"Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me"
--Steve Miller Band, 1973

The 2006 runner ranking season begins with the biggest Thursday race day of all. There were sixteen turkey races, including eight major races (more than 500 runners). There was a 10K, a 5M, and a 5K with more than 2,000 runners and fifty ranked times. Then the weather turned cold in December. Most of the twenty-four races in December were small (five major), plenty of Jingle Bells. The new Acumen Solutions Jingle All the Way 10K was the largest race in December with more than 1300 runners. The Celtic Solstice 5M brought nearly a thousand to Baltimore. The Red Ribbon 5K moved to a hillier location in Fairfax but still had the most ranked times in December to end the year.

Everybody starts the year with a January 1st race. There were 24 races. They started small and got larger by the end of the month. Richmond's Frostbite 15K was the only race with more than 500 runners in January. The following week at the Super Bowl 5K, they matched that race with forty ranked runners of their own. Even with February having the fewest days, it had the most races, 35. The times continued to get faster. The Best of 2006 listing on the Web race results page improved every week. At the end of the month, at least ten clubs met in Columbia for the RRCA Challenge. Nearly 25% of the runners in the race (102) ran ranked times, easily the highest percentage of any race. The Colonial Half Marathon was run that same weekend. The course is not easy but the prizes are great. The race had the second highest amount of ranked times (69) and those do not include the many swift out of area runners in the race.

March had eight races as the area geared up for the avalanche of spring races. The weather, unpredictable at best, went from freezing to eighty and back below thirty.

Eight races had more than one thousand finishers. All the major distances were represented. More than 38,000 times were sorted through the system to determine the rankings. Thirty-five races had more than 20 qualifying times. The top 14 races had more than 40 qualifiers. These were evenly split with Virginia and Maryland having each a half marathon, a 5K, a 5 Mile, and a 10K. Virginia had two more 10Ks, while Maryland had the most potent race, a ten-mile race with just short of 25% of its runners with ranked times. Washington, DC is making it harder to have a race in the city. Only four races out of 122 during this ranking period were in the city and they were all run in Potomac Park.

Seven hundred different men and 450 different women ran at least one qualifying time. Two hundred forty men and 163 women were ranked. Generally, the women's numbers fall off in the older ranks. They had 31 open runners. The men stay consistent through age 60, which is often the largest division (37 runners). The teens are growing with 27 and 21 for the men and women, respectively. In all of the races, 5.22% of the finishers were ranked runners.

Runners who win the race or win their division in a race earn an asterisk beside their name. Open runners only get an asterisk for an overall win. The Speed Alone (reported at the top of each age division) is the fastest qualifying time run for each division. In red, it means the division champion ran it.

Now let's see who made it to the top.

Women's Winter 2006 Rankings


Men's Winter 2006 Rankings 


For a complete explanation of how the rankings are compiled, 
please see Rankings Explained.

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 ranking periods for the remainder of the 2006 ranking year are:

* Spring Runner Rankings, March 11, 2006 through May 21, 2006, reported July August 2006

* Summer Runner Rankings, May 22 through September 4, 2006, reported November- December 2006

* Fall Runner Rankings, September 5 through November 19, 2006, reported January-February 2007

* Best of 2006 - reported March-April 2007