Ultrarunners across the world tuned in to the lottery draws, both held on Saturday, to determine who will be running in the 2025 editions of the legendary Western States Endurance Run (WSER) and Hardrock 100 (HR100).
Here are the lucky Canadians who were selected to run in either of the storied 100-milers. They put in the work to earn a lottery ticket (or several hundred, as your WSER ticket increases exponentially by 2^[n-1] with n equalling the number of years you have entered the lottery unsuccessfully), and their names were selected out of the more than 9,994 lottery entrants for WSER, or 2,414 for HR100.
Western States 100
The 2024 WSER lottery for North America’s oldest 100-mile trail race was held at Placer High School in Auburn, Calif., near the race’s finish line. To be on the startline of WSER in 2025, runners must either complete a qualifying race and have their name drawn in the lottery, be a top-10 finisher the previous year, earn a Golden Ticket by taking a top spot in one of six races, or gain entry through a sponsor. This year’s lottery had a record 9,993 entrants, with a combined total of 68,724 tickets, and 257 names were drawn on Saturday (with 75 added to a waitlist).
The 2025 edition of WSER will begin on June 28.
— Western States 100 (@wser) December 4, 2024
Accepted
Susan Brown (Calgary, Alta.)
Justin Chow (Coquitlam, B.C.)
Mathieu Larrivee (Gatineau, Que.)
Ryan Smook (Grande Prairie, Alta.)
Simon Marcil (Montreal)
Yann Choppe (Montreal)
Aurelien Lorin (Quebec City)
Shane Mascarin (Wainwright, Alta.)
Waitlist
Razvan Lazareanu (Toronto)
Jun Xian Mississauga, Ont.
Christian Stenner (Calgary, Alta.)
Nick Wagner (Kitchener, Ont.)
Check out the full list of runners chosen to run the 2025 WSER here.
Hardrock 100
HR100 starts and finishes in Silverton, Colo., and takes runners up and down 10,000 metres of elevation, looping around the San Juan Mountains. HR100 is not only an iconically tough race but is also notoriously challenging to get into, with more than 2,000 entrants yearly (3,023) in 2024, and only 146 runners accepted. The 2025 edition will be held on July 12.
The HR100 lottery is divided into two pools, the “never” and “finished” divisions, with the never pool containing all the runners who’ve never completed the race, and the finished pool containing runners who’ve finished at least one Hardrock 100. Beginning in 2022, HR100 introduced a policy that states that the percentage of women chosen to start the race will not be less than the percentage of women applicants. In 2024, this was 21.4 per cent. Three male and three female runners from a select group (approved by the HR100 board) is chosen each year to race; this year’s picks included French-Canadian pro Mathieu Blanchard.
Canada’s Becky Bates, who in 2023 obliterated the female course record in the 60-69 age category (in 2022, she also smashed the female 50-59 age group category) and finished as seventh woman, has been selected to run HR100 for the third time. Canadian elite runner and human rights lawyer, Stephanie Case, was also chosen to run in 2025; she took second place in the 2022 edition of HR100.
The 2025 edition of HR 100 will take place on July 11.
Canadian Becky Bates dishes on her Hardrock 100 age-group record
Accepted
Becky Bates (Kimberley, B.C.)
Cal Mitchell (Ottawa)
Craig Frizzle (Maple Ridge, B.C.)
Leo Fung (Calgary, Alta.)
Mathieu Blanchard (France, Canada)
Stephanie Case (Canada)
Waitlist
Dana Samis (North Van., B.C.)
Linda Trinh (Toronto)
Fanny Barrette (Calgary, Alta.)
Alissa St Laurent (Edmonton, Alta.)
Mike Sidic (Vancouver, B.C.)
Ben Benvie (Ottawa)
Christopher Aubrey (Sherwood Park, Alta.)
You can see the entire list of runners selected to run HR100 in 2025 here.
