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“I’M THE LAUGHINGSTOCK of the Western States.”

That’s Jeff Allen. For ten years, the South Carolina running coach has been applying for a spot in the Western States Endurance Run , one of the US’s flagship ultramarathon trail races. And for ten years, Allen has come up short in the race’s lottery system, meaning he’ll have to wait another year to run the 100-mile course through the Granite Chief Wilderness, west of Lake Tahoe. To be eligible for this year’s lottery, he’s had to run another qualifying race of 100 kilometers or more to have his name pulled in the 2027 edition.

“Every year, I’m like, ‘this is my year’ …well, as the lottery gods may have it, I did not get selected again,” he says. The yearly experience has soured him on what was once his dream race.…