Ranked in the "Runner of the Year"

Maybe a month ago, I had a race buddy / Twitter friend tell me I had earned some points for "USATF MN Runner of the Year" in my age group as tracked by Run Minnesota (formerly the "Minnesota Distance Running Association"). The moment he told me, I had 6 points.

But unlike the "Grand Prix" seires I've done of theirs in the past, this one is scored a lot differently (maybe more fairly), so I've lost 2 points as there have been some people that posted some faster times since then:

I posted this on Facebook last week, and it's a quick run-down of how it works:

[And this is all still provisional as there could be more times posted this year (doubtful because we are now covered in snow, and track races don't count), and some times waiting to be made official might not get approved at all if the race director didn't follow through.]

Someone told me (I had no idea) that I had earned some points in "Minnesota's Runner of the Year" contest. It turns out that my 3 road races I ran this year put me 13th out of all runners who ran 1+ race at on a certified course faster than the “standard” time (there’s 46 men in the 40-44 age group who ran sub-standard times, but I’m 4th-to-last among those who ran a qualifying 2 or more certified races with a sub-standard finish).

This is similar but also much different than the “Grand Prix” series I’ve done in past years. In the GP, you race people who sign up for the GP in specific races: it was always 1000 points for the winner, and then the points get split up (based on total number of GP finisher’s at that race) as times get slower. If race times are slow (like the year it was a HOT day for the Victory 10K), the winner still gets 1000 points and it goes down from there.

For this “Runner of the Year” system, you don’t sign up for anything - you just race. You have to be faster than a “standard” to get any points (notice the men’s and the women’s lines on the 4th image about the Moustache Run Half Marathon), and only the top 10 times all year get any points. So the first image shows I had the 9th fastest 5K time (for men 40-44) for 2021, so I got 2 points. And I had the 5th fastest 10 mile time, but being only 6 people were under the “standard,” I still only got 2 points. And the 3rd image shows that even though I ran a race winning 1:22:17 for my half marathon 9 days ago, there were already 10 times faster than me from earlier in the year, so I got 0 points for that win. But I could have gotten another 2 points for being 10 seconds faster! (Noting that 9th and 10th had half marathons that were just 9 seconds faster than me.)

So for ROY points, it’s not about doing well at a specific race, but instead posting a killer time at any (certified) distance. And the more you race different distances, the better chance you have at earning points.

I had 1 more point here until Doron ran a fast Thanksgiving race. (And yeah... in case
anyone ever questioned me when I said Brian Kraft brings out all the speedsters!...)


5th fastest! But only 6 men ran faster than the "standard," so I only got 2 points.
(Points are shown in parentheses after the names.)


Winning the race, but not fast enough to get any points!


My finish at the Moustasche Run with the lines noting the "standard" men's and women's times.

That 78.2% age graded 5K from May might be my highest age graded result ever!

Here are 2 more wild scatter plots from the year:

The TC 10 Mile: SOOO many runners!


EVERY Minnesotan Half Marathon finisher taking place in MN from 2021.

It was interesting to note there are so many more half marathon runners in the 13-20 age range than there were in the 10 Mile (notice how the scatter plot is more horizontal for the half marathon, and more clustered up for the 10 Mile). But I'm guessing that's because the 10 Mile is a lottery, and a kid doesn't want to "wait and see" if they get accepted.

So if I pay more attention to this in 2022, there’s NO way I could shoot for the win (notice the top 3 have 20+ points and I had a meager 4 points). But if I’m feeling good about my running next year, I could see myself trying different distances just to try to post some sub-standard times. And earn a point here or there. I also like a good random goal!!

Here's a LOT more info about Run Minnesota's "USATF MN Runner of the Year" if you are interested.