Introduction

The summer ranking period is the longest, and the hot, sticky DC summer necessitates that most of the race distances be short. Still, there is an abundance of races that take place during this period, which ran from May 14 through Labor Day weekend, and so we were able to include more than 100 area races. The race with the greatest number of participants in the U.S. was run during this period--the Susan G. Komen National Race for the Cure, which was won by Philippe Rolly of Arlington (14:48) and Sascha Scott of Washington, DC (18:18). Of course, there were other important and well-attended races this summer, including the Annapolis Ten Miler, which drew nearly 5000 participants, the MCRRC Riley's Rumble Half Marathon, which continues to grow and this year had more than 700 participants, the Rockville Rotary Twilight Runfest 8K with more than 2000 runners, and tommy's american 5k, which is fast becoming a DC Fourth of July tradition--this year for more than 1300 runners.

In order to come up with the summer rankings, we looked at nearly 2000 qualifying times from the almost 400 runners who earned the required two qualifying times during the ranking period. Because there were so many races, many rankings were determined on time, as there were quite a few runners who didn't run head-to-head against very many of their age group foes.

All this is great testimony to the strength of the running community, when one considers that the summer of 2000 also included the wettest and generally most disagreeable weather in a long time. Before we delve into the rankings themselves, let's review how you can get ranked.

How to Get Ranked

Runners must meet the qualifying time twice in a given ranking period as the first step toward being ranked. We take a number of things into consideration when we do the rankings--best performance, races run, number of races run, distances tackled, and results. Which of those factors is most important tends to vary depending on how much head-to-head competition there was in the age group.

In order for a race to be included in the rankings, the race must have:

1. Full race results available on the Web, or submitted to the Washington Running Report.

2. Been run in Virginia, Washington, DC, or Maryland. In the event that we receive numerous requests for any given out of town race to be included, we will consider it if a lot of local people ran in it.

3. At least 50 participants.

What exactly do you need to do to be ranked? First, you must meet the 10K equivalent time standard in at least two included races in any given ranking period:

Division Men Women

Open 34:20 41:15

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

75-99 95:00 99:00

How You Can Help

Please, send us your race results, and they need to be complete results. We cannot use partial results, because it simply requires too much guesswork and uncertainty as to whether there could have been a few more runners making the cut. Also, it is of utmost importance that you list all the details, like gender, age, and hometown. Of course, in this electronic age, some electronic form of the results is preferable to hard copy. If possible, please use space or comma delimited fields for name, age, hometown, and time when posting or submitting electronic results.

Also, if you want to be ranked and find yourself running races out of the area, or for some reason feel you aren't getting proper consideration, please drop a line to the Washington Running Report, or directly to Dot Collins at dotc@home.com

And now, here they are, without further ado, the Summer 2000 Runner Rankings.