2020 PA MUT Grand Prix schedule: the cat out of the bag, finally!

Phew, Nakia and I have worked on this 2020 schedule since August, yet we never seem to start soon enough as ultra runners need to schedule their year months in advance!

First, I want to give a shout out to the 114 women, 180 men, 20 teams and 10 clubs who participated in our 2019 Grand Prix and made it so engaging and entertaining until our very last races at Ruth Anderson Memorial Runs; what a great season between January and October! Among these runners, special kudos to the team captains for bringing their clubs together in this fun contest.

Second, all this won't be possible without all the Race Directors putting up first-class events. I often say that our Pacific Association (North California and North Nevada) is not only blessed, but also spoiled, with such an abundance of both very high quality events but an amazing dedication of these RDs to fuel such a sense of ultra and trail running community by linking runners' achievements to volunteers. Thank you for your hard work and support of our Grand Prix, RDs! Think, by event order in 2019: Paulo Medina, John Blue and Dennis Scott, Julie Fingar, Adam Ray, Tia Bodington, Pierre-Yves Couteau and Stuart Taylor, John Trent, Andres Vega, Greg Lanctot, Cliff Lentz, Wim Van Dam, Steve Jaber and Anil Rao. Wow, what a powerful list!

Before going straight to the schedule, let me share the main criteria which we are considering. As you can see, given the hundreds of potential events to chose from, this is quite a combinatorial exercise, a balancing act with many trade-offs. If some of you were wondering why it took us so long. For many years, at least the first 10 years I participated in the MUT Grand Prix since 2006, the schedule remained the same from year to year, that made it easier for everyone. But the world is changing around us and I'm grateful to Nakia for being such an agent of change and representing the modernization aspect in the "tradition versus innovation" trade-off in particular.

Again, you can skip to the schedule directly if you aren't interested in the details. For the hard core MUT folks, and potentially the next MUT subcommittee Chair, here are a few selection criteria...

Key pillars of the MUT Grand Prix selection:

1. Tradition: keep the original spirit of this quarter century tradition
1. Club support: prioritize PA club-organized events → Jed Smith (Buffalo Chips); Quicksilver (Quicksilver); Silver State (Silver State Striders); Star City (Excelsior); Tamalpa Headlands (Tamalpa)
2. Traditional events
3. Early season building-up toward the big summer 100s
4. Spread across the Pacific Association region (region spanning from Monterrey, CA to Reno, NV)
5. Leverage local Nationals when available
2. Novelty
1. Continuing on extending to/including sub-marathon Trail races (not just Ultras)
2. Addition of Mountain races
3. Addition of new events
4. But, yet, less events overall (the GP used to have more than 20 events a year!)
5. Potential inclusion of a relay (club teams)
6. Finish earlier in the year to allow for early planning of following year
3. Fairness, inclusion, diversity
1. Events should allow enough PA runners to register for club to score teams
2. Events distributed across RDs partnering and supporting our PA Grand Prix
4. MUT/USATF Association excellence: remain a National model
1. Engagement/level of participation (number of participants, number of age groups, number of clubs and teams)
2. Competitiveness: provide high quality and sought-after events; minimize conflicts with National and International Championships, and/or other big/popular events
3. Quality of events
4. Attractiveness
5. Embodiment of the MUT discipline: 3 running disciplines (M, U, T), plus the variety of ultra running formats: distances (50K, 50M, 100K, 100M), distance/timed (6hr, 12hr, 24hr, 48hr, 6 days, …), terrain (road, track, trail).
6. Avoid conflicts with relevant events (other PA GP races from Road if not XC, MUT Nationals, other major and popular MUT races if not on our calendar).

With that... drum roll... here is your 2020 schedule, hope you see where this comes from, and that you get exited to compete, both individually and as a club team! The big scoop is the return of TRT (albeit without the Champs' discount) as our 100-miler in 2020.

Date	Sac	Bay	Mtn	Trail	50K	50M	100K	100M	Timed
Feb 1: Jed Smith 50K	X				R
Feb 22: Mt Umunhum 12K**		X	T
Mar 7: Way Too Cool 50K	X				T
Mar 14: Pioneer Spirit 50M (Nationals)	X					T
Apr 11: Mt Diablo 50K**		X			T
May 9: Quicksilver 100K		X					T
May 16: Silver State 50M	X					T
May 17*: Ohlone 50K		X			T
May 30: The Ridge 23K**		X		T
Jun 21*: Broken Arrow 26K or 11K** (TBC)	X		T
Jul 18: Tahoe Rim Trail 100M**	X							T
Aug 2*: Skyline 50K		X			T
Aug 15: Star City Half		X		T
Aug 29: Tamalpa Headlands 50K		X			T
Sep 26: Dick Collins Firetrails 50M		X				T
Oct 10: Ruth Anderson 50K & 50M		X			R	R
Total	6	10	2	2	7	4	1	1	0

*: Sunday

**: new events = 5

Nakia will publish the official pdf format on the PA website soon. Hope that now gives you enough notice and visibility to continue planning for your 2020 season, after our early announcement of the inclusion of Quicksilver 100K, where all of those who wanted to get in were able to do so in the first 48 hours.

See you, healthy, on the roads and trails in 2020!

PS: updated with:

1. Correction of Mt Diablo date (Saturday April 11, not 13, which still allows for Easter celebration that weekend);
2. Addition of the traditional only distance at Jed Smith (50K);
3. TBC added for Broken Arrow as we are still waiting to hear back from the RDs if we can have the 26K (fallback option will be the 11K)