Raffle; Zegama or no Zegama

Posted on February 21, 2023•By John Kraijenbrink•Column

This Friday is the raffle for Zegama Aizkorri, my dream trail run race. 500 people can run it, almost 14.000 have subscribed. I am one of them.

It’s a mountain marathon in the Basque country. 42.195 meters long, like any other marathon. It just has 5.472 meters of altitude.

Love at first sight

I only discovered Zegama Aizkorri last year, but it was love at first sight. I saw the race live on YouTube. Wow! What can I say? It’s crazy, it’s hectic, it’s beautiful, and I would love to be part of it.

If that’s ever going to happen, is the big question. Take this year. 14.000 people want to run it, but only 500 people are allowed, which means there is a raffle to decide who can start. Of course you have the top athletes. They can start. Those who have run Zegama every year from the first race ever, can start as well. To cut a long story short, only 225 places are available in the raffle.

Only for the lucky ones

That would mean that my chance to get in is 1.6 percent. Sadly enough, it gets worse. For me. See, if you have registered in the years before, but you didn’t get in, you get an extra ticket for every year you tried to get in. I just had a quick look at the list and there are people whose name will be 11 times in the raffle.

The organisation has sent me an overview of all the people who have registered. It’s a PDF, not a Google Sheet. I’ve got better things to do than sit and count how many tickets there are in total. However, at a glance, I would say the average is around 3, which means I have half a percent chance to get in. Still that’s more than nothing.

Maybe another race

The good thing is, there is another race on the weekend of May 13 and 14. I have a bib for that one. So if I don’t get into Zegama Aizkorri, I will still be running a beautiful race, just in another part of Europe. A wetter one. I will tell you more about that this Thursday.

Not tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m running in the Drunense Duinen. My first Mud Sweat Trails state trail. I’m really looking forward to that one. On my own, in the forest, solitude, peace.

John Kraijenbrink

I run for fun. I run to be in the mountains, in the forest. I run, because running fascinates me. That’s why I study all the science about running. What I discover, I share with you. To help you to be a better runner, but above all to help you having fun running.