At Board of Directors meetings, we are always evaluating changes to our Hardrock qualification standards and lottery which we feel will foster a Hardrock Run that we all stand behind. These may affect decisions you make long before our December lottery and potentially affect decisions you make concerning your running season.

2020 Run Cancellation and Lottery/Qualification Impacts

How are qualifiers going to work moving forward?

2021 Hardrock (only Veteran and Else lotteries to be held):



Qualifiers that would have been applicable to the 2019 or 2020 lotteries will be valid.





Aka, completion of one of the qualifiers listed on our webpage in 2017, 2018, 2019 or 2020 OR completion of Hardrock in 2016, 2017 or 2018.





Never Entrants and wait listers from the 2019 run who are rolled over to 2021 do not need to requalify.



2022 Hardrock: Complete one of the qualifiers listed on our webpage in 2020 or 2021 OR have completed Hardrock 2021. *Depending on the 2020 slate of races that occur, this policy will likely be expanded.

How are lottery tickets going to work moving forward?

The ticket earning process remains unchanged. There will only be lotteries for the Veteran and Else categories for the 2021 Hardrock. Tickets will continue to accumulate in the normal way for each lottery “bucket”.



For 2019, as the season was skipped for all, all lottery entrants were affected equally, with no one accumulating additional tickets (except for trail work attendees)





For 2020:





As the season is skipped for Never lottery entrants, they will all be affected equally, with no one accumulating additional tickets.







As the Veteran lottery is based on solely number of previous finishes, not years applying, the cancellation of Hardrock means their ticket count will also be unaffected.







In the Else lottery, having applied to the lottery for the 2019 and not having been able to start the run in 2019 will count as a DNS as usual, regardless of whether you were chosen in the lottery for 2019 or not. As the 2019 field rolled over to 2020, no additional DNS will be given for not starting in 2020.

Service Requirement

There is a Service Requirement for admission to the run, consisting of 8 hours service in either a) an aid station at an ultra, b) the management of an ultra, or c) work on a trail used by an ultra. For 2021, entrants and wait listers who have already turned in their Service Requirement Form for either of the cancelled 2019 or 2020 Hardrocks will still have satisfied this requirement for the 2021 run (this includes Veterans and Else entrants who were entered for 2019/2020, refunded, and then re-drawn). Entrants and wait listers newly selected by the December 2020 draw must perform their work no later than Sunday, June 6, 2021 and the form must be received by us no later than Saturday, June 19, 2021, to remain entered in the 2021 Hardrock.

Lottery Changes

Each year, we are faced with the difficult problem of how to choose our starters from now more than 2000 applicants, while still respecting the values that make Hardrock Hardrock. We are always reviewing what we think is a fair mix and will continue to do so in the future. The current number of entrants drawn from each of the three weighted lottery pools are listed below:

First-timers - 65 slots will be allocated for the 2021 run. Entrants and wait lists originally drawn for the 2019 run will be rolled over to 2021 in light of the two consecutive cancellations. This lottery pool is for anyone who has never finished a Hardrock. Veterans - 28 slots will be allocated to this lottery for the 2021 run. This lottery pool is for anyone who has five or more Hardrock finishes, with the following qualification: an applicant who DNFs in two consecutive attempts beginning in 2012 will be placed into the "Everyone Else" pool until they complete the run in a subsequent year. Applicants will get one ticket for each previous Hardrock finish. The number in this pool is about the same as the number of 5-time finishers bypassing the lottery in each of the past few years, and so comes close to preserving this feature. Everyone else - 62 slots will be allocated to this lottery for the 2021 run. This lottery pool is for anyone not in one of the previous two lotteries.

Runners not selected in the first two lotteries WILL NOT be rolled over into the third lottery. If fewer than 28 "veterans" apply, the unused slots will be added to the "everyone else" pool.

A separate wait list will be maintained for each lottery. When a runner withdraws from the start list, a runner will be taken from the wait list for the lottery from which the withdrawn runner was chosen.

***Specifically for 2021 - With a temporary increase in the maximum possible field size to 155 for 2021, to keep the overall number as close to 145 as possible, the first 10 drops from the entrant list for any of the three categories will not be filled. The 11th drop will be filled from the category wait list as described above.

The previous year's winners will continue to bypass the lottery, but they will count against the lottery pool they would have been in.