack of a credit card or some other technological barrier, is working against them.
Each year race organisers would try and predict how long it would take for the event to sell out. It’s generally less than five minutes.
This year, however, organisers will try something different.
Basically, they are asking Kepler account holders who want to do the race to register their interest over a two-hour period, then a computer will randomly decide who gets a starter’s bib.
Potential participants have until midnight on Sunday (June 30) to pre-register for the race by creating an account on the Kepler Challenge website.
Then, on July 6, entries will open between 6.30am and 8.30am for both the Kepler Challenge and the 27km Luxmore Grunt. Once a programme has created a start list, everyone will be notified within about 24 hours about whether they have been successful or not.
Organisers hope the new entry process will be fairer across the board. They aren’t expecting it to be perfect.
“It’s hard to keep everyone happy,” Norris said.
“We are just trying to make it a lot more even for everyone, but there are still people who are going to be upset, you can guarantee that.”
Organisers reserve the right to hold back some of those 450 spots to use for other purposes – including sponsors, place getters from the previous year, a handful of other elite runners, those reaching a major milestone and those willing to pay $1000 for a charity entry.
Probably about 400 spots will be up for grabs. Norris’ best guess is that between 1200 and 1500 people will register, meaning you’ve got somewhere between a one-in-three, or a one-in-four, chance of making the cut.
Norris defends the decision to make 20 spots available for the Charity Challenge, with a $1000 price tag.
Each year those places sell out, and they have provided an invaluable source of funding for the Te Anau community.
Another aspect is the waitlist, a sort of training purgatory where the determined continue to prepare in the hope enough successful entrants get injured, lose motivation or find some other reason to withdraw before December 7.
This year the waitlist will be about 300 strong, and Norris believes anyone inside the top 60 would be a strong chance of getting called up. Anyone in the top 100 would not be out of the running, so to speak.
“If you are in the top 100, I’d never say you are guaranteed, but there’s an exceptionally good chance that you will get in from the waitlist,” Norris said.
Organisers will be keeping a close eye on July 6 to ensure no one has created multiple accounts, or found some other way to boost their chances, hence the 24 hour wait until information is sent out.
Regardless of the process, the demand is a good problem to have for the Kepler Challenge - but it’s also deserved.
Despite being run by volunteers, the Kepler Challenge would rival any professionally-organised event.
The terrain is spectacular, the challenge is real and significant, and the experience is one that has a lasting experience on people’s lives.
