Track Nerd Heaven: $20,025 NCAA Distance Prediction Contest

(Click here to skip to the entry links or keep reading for more info.)

It’s back! The LetsRun.com Distance Prediction Contest is here for the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championships — your chance to prove show your knowledge for the distance events– 800 meters all the way up to the 5,000.

We’re skipping the 10,000 this year — not because we don’t love it, but so you’ve got more time to lock in your picks. Each event closes when the gun goes off for the final, starting with the men’s 800m final at 8:12 p.m. ET on Friday. So don’t wait — get your predictions in now!

Bragging rights (and possibly more 👀) are on the line. Let’s see who really knows NCAA distance running.

The contest is very simple. You pick the top 3 in the distance events at NCAA outdoors. We score your picks and determine a winner.

We give you a list of the top entrants with a picking guide, so everyone has a chance. A 13-year-old won our Marathon Trials contest.

Prizes — LetsRun.com Swag and Supporters Club memberships

The top 3 in our contest win LetsRun.com Supporters Club memberships and the LetsRun.com shirt of your choice. (Olympic champion Dan O’Brien is the guest on our podcast this week and wanted a LetsRun.com shirt, they are super soft).

On shoes and LRC Shirts to the Winners

1st Place – 4 Years LetsRun.com Supporters Club Membership + LetsRun.com Shirt
2nd Place – 2 Years LetsRun.com Supporters Club Membership + LetsRun.com Shirt
3rd Place – 1 Years LetsRun.com Supporters Club Membership + LetsRun.com Shirt

The winners need to be from the US. (If you’re not from the US we’ll try to work something out).

*Click here if you have a login already
*Click here if you can’t remember your login and need to look it up
*Click here if you need a LetsRun.com login (If you are redirected that means you are already logged in)

Perfect Ballot Bonus

$20,025 Perfect Ballot: 1 winner maximum (if more than one winner they will split the prize). The perfect ballot bonus will be paid out equally over 10 years. A perfect ballot means you pick first, second, and third in the correct order for all the events in the contest.

*Click here if you can’t remember your login and need to look it up
*Click here if you need a LetsRun.com login (If you’re redirected to the homepage after clicking on this link it means you are logged in and already have a LetsRun.com login, please use that)

We have a feature that allows you to change your picks up until about 10 minutes before a particular event is scheduled to start.

Also, you don’t have to fill in all of your picks at once.

Scoring
The scoring is as follows:

• Each person that you correctly pick to finish in the top 3 = 1 point.
  It doesn’t matter if you actually get the pick exactly right. If you pick someone for 1st and they finish 3rd you still get the point. Vice versa is true as well. If you pick them to get third and they get third, it’s still only one point.
• Each event winner picked correctly = 3 more points (you pick someone for first and they get first, that’s 4 total points).
• Each event picked perfectly – All three picks: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the right order = 2 more points (here the order is key).

Do you understand the rules fully? The following example should explain any questions you have. If you pick 1st, 2nd, and 3rd correctly in any event in the proper order, it is 3 points (1 point for each person in the top 3) + 3 points (for getting the winner correct) + 2 points (bonus for perfect pick of top 3 in order) = 8 points.

Play in a Group vs. Your Friends

In our contest, you can create your own group and play against your friends.

Rules

Oh yeah, only one entry per person. No computerized/mechanical entries. We’re sure we should have a bunch of legal stuff here. How about this: your picks and your login name are not private and may be displayed on our website. And we’re not responsible if the free contest gets cancelled for any reason including if our database crashes. If the contest is cancelled, the prizes will not be awarded. We’ll do our best to keep everything running smoothly. The top 3 in any event are final when we determine them at the end of the meet and this may not be the ultimate final top 3 (mainly due to drug busts in the future). Additionally, this contest is obviously void where prohibited by law – which states and countries that is, we don’t know. Also you need to be of the right minimum age, which we’ll say is 15 to be safe. No purchase necessary. And yes, we can win our own contest. If we beat you, you’ll hear about it for sure.

This contest is in no way affiliated with the NCAA.

*And we’ll try to keep events open until 10 minutes before each event, but we’re not guaranteeing anything.

Please note: For tie-breaking purposes, we’ll first look at the number of 1st places correctly chosen. If there’s still a tie, we’ll look at the number of 2nd places correctly chosen, and then if need be, the number of 3rd places correctly chosen. If there still is a tie, we’ll conduct a random drawing.

Get Started
Sound easy? Then get started.

Click here if you have a login already
Click here if you need a LetsRun.com login

You’ll be able to log in and check your scores during the contest. You need a LetsRun.com login to play. If you have any questions, email us at letsrun@letsrun.com.

If you like this contest, remember spread the word !