Meet the $200,023 Worlds Prediction Contest Winners: Twoggle and a Guy Who Took Up The Sport in 2016
Famous Shelby Houlihan defender Twoggle wins the LetsRun.com contest
By LetsRun.comOne of the greatest things about the LetsRun.com prediction contests is highlighting the cool and interesting winners who visit LetsRun.com every day. Rocket scientists, national champions, a guy who got engaged on national TV after the NYC marathon, and even HOKA NAZ founder Ben Rosario, have all won prizes in previous contests.
The $200,023 Worlds Prediction Contest is no different. We are going to keep our overall winner anonymous, and it is LetsRun.com poster “twoggle”.
Great Suunto GPS Watches for our Winners
Twoggle wins the Suunto Vertical
Twoggle is most known on LetsRun.com for posting a lengthy blog two years ago on github titled, “Houlihan, Burrito-Gate and the Problems of Sports Drug Testing” which is sympathetic to Shelby Houlihan’s claim that she may have eaten contaminated pork the night before her positive drug test. The blog argues that Shelby Houlihan would have been foolish to intentionally take nandrolone right before her drug testing window.
Twoggle in real life lives in the American Mountain West. He shared his name with us but we are keeping him anonymous. He ran AAU track in the early 1970s and then high school cross country and track in the mid-1970s, and became a lifelong fan of the sport. Back then, people just ran and entered races because they could, and true to form he ran a marathon in high school and passed hundreds of people the first mile, only to come crawling home in 14 minutes for the final mile and have to go to the medical tent.
Twoggle said the key to him triumphing in the contest was picking the women’s 800m perfectly. Twoggle said he thought Athing Mu wouldn’t win as she hadn’t raced much in 2023, and he picked Mary Moraa to do what she usually does, beat Keely Hodgkinson.
Twoggle is still running and racing and excited to win the Suuno Vertical watch for a 5k trail race he’s training for.
(We decided to use this opportunity to ask twoggle a series of questions on the Houlihan case two years later which you can find here).
Runner-up was prodded to run the Disney half in 2016 and now is a big-time fan of the sport
Daniel and Galen Rupp in 2018 in Chicago
Who says everyone on LetsRun.com grew up running? Our runner-up Daniel Rocha only took up the sport in 2016, when a co-worker prodded him to run the Disney half marathon. He fell in love with the sport and it became the competitive outlet for the lifelong sportsfan, basketball player, and weight lifter. Daniel came up short of his Boston Marathon qualifier before Covid and now is in the daddy jogging stroller mode, pushing his two-year-old on runs.
As for the contest, being a LetsRun.com junkie helped, “No prediction strategies, [I] just follow track pretty closely, watch all Diamond leagues and even random Sound running meets when I can, plus of course listen LRC supporters club podcasts weekly.”
You can be a Supporters Club member and get all the LetsRun.com knowledge here.
Thanks to everyone who played in the contest and Suunto for the great prizes.
More: Q&A with Twoggle on Houlihan case here
