No worries, brah. That's a very tough AG. I didn't even do the minimum number of USAT-sanctioned races (only 2) to get a ranking, so I guess I'm lower than whale feces ;-)

Tony

No worries here. Not in it for the USAT ranking. I almost forget about a spring race I did, otherwise I would not have raced 3 times myself.

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NIK
www.athletelife.org

91.2814: 29/1187: 25-29 Age Group

Disclaimer: USAT Rankings overly weight large sprint races, which may or may not have competitive fields. Case in point I had two fifth place overall finishes in large sprint races (over 700 finishers) good for 1st OA AG, the other 2nd OA AG, in both cases others who beat me were "elites"), which definitely boosted my rankings. Throw in a 4:45 and a 4:46 HIM and there I am. I know for a fact a couple of guys who beat me head-to-head more than once are ranked below me and that just is not right.

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"When I first had the opportunity to compete in triathlon, it was the chicks and their skimpy race clothing that drew me in. Everyone was so welcoming and the lifestyle so obviously narcissistic. I fed off of that vain energy. To me it is what the sport is all about."

Hah. Over on another site I just finished explaining why sprint points were fairly bogus (as they work now). They need to really decrease the multiplier even more.

ot

I think most of us don't put much weight into the USAT rankings, but they are fun none the less. We could start another thread on the pro's and con's of the USAT ranking system, but it is not that important to me. I am sure this post will head that direction eventually.

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NIK
www.athletelife.org

I know from past experience that a lot of men used to "cherry-pick" races to fatten their ranking. I used to finish low-to-mid 90s in the 30-34 and 35-39, and never ducked a hard race (6 1/2IMs, each of which was an IMH qualifier, IMH, regional championships etc.), but I know there were dudes who didn't get in the amount or number of quality races I did but who'd finish ahead of me.

I let all that stuff go about 5 years ago. It's all fun, fun, fun till USAT takes my card away (sung to the tune of the Beach Boys "Fun, fun, fun") now ;-)

Tony

437:2447 in 40M 80.8169

I had 3 ranked races.. minimalism is my approach. Ah well.

That's just barely enough to qualify for the 'elite' AG wave at Chicago, so now I have to decide whether I'm going to try that..

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"It is a good feeling for old men who have begun to fear failure, any sort of failure, to set a schedule for exercise and stick to it. If an aging man can run a distance of three miles, for instance, he knows that whatever his other failures may be, he is not completely wasted away." Romain Gary, SI interview

Nik

the rankings are subjective at best. I ranked 12th in my AG for duathlons but one of the guys who made All American was never closer than 4 minutes behind me. If you load up on championships like nationals regionals and do well then cherry pick a few local races and go top 2-3 then you can boost your rankings. That being said I ranked 89.344 which is my lowest ranking score ever. :-(

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I did three USAT races but ended up getting disqualified in one of them so I'm not even ranked

That's just barely enough to qualify for the 'elite' AG wave at Chicago, so now I have to decide whether I'm going to try that..



Go for it! I jumped in the elite wave for the first time at a regional championship that I once did, and managed to finish 3rd OA. I had never swam that fast in my life (sub-20 for the 1.5k) and had a bike/run that was awesome. I guess it was just the adrenalin that kicked in from trying to stay with some of those guys. Of course, the winner beat all of us by at least 4 minutes, but hey...... ;-)

Tony

92.0091 (a lot of decimals...) 21/1187

Yeah these rankings are pretty strange. Looking at where my points came from I got the most points from age group nationals where I had a pretty shitty race, and then the races where I had great races, which were by the way USAT races, were never submitted... But hey, it was a fun year.

Subjective is a good way of describing them. As mentioned, it is just fun to browse and point out all the irregularities. Not a perfect system by any means.

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NIK
www.athletelife.org

86.0625 81st in 20-24. funny how these work, my best races got the least points.

78.611 737/2719 35-39 Saw several names well below me I recognized as guys who can kick my ass!

Yippee

I was 8th in 40-44 duathlon.

Having said that, these are definitely subjective at best. In the past I've finished behind guys that I've beaten regularly throughout the year only to find them ahead of me because they did a Chicago (what a mess) or some other "well known" race.

I say toe the line and see who's the best.

Rocketboy

Take the rankings for what they are people. Unfortunately I can't afford to travel the USA and have never had the opportunity to race a National Championship. I do get to race in one of the largest regions, the South Midwest region. I participate in our Regional Du Champs. and travel to the surrounding Du State Champs., all of which I usually place in the top 10. I'm stoked about my rankings and don't give a rat's ass about what the rest of the fellow AG'ers think.

HM 14th M30-34 Du

HM 139 M30-34 TRI

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RunFAR Racing Services
http://www.Run-far.com
Team Cambridge
Hilltop Bicycle Repair

That is interesting... F30-34 111/1190 78.32 what does "HM" mean?

Rick,

Are you heading to phx in feb to do the Desert Classic Du? There are three AG world slots and it's shaping up to be a good field.

brian

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Ok, promise not to laugh?? Well, First season, and only way to go is WAAAAY up...

60.6940 points, 2283/2439, 30-34 M Age Group, Triathlon

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"...it should be swim, bike, run, cage fight." - el fuser
"I noticed that I am in your sig line! Wow! That's s first for me. Thanks." - Fleck

Brian, you're in my AG aren't you??? Seriously, that's one race I would love to do. Actually I've been trying to make it back to PowerMan Alabama, which I last raced in 2001. Here in Dallas we get hammered with races starting late March-first of April. We have a Long Course qualifier (Metroplex Du-2-Du) which this year is a 10k/60k/10k. Long story short it's a beating of a year and it's all about pacing....

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RunFAR Racing Services
http://www.Run-far.com
Team Cambridge
Hilltop Bicycle Repair

Agreed. Subjective at best. I think that USAT needs to relook the way they weight certain races. That being said I ended up 89/1602 for an 84.61 in triathlon and 15/157 for an 86.37 in duathlon. Both in the 45-49 age group. Funny though because the "All American" list came out in Inside Triathlon and I was 3rd in my AG. Again very subjective but nice to be recognozed.

Does anyone know why it takes USAT so long to produce these figures? They just have to run a script to produce tables for the rankings that have been in their database and have been regularly updated all year. The last race was in November.

The rankings system makes a fairly good attempt to do an almost impossible job. Inside Tri's list of All-Americans allows human intervention, and therefore appears to do a better job. Hence I didn't make that list. Finding long but unimportant races with masses of competitors seems to be the key to a good USAT ranking.

Bigbloke (5th 35-39, 95.66)

I love you guys with the sky high ratings that proceed to us that you suck. I was 792 in the same age group, armytriguy. I have a feeling the ratings are accurate enough to indicate that you really would kick my ever expanding butt in any race, any day.

Well, I got 77.7481 for 377/1602 in the M45 AG. That blows. I guess I didn't do the right races. I know for a fact the guy who got eighth place, while he's an excellent athlete, his highest points were from 2 ultra-short sprints that have a .90 factor and he won overall due to lack of entrants. But, hey, if you're shooting for points, you seek out these mal-ranked races.

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Proud member of FISHTWITCH: doing a bit more than fish exercise now.