Meet The $200,016 Running Warehouse Trials Prediction Contest Winners And Proof LetsRun.com Is As American As Apple Pie

by: LetsRun.com
July 16, 2106

The Olympic Trials are over and all the winners have received their praise, except for the winners of the LetsRun.com Running Warehouse Trials Prediction Contest.

The winners remind us of the great and interesting people who make up LetsRun.com. There are so many cool stories with our winners as we’ve had USATF champions, rocket scientists, 8th grade soccer players, and a lot of other interesting people come out on top. Our Trials prediction contest was no different.

And The Winner Is…

The competition was fierce but triumphing was Pete Mathis of Orland Hills, Illinois. Pete like many of you is a “lifer” – a lifelong runner. Pete, now 45, has been running since the age of 6. He ran in college at D2 Lewis University and after taking a hiatus from the age of 27 to 39 is competitive on the masters scene. He also seems to, be like a lot of us competitive runners, a bit crazy, as he wrote, “Unfortunately, I partially tore my plantar fascia 5 weeks ago, but kept running on it. I figured why take the 6 weeks off and be on crutches and lose all that fitness when I can run an hour and a half per day, rest it the other 22.5 hours and let it heal that way. It’s working! I am running Chicago in October with hopes of being in the 2:30‘s.”

Pete may be crazy, but he also is clearly very smart as not only did he win our contest but he wrote, “I have a Running Warehouse Acct as I only get my shoes from them!!” and “By the way, you ran some very impressive times and you wrote the best training article that I have ever read!! Do you do any coaching?” (No, Wejo doesn’t do any formal coaching currently, but he does have his summer of greatness (which needs updating) and the training article Pete mentioned)

Hoka One One Tracer

Pete, like all of our top 3 from the contest, wins a $100 gift certificate from the sponsor of all of our prediction contests, RunningWarehouse.com, and the Hoka One One shoe of his choice. Pete chose the Hoka One One Tracer in the Black/Citrus style.

Our Runner-Up Is in…. Uganda

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Andrew Coy, 23 years old, finished second in the contest. Andrew was a competitive runner from the age of 12 to 22 when he completely fell out of love with it and quit his collegiate team at Canisius spring semester senior year (Andrew, that is more common than you think!).

Running at Canisius means that Andrew raced Leonard Korir of Iona in college and Andrew reports, “I’m very proud to say that I raced an Olympian. Leonard — running for conference ‘rival’ Iona — finished at least four or five minutes ahead of me at the 2011 NCAA NE Regional CC race.”

Andrew now is living in running hotbed Uganda, but he is not training, he is working through the Peace Corps as a community health extension volunteer in Katooke Town, a trading post in Kyenjojo District. Halfway through his 27-month contract, he is a health educator for the health center, “giving talks and creating projects aimed at creating behavior change towards healthier living for the people in our catchment area.”

Andrew still loves the sport of running, writing, “For prediction ‘strategy’, you’ll be happy to know that I get all of my information from LRC. I read every day because it reminds me of America, and I appreciate the old-school design as it really saves on data, which is somewhat pricey over here. Other than that, when in doubt, pick the favorites.”

So there you have it, LetsRun.com is as American as apple pie. And LRC now has a man on the ground in Uganda for World Cross Country 2017, as Andrew wants to help us with any logistical needs we have. People, put World Cross 2017 on your calendars.

Since Andrew is in Uganda, he’s going to give his Hoka One One shoe of his choice to a friend.

High Schooler Rounds Out the LetsRun.com Olympians

Patrick Caslin, a high school senior in Sacramento, California, finished 3rd in the contest. And for those of you who don’t think moving USA nationals around the country is a good idea, Patrick writes, “I fell in love with the sport when I watched USA Nationals in Sacramento in 2014, more specifically, when local athlete Kim Conley won an exciting 10K the first night. That race opened my eyes as to how exciting professional track could be, and I’ve followed that aspect of the sport more closely ever since. I drove up to Eugene for the first weekend of the Trials, which was a great experience but apparently it was bad luck for my picks as most of my points came from the second weekend. I’m excited to be more involved the next time USAs come to Sacramento next year!”

Hoka One One Bondi 4 for Patrick

Patrick says of his picking strategy, “The key to my successful predictions was to pay attention to the chatter online surrounding the meet so I could stay on top of my picks and change them quickly.  Removing Demi Payne from the PV and adding LaShawn Merritt to the 200, Brenda Martinez to the 1500, and Kim Conley to the 5000 were last-minute picks that ended up being essential to my success.”

But most impressively Patrick at the age of 18, realized the world is a very dark place and cast all his moral compunction to the side and picked Justin Gatlin in the contest. Patrick wrote, “This was also the first time I let go of my morals and picked Justin Gatlin first in both events.”

Doping even wins prediction contests!

And speaking of natural doping, LetsRun.com’s Jon Gault used a tremendous final day — including three perfect events — to storm from behind to beat Steve and Wejo and win the Heps group. Maybe writing all those event previews is paying off.

Congrats to our three Olympians and to RunningWarehouse for sponsoring the contest and Hoka One One for the shoes.

Remember if you’re needing to buy shoes online there is one place to do it: Runningwarehouse.com
If you played in the contest and want to check your scores use the form below. If you want to see the winners click here.

Check Your Scores:
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You can hear Leo Manzano talk about Hoka’s new spike if you click on the image below.

 

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