PAUSATF MUT Grand Prix 2024 Payouts: Finally!

Finally... at a time the recipients might have forgotten about this additional perk of our MUT Grand Prix. At least, they have been nice enough not to bug me every month...

Apologies to these winners, for the delay. And apologies to all the readers who aren't interested in our North California and Nevada trail and ultra running adventures... Although, locally, we are very proud of our MUT Grand Prix and believe there are very few such equivalents across the US and around the world, aligned with a national track & field body at least (quite a few private and commercial organizations run their own series in order to lock their most faithful participants in, like airlines, hotel chains or rental car companies do with their point and loyalty programs).

So... drum roll, the 2024 winners' awards are...

(You can click on the screen shot for a larger view.)

When I took over the Chair role and responsibilities in 2017 from Bill Dodson and the original wizard of our MUT Grand Prix, Hollis Lenderking, paired with scorer extraordinaire, Gary Wang, the determination of these payouts was a bit obscure, or let's say ad hoc. Yet, the total purse was double at $6,000 a year! The only real guideline included in our MUT rules was one of equality between genders.

Mastering Excel and aiming at something more deterministic and open and came up with the following rules and computations.

Rules:

1. Need at least 3 scores to be eligible for any award (plaque, monetary, title); if not, award goes to the next eligible.
2. For one age group, 1 award per 10 age group participants, rounded up (e.g., if 15 participants, 2 awards, if 22, 3).
3. Within each age group, eligible participants are sorted by number of points; their rank determine a potential award amount (see levels in attached table); same potential amount across genders.
4. If the sum of the awards is higher than the allotted pool of money, all awards are pro-rated by the ratio between the allotted pool of money (Pacific Association LDR MUT purse) divided by the sum of the computed/potential awards.
5. I.e., if sum of potential awards = $6,000 and the LDR-attributed pool = $3,000, then all awards are multiplied by a 0.5 ratio.
6. If the sum of the awards is lower than the allotted pool of money, we stick to the potential amounts (levels). (Typical of very low participation, like when we resumed after the pandemic.)
7. Finally, payouts are rounded to whole dollars.

Reference table:

Group ranking	Level
1	$200
2	$150
3	$110
4	$80
5	$60
6	$50
7	$40
8	$30

Et voilà, as we say on familiar grounds on the other side of the pond, forgive my French! ;-)

The checks will be sent at the end of this month by another pair of extraordinary Pacific Association volunteers and executive officers of our association, John and Heike Mansoor.

In a few months, hopefully earlier in the year, we'll send the checks for the 2025 season which just completed with our Ruth Anderson Memorial Runs, 2 weeks ago. 'Till then, we'll all have run many more miles. Hopefully!