Rochester Runner of the Year

Amazingly, five members of our gang finished in the top five places in our respective age groups, thereby winning Rochester Runner of the Year awards.

Our running/triathlon/snowshoe group, "Sals" (I've got an old mule and her name is Sal, fifteen miles on the Erie Canal) is doing well. I know the song is, "fifteen years", not miles, but miles fits us better. In years past our typical long run on the canal path was fifteen miles. Aging and injuries seems to have changed that. 

Jan finished third in her age group, Eileen fourth in her group, I finished third in my group, with Mike finishing fourth in the same group and Pete finished third in his group. Not a bad representation. Placing in the top 5 in an age group means you ran at least 4 of the 12 twelve series races and earned points in those races. You have to finish in the top 10 in your age group in a race to earn points. You can race in all 12 events, which range from a 1 mile race to a half-marathon, but only your top 6 races count. 

To me the series serves as another form of motivation to get out there and race, especially as I age, and to be as competitive as possible in each of the races. I can't control who shows up at each race, only my own effort. It's  normally best to run as many of the series races as you can to pick up points, but if you are fast, like EW and MW, you can sometimes get away with only running four of the series races. I typically need to run more of the RROY races to get a decent amount of points. With a few fast people moving up from a younger age group next year to my category I'm going to enjoy this year's accomplishment while I can.