Ben, you're going to have to take that race from my cold, dead, hands. Be ready for 4:10 to win. That's been roughly the time every year.

Also, I think everybody is missing the point here: it's a raffle. It is NOT prize money. If it were prize money, then he falls into the >$5,000 and can't award it to amateurs. It's like the races that raffle off a bike or other big ticket items (I won a Computrainer back in 2007 from Mid-Atlantic Multisport Series in Delaware). It could, if it wanted to, give away one million dollars to a raffle winner and not have to worry about a thing outside of taxes.

I was planning on doing the Florida 70.3 but would forget that in a second if your race offered age group prizes. I agree with the majority of the forum in saying that offering cash prizes for the top 3 would be better than simply a raffle. Raffle off pieces of gear instead but offer cash for podium finishers. Maybe even offer up some primes for athletes in each age group that have the fastest individual swim, bike, and runs. Look foward to hearing more about it!

Yeah, 10G's will go a long way toward making a race very exciting to try and win if it is spent correctly.

I look at it this way, though. I think people would rather not buy what essentially amounts to a $10 lotto ticket (with better odds than the real lotto), and would instead prefer to win a smaller prize as a result of their own hard work. The latter rewards people, whereas a raffle does not.

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