Saturday, January 20, 2007

MDRA Awards

Age-group awardees gathered together at the front of the auditoriumThe Minnesota Distance Running Association (MDRA) holds an annual Grand Prix (GP) series of races, typically 13. In 2007 it will be 14. A runner who is interested in entering the GP pays a five dollar fee, and collects points for each race s/he enters according to a formula that considers the runner's finishing position in that race compared with all other GP entrants who ran that race. A runner can run as many or as few of the 13 races as s/he chooses, and a maximum of 10 scores in the 13 races are added to compute his/her total score.Minnesota Don collects the award for 65-69 A zippered crew-top shirt is the tangible award.  The real award is intangible


Awards are presented in five-year age groups at the MDRA Annual Meeting, held in January every year. Over 100 runners entered the GP in 2006; MDRA is hoping for even more this year. Personally I find it interesting; it's fun, and a powerful incentive to train and run races. Kudos to the age-group winners, but I also salute those stalwart runners who enter and participate year after year even when stronger runners are much more likely to win.

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