A major benefit of cataloging my training runs and my road races is the ability to analyze them ad nauseam. One statistic I have always been intrigued with is where I placed within a race, regardless of demographics.
Early in the 2009 road race season I was finishing in the bottom third of most races. Toward the end of the season I was able to finish above the 50th percentile in most races. In many cases, I was merely trying to finish the race without walking, hurting myself, expelling my most recent meal, etc.
I would like to finish in the top 25% of every race I run this year. If there are a hundred racers for a given event, I would like to finish twenty-fifth or higher.
For a race or two in 2010 this may prove top be difficult to attain. For example, the Ben and Tim Memorial 5K in Hershey Pa at the end of August perennially contains a couple hundred high school runners in the field. I finished 189th out of 438 in 2009, or at the 43rd percentile. I would have to move up about eighty places to meet my new goal for 2010.
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