Startup Idea - Trail Running race and lottery auto-registration

Lets start with the problem. When I was a triathlete, signing up for Ironman was a race. A decade ago, Ironman races would sellout within seconds. I remember when my girlfriend and I were on the phone together, with multiple computers and cell phones refreshing the Ironman race registration website trying to get into the registration systems before it would sellout. I was lucky in that I worked for a major internet developer that had one of the fastest network connections in San Jose and my girlfriend worked for a major bank. We were both loaded with low latency connections and were the lucky ones to make it into the registration system before sellouts.

A decade later and these systems have moved to lottery based races. I’ve given up on these highly coveted races as there popularity has frustrated me. Every now and again I get a wild hair to want to race Western States 100 again, but then I inevitably forget about the lottery dates. The same for Hard Rock 100. I’m frustrated all year by the trail running race sellouts and lotteries that trail races have lost there magic for me.

The solution:

Build a calendar with all of the bucket list races and lottery opening registration dates. Have a flippable bit that automatically enters your name into the lottery or registration so that you don’t have to manage anything.

Breaking down the implementation:

Step 1: I’ve put together a Google calendar where I will collect all major race registration dates. Feel free to share the calendar.

Step 2: Build the auto-registration system

Step 3: Build the scraper that checks all races for any registration date changes. In its current form a human has to validate that registration dates haven’t changed from the previous years or original data that was entered.

The goal is to take the human out of the entire race date validation and registration equation. Then let the randomness of luck and an email in your inbox determine your race schedule versus having to constantly register for lotteries that you never win.