Light Bulbs Revisited

by Jarrett Felix

Well it’s Wednesday, so I figure I should check back in on my Light Bulbs post to keep you guys informed on how things are progressing. Let’s recap the ideas.

NOTE: Sign-Ups for the Fantasy XC League and the Subscriber System are starting right now! Read Idea 3 and Idea 5 for more information.

Idea 1: Odds Makers
Odds Makers is back! I outlined the rules on lxvplus at a separate page exclusively designed for this competition. I just recently updated the site to include the “week two lines”. Hopefully, it’s not too much of a hassle to click over to that site to make you picks. I just wanted to alleviate some of the crowding that is going on over here at TheRealTrain.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions and get in your picks before Saturday at 7 am which will be the deadline (unless the meet is on a Friday). As a reminder, this is all just for fun. There is no actual money involved or any sort of real gambling. It’s just meant to be a fun way to make some predictions.

No real name has to be given, but make sure you leave some way to identify yourself so we can keep score over the course of the season. Preferably, make all predictions on the LXV+ page so it’s easier to keep track of everything, however, I will check both sites for bets.

Some top names last year:
RJJL $1,650
HSC $1,650
BJS $1,100
WeDemBoyz $700

In total, I got taken for about $4,500 which means the predictors beat the system a year ago. Thank goodness it’s not real money …

Idea 2: etrain Stock Exchange

I’ve put this one into action as well, also on lxvplus at this page, exclusively designed for this competition. The rules of the game are outlined on that page as well, but feel free to let me know about any questions or suggestions you have to help improve things.

Again, the stock market will be closed between Saturday at 7 AM (unless there is a major meet on a Friday) and whenever the next Top 50 is released so that no one can take advantage of this window to beat the system. However, trading between other investors is welcome at all times.

And of course, to reiterate, no money is actually involved. It’s just another way that I hope to get the readers involved making predictions! I will also add that this is the best way to influence my rankings on a weekly basis. If lots of people are investing in a certain runner, it probably means I have them too low on my board and I will consider moving them up in the future. So if you want to have a say in the list, get involved in the game now!

No real name has to be given, but make sure you leave some way to identify yourself so we can keep score over the course of the season. Preferably, make all purchases on the LXV+ page so it’s easier to keep track of everything, however, I will check both sites for sales.

Idea 3: Fantasy XC

I will be sponsoring the first ever Fantasy XC league here on the blog. I’d like to make it possible for people to enter the league anonymously, but that is going to be tricky because we are going to need to have a draft on some platform.

Here’s my idea to get around this. Assume, for now, this is how sign up will work and start signing up now to assure a spot in the league. If you want to be involved in the league, you can sign up in any of the following ways:

Send a DM on Twitter to either @jfetrian11 or @TheRealTrain11

Email me at jarrettfelix1130@gmail.com
Comment on the blog that you would like to join

If you are using any of these, and you want to be entered into the draft anonymously, make sure you tell me this is the case. I will need a code name to use in place of your name. For anyone who wants to remain anonymous, you or I can then set up a private gmail account under your code name. We can then house the draft in a google hangout page that does not include video. I think this will work well, but let me know if anyone sees some holes in the plan.

The league will have the following set up (rules subject to change, but here is the basic idea):

- Tentative draft date is this coming Monday, September 14^th at 8:30 PM. It’s a snake draft with somewhere between 8 and 12 picks per team.
- Set your line up each week prior to Friday at 7 AM by selecting 7 runners to be your “varsity squad”
- Your fastest five runners score, with only 5ks from invitationals counting in the competition
- Any course that is listed as a 5k, even if it is notoriously fast, counts as a 5k so keep this in mind when deciding your strategy for picking your team and setting your line up
- After the draft we will have a free agent waiver wire system, similar to your typical fantasy league with the ability to add and drop players
- We will have to decide if we want to do head-to-head weekly match ups or a different scoring system
- We will use cross country scoring (i.e. add up the places of the runners, lowest score wins, 6^th man is tie-breaker, etc.)

Questions, ideas, suggestions, etc. feel free to let me know.

So get your sign ups in now if you want to join!

Idea 4: Prediction Contest

This will be something of an informal competition as it was described in the Light Bulbs piece. If you are making some predictions on the site, feel free to leave your code name so that you can some respect after the fact for your picks. I can keep track of things in a “top contributors” type post.

We will also be holding more official prediction contests for Foundation, Paul Short, Districts, and States so be on the look-out for those.

Idea 5: Subscriber System

If you would like to receive email or text message alerts whenever a new post is made on the blog, sign up now for our subscriber alert system. Here’s what you will need to do:

1. Contact us using any of the methods described above (email and twitter are suggested over commenting for privacy reasons)

2. Provide the phone number and phone carrier or email address to which you would like your alerts sent. We will be sending the messages using an email account to both phones and emails.
3. Provide a list of the subject matter about which you are looking to receive results. For example, PAHS, NCAA, Evan Hatton, everything, everything not written by etrain, etc.

After that, you should be good to go. We will send you a sample message confirming your subscription once we have received your sign-up.

Now we are aware that you will be giving us personal information and we will do everything we can to protect it and in no way abuse it. However, we completely understand if you would rather not share this with us. We will still continue to post links to our site from our twitter account @TheRealTrain11 and that, in my opinion, is the best way to stay up to date without providing any personal information.

 
If anyone has some other suggestions related to this system, feel free to let us know. We think it’s a cool idea, but we understand the reservations you may have. Make sure you think over what you are comfortable with before subscribing.