Final Rankings in the 2016 'Grand Prix' Series

I had hoped to race more of the Minnesota Distance Running Association's (MDRA) "Grand Prix" series this year, but that injury in late March through July took me out of it. The last race in the series for the year was Rocky's Run which was 10 days ago. I had to glance at the overall standings before that final race:

Down in 28th having just raced the first 3 races in the 2016 series.

Well, I moved up 9 spots to 19th after racing Rocky's Run:

Officially, I was the 19th male out of 69 total. And 6 out of the 39 women beat me too, so overall I am 25th out of 108 total.

The fun news here is looking at my Rocky's Run score - I was the first "Grand Prix" racer and earned a perfect 1000 points to end the season. Looking for the sliver lining, folks. :)

Tom R was chatting with me about the series at Rocky's Run, saying "Oh, you should make sure to do it again next year, because this year the winner will only have like 9200 points." When I won the series back in 2012, I had 9623 points. But I'm not interested in racing it next year. I don't want to push myself to race that many running races, especially after spending so much of this year injured. (I'm 99.9% sure I'll do the series again, just not right away next year.) I think I'll still race some of the USATF circuit on my YWCA Endurance Sports team in 2017 because that has less pressure: I can help my team at whatever races I am able to race, but there are other teammates to earn points if I don't want to (or can't) race certain races.

Time to start thinking more about 2017…