It's getting better all the time
Now I can't complain
I've got to admit it's getting better

--Beatles 1967

2006 was even bigger than 2005 (655 races) with another huge increase to more than 730 races and nearly one-third of a million race times. Running is alive and well. One hundred fifteen of those races were major, meaning they had more than 500 finishers; a full 44 had more than 1000 finishers. Runners produced an elite ranked time at a race 11,000 times!

Total men's times increased 11% with 52% of those times run by runners with two qualifying ranking periods. Total women's times closed the gender gap with a 43% increase from last year to represent 45% of the total times in races. Forty-four percent of their times qualified for the year-end rankings, while 41% of the men's times qualified. More than 300 men and 256 women made the standard.

As with last year, the largest division was the Open Women with, again, 64 qualifiers. While the Men's Open division had only 36, the huge 60-64 category led the men's divisions with 48 runners; the women were less than half with 23. In the largest age group division (40-44), women edged men with 38 qualifiers to 36.

To qualify for the year-end Runner Rankings, a runner must be ranked with two races each in at least two ranking periods. All runners change age groups during the year. A runner can use an older age group ranking as the second ranking period to qualify for the year. However, they may not use a younger age group to qualify for the older division. It is possible to be ranked in both divisions for those with one younger group ranking and two or more in the older division.

The Speed Alone, reported at the beginning of each section, is the fastest qualifying time run for each division. In red, it means the division champion ran it.

Runners with special talent and often ready to move on to the next division with domination in mind are designated the BULLET (here is a bulletin to alert you to a speeding bullet). Not every division has a BULLET. Some have more than one. Runners that are virtually unbeatable are LOCKs.

Men's Best of 2006 Rankings

Women's Best of 2006 Rankings

If you have comments and questions or would like to get a more complete explanation of individual rankings, you may contact the author at james@runwashington.com.

Rankings Information

For a full explanation of how the rankings are compiled, please 
see www.runwashington.com/other/rankingsgeneralinfo.html 

The current qualifying standards for the 10K:

Age Group	   Men		   Women
Open		    34:20	     41:15
19 & Younger	    38:20	     46:05
35-39		    36:40	     44:10
40-44		    38:20	     46:05
45-49		    39:45	     48:45
50-54		    42:00	     51:45
55-59		    43:55	     54:30
60-64		    49:45	     62:05
65-69		    52:50	     75:00
70-74		    56:20	     89:40
75-79		  1:32:30	   1:39:00
80 & up 	  1:45:00          1:50:00

The periods for the 2007 ranking year:
*Winter Runner Rankings, November 20, 2006 through March 16, 2007, reported May-June'07;

*Spring Runner Rankings, March 17, 2007 through May 20, 2007, reported July-August '07;

*Summer Runner Rankings, May 21 through September 3, reported November-December '07;

*Fall Runner Rankings, September 4 through November 18, reported January-February '08;

*Best of 2007, reported March-April '08.