I have nothing against their entry process, each year if you are in the lottery and unsuccessful you get more tickets the following year if you enter the lottery.
"Each runner who enters the lottery and fails to gain entry into the Run (and otherwise doesn’t gain an entry via other means such as an aid station, sponsor, raffle, or Golden Ticket spot) will have additional tickets in the hat when entering their next lottery, regardless of whether it is the next year or a future year, thus improving the probability of being selected. Every lottery applicant will receive 2^(n-1) tickets in the hat for each failure to gain entry where n is the number of years applied. As an example: If a runner applies and fails to gain entry two times, they will have four tickets in the hat when entered in the lottery the third year (2^2), eight in fourth year (2^3), 16 in fifth (2^4), 32 in sixth (2^5), etc."
You can also get entry from running an aid station this year which is a great initiative, put in effort and you can race, earn you spot.
I also applaud them for not tearing the ring with entry fee. $475 is not bad for a dollar based entry fee, especially in terms of the prestige of the event. UTCT and UCT are about R6200, and western states around R8800, so it is expensive but not over the top. They had over 9500 people in the lottery this year, they could seriously hike the prices and still sell out, but they have not done that.
