For the common folk who come to letsrun.com, you have no chance in our prediction contests. Every time we have a contest, a ringer comes in and wins it.
Although we never did write up a recap, LetsRun.com coaching genius, JK, won our NCAA prediction contest, and former Brooks Team Hanson's runner Ben Rosario was one of our prize winners.
The US XC Prediction Contest was no different. As America's best were descending upon Boulder, Colorado to determine the best cross country runner in America, America's brightest were descending upon LetsRun.com to predict the winners.
This time we had another ringer come out on top. Winning the women's prediction contest was none other than Lisa Galaviz, the 2006 USATF steeplechase champion. Lisa of course had insider information that propelled her to the top, "As far as picking strategies, I may have had insider information
knowing Victoria Jackson would not be racing when she was offered on
the drop down list. I took many things into consideration: altitude
training, best track distance, and gut instinct," she said. Lisa picked the first 4 runners perfectly correctly and had 8 of the top 10 on her list to edge LetsRun.com's Wejo who finished 4th in the women's prediction contest.
The men's winner was Joe Messner. He correctly predicted the Alan Culpepper upset and 4 of the top 5. An El Paso native, Messner obviously is partial to Culpepper (Culpepper went to high school in El Paso), but he noticed that the year before the Olympics years (1999 and 2003), Culpepper always wins the US XC title. Messner had planned to run at the University of El Paso in the 1980s but the school went on probation and he took a 16 year break from the sport but has started running again and has qualified for the Boston Marathon.
The overall winner of the contest was Brandi Krug. A former University of Colorado Buffalo, Brandi is pregnant with twins. Clearly she knows her running as she picked the top 3 in the women's race perfectly and picked the Alan Culpepper upset on the men's side, along with 5 of the top 6 including Michael Spence. Her twins will be the right age to take over this website from Wejo and Rojo when they retire so be prepared.
All the winners receive a Gift Pack (A Pair of shoes, backpack, hat, and a technical running top). Thanks to Reebok for sponsoring the contest and also for sponsoring the US XC Champs in Boulder.
And unfortunately, our winners have decided to skip the world championships in Kenya. They know they can't compete against the best in the world do not want to get malaria. *View the contest scores and picks here *Check your scores here