Ultra Raffle Results

Thank you so much to everybody that entered into the UltraRaffle. Thanks to your fantastic donations, we have raised £788.25 for the Epilepsy Society. The draw was conducted at my birthday barbecue, in between stuffing our faces with burgers and eating lava hot marshmallow s'mores (#paleo). Good times!

So without further ado, here are the results. I will contact winners directly over the next few days to arrange getting your prizes to you. Congratulations to everybody that won, and thank you again to everybody that entered:

Julie Freeman - Ultimate Direction SJ Ultra vest signed by Scott Jurek
Gary Dalton - Signed running gear from Mike Wardian
David Barker - Signed Mountain Hardwear race vest from Ellie Greenwood
Jacqui Byrne - Signed vest and swag from Mike Morton
Nicky Wall - Signed Inov8 X-Talon 212 trail shoes and 1 month free coaching with Robbie Britton
Steve Monaghan - Julbo sunglasses
Spencer Lane and Paul Ali - Signed copy of Relentless Forward Motion from Bryon Powell
Louise Ayling and Gary Dalton - Signed copy of Running and Stuff from James Adams
Stuart Bennet and Nick Thompson - Signed copy of Everything Will Work Out In The Long Run by Dave Urwin
Andrew Jordan, James Adams and Matt Poulson - Copy of the next edition of Like The Wind
Stuart Bennet - Entry to the South Downs Way 50 or North Downs Way 50
Ira Rainey and Matt Bevan - Entry to the Stort 30
Emily Schmidt - Entry to the Inov8 Plague 100 Km Roseland August Trail series race
Amanda Crozier - Entry to the Likeys Brecon Beacons Ultra
Steve Monaghan - Ultrarunning half day with Andy Mouncey
Julie Freeman - 1 hour heat chamber session at Kingston University
Andrew Cummings and Matt Poulson - Signed copy of Fat Man To Green Man: From Unifit to Ultramarathon by Ira Rainey
Gary Dalton - Hour long sports portrait photography session with Stuart March

Ultra Marathon Raffle to Raise Money for the Epilepsy Society

justgiving.com/UltraRaffle

Last year I was hoping to arrange a weekend holiday event for ultra runners at CenterParcs toward the end of the year, but unfortunately it never really took off. One of the events that I had organised was a raffle of various ultra-related bits and pieces in order to raise money for the Epilepsy Society. I have been sitting on the prizes that were kindly donated and have been waiting for a good time to set it up again (but this time as a standalone online event). In the interim, Neil Bryant organised a similar raffle for the Facebook Ultrarunning Community page so I didn't want to step on his toes. But I think that enough time has passed that hopefully people will be interested in taking part.

Some of you may know that I suffer from epilepsy myself, although I am very lucky that it is kept completely under control through medication. Other people however are not so lucky, and the Epilepsy Society work tirelessly to help those for whom epilepsy can have a terrible effect on their way of life, as well as funding cutting-edge research to try and understand the disease. Whilst it is one of the most common neurological disorders in the UK, with around 1 in every 100 people suffering from the disease, we don't really understand much about it and a quite frightening number of people still think that it has something to do with demon possession! Very sad.

Anyway, it was actually raising money for the Epilepsy Society that got me into the world of ultra running in the first place, so I wanted to have another go at raising some money to help them in their work. I have been contacting as many people as possible to get as many awesome prizes lined up as possible, and have some pretty cool stuff including lots of signed gear from ultra elites like Mike Wardian, Ellie Greenwood, Mike Morton and Robbie Britton, as well as signed copies of some fantastic ultra-running books and free entries to some of the top races in the UK. There are more irons in the fire, so hopefully this prize list will only get bigger!

If you would like to enter the raffle, simply go to the Just Giving page above (or click on the Just Giving button on the top right of the blog page) and donate towards this amazing cause. For every £1 you donate we will put one ticket into the draw for you. Winners will be drawn on Saturday 21st June, and will be announced in the next edition of the free online ultra running magazine Ultra Tales (due out in July), as well as on this blog. 

There's a little bit of small print to be aware of, but it's nothing too concerning! Firstly, please be sure to leave your contact email address so that I can contact you after the draw to let you know that you have won. Also, please note that where applicable delivery of prizes is limited to the UK only (as it's all coming out of my pocket). But if you are from outside of the UK and would like to enter, I have no issues with sending things overseas if you are happy to put in a contribution for the delivery. Feel free to email me at stupiddrummer@hotmail.com if you have any questions.

The most important thing is that, if you would like to be included in the raffle, we will not be able to take Gift Aid on your donation, so please do not tick this option.

If you have any questions, or if you would like to donate a prize (the more the merrier!), then please email me at stupiddrummer@hotmail.com.

Prizes currently up for grabs include (please note that more prizes may be added as we approach the draw): 

• Signed men’s running gear from 4-time USATF Ultrarunner of the Year Mike Wardian 
• Signed Mountain Hardwear Race Vest from 2012 Ultrarunner of the Year Ellie Greenwood
• Signed goodies from 2012 Ultrarunner of the Year Mike Morton, including the singlet he wore in his 1997 win at Western States (it's been washed, honest!)
• Signed running gear and one month’s free coaching from UK Ultrarunner of the Year Robbie Britton
• Signed copies of ‘Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons’ by iRunFar creator Bryon Powell (one of the best intros to ultra running around)
• Signed copies of ‘Running and Stuff’ by James Adams (an incredibly funny story of an ordinary guy competing in an extraordinary race)
• Signed copies of Everything Will Work Out in the Long Run’ by Dave Urwin (an incredibly moving and funny story of Dave's battle with addiction through running)
• Free entry to South Downs Way 50 or North Downs Way 50 miler from Centurion Running
• Free entry to the Challenge Running Stort 30 miler 
• Free entry to the Inov8 “Plague” 100 Km Roseland Trail Series Race from Mud Crew Events
• Free entry to the Likeys Brecon Beacons Ultra