Voting is now open for the 2015 USATF-NE Grand Prix. We are giving each race a chance to state their case and provide voters more info to go on. Some teams may hash things out and everyone votes on the agreed upon slate, others do their own research and choose what makes sense for them, while others may pick based on how colorful the race logo is. Whatever method you employ, we think we’ll have everything you need here. Before we get to the race options, here’s some helpful info:

Dave Dunham attended the LDR “slate selection” meeting and took some notes. In the recent past the slates to be voted on were determined here but they went into a refreshingly new direction this year. Here’s something from Dave:

“The short of it was that the meeting itself was productive with the committee finally adopting a somewhat “open” voting for the Grand Prix races.  This is a huge improvement over the secretly created slates which often lumped a race you might want in with others you didn’t.  Now with very little restriction we (the members of USATF) will be able to vote on what races we think are the best to be designated USATF NE championships.

“It will be quite interesting to see how this works.  It was refreshing to see LDR willing to move forward on this.  My hope now is that communication and transparency are improved on over the next year.”

Agreed. It will be interesting to see how this works and if members and teams are happier with this new process. Dave’s full write up on the meeting can be found here. Dave also put together a helpful summary listing not only race dates, locations and entry fees, but also took it a step further and provided the pros and cons of each one. That post can be found here. It’s refreshing to see such honest feedback on races, especially from someone with a lot of experience on the racing scene

While all of us here at Level Renner have our thoughts and opinions on each race, we are electing to not put together a breakdown like Dave did. If we rattle off some negatives about Race A and then Race B wins, then it might look like we weren’t exactly impartial when people see that Race B advertises with us and Race A doesn’t. So the Level will bite its proverbial tongue and instead present the options while everyone else can weigh in through comments here or via social media.

You’ll want to check out the USATF-NE Grand Prix site for the nitty gritty details. Helpful direct links:

Direct link to vote
Selection worksheet – very important!
Original bid submissions

All ballots received that have conflicts built in will not be counted so be sure follow the rules and pick a slate of races that follows their guidelines. So now we can move on to…

The Options

As we stated earlier we gave each race a chance to state their case directly to you. Each race was contacted and given the same opportunity. As we get responses in we’ll update the links below so be sure to keep checking back here to see more info as it comes in. It’s not the best way to go about it (since some of you have already voted!), but we’re doing what we can. Had a start date for voting been communicated more clearly then we’re sure the race organizers would’ve sent their respective summaries in ahead of that. Instead we were left guessing. Anyway, here are the links to each race’s submission:

Marathon

People’s United Bank Vermont City Marathon
Anthem Manchester City Marathon

Half Marathon

New Bedford Half Marathon
The Traveler Beer New England Half Marathon
Middlebury Maple Run – The Sweetest Half

10k

Newton 10k
Lone Gull 10k Road Race
Reebok Canton Road Race (10k)

5 Miler

Ribfest 5 Miler
Bobby Doyle Summer Classic 5 Miler

5k

An Ras Mor 5k
Hollis Fast 5k
Reebok Canton Road Race (5k)

Pick Two (12k – 30k)

Bedford Rotary Memorial 12k Road Race
GMAA Labor Day 15k
Five College Realtors 10 Miler (formerly known as the Jones Group 10 Miler in Amherst, MA)
New Hampshire 10 Miler
Seasons 20k
Nahant 25k

Here’s another helpful tip: we’ve heard that the ‘Pick Two’ is a little misleading. Apparently you can’t select two 10 milers there. If you do, you’re ballot will be tossed. Be careful picking in that section!

And although the mile is not up for consideration in 2015 (baffled by that one), we’re going to give the High Street Mile a little love here. They showed up ready to present only to find out that the mile wouldn’t be in the mix.

High Street Mile

Voting is open until December 12th at 8:00 pm!