The 2013 Road Racing Grand Prix schedule is finally here! Ever since the notice went out that online voting was open, many of us have been eagerly anticipating this announcement. Heck, some of us have been anticipating it since the conclusion of the 2012 circuit.

As you probably recall, there were three possible slates that we had to choose from and ultimately Slate 1 proved to be the most popular of the three.

Breen, Stirrat & Levy at the 2012 Cape Cod Marathon. Reno was possibly pondering which slate he was going to vote for. Courtesy of Scott Mason Photo.

Here it is…

February 24th (Sun, 11:00 am) - Jones Group Realtors 10-Miler (Amherst, MA)
March 17th (Sun, 11:00 am) - New Bedford Half Marathon (New Bedford, MA)
June 13th (Thurs, 6:30 pm) - Hollis Fast 5K (Hollis, NH)
July 27th (Sat, 9:00 am) - Carver 5M (Carver, MA)
September 15th (Sun, 9:00 am) - Lone Gull 10K (Gloucester, MA)
September 29th (Sun, 8:30 am) - Nahant 30K (Nahant, MA)
November 3rd (Sun, 8:50 am) - Manchester City Marathon (Manchester, NH)

The ten miler, half marathon and five miler are all hold overs from last year’s circuit. That means that more than half of the circuit turned over from last year. The distances included stayed the same accept for one key change: gone is the 12k, replaced by a 30k.

Some other numbers & factoids, courtesy of the USATF-NE:

The Other Questions:

1. Should the circuit include a relay race?
Yes - 49.9%
No - 23.4%
No opinion - 26.75%

2. Grand Prix Race participation in 2012
77.8% said they competed in the 2012 edition.

Voting analysis:

Over 14% of the adult membership participated in the online vote.
Slate 1 pulled in 44.2% of the vote
Within Slate 1, Lone Gull garnered 74% of the 10k vote.
The Manchester Marathon won big (62.5% margin of victory).
Slate 2 came in 2nd (about 35%) with the Yankee Homecoming getting more than 70% of the vote for the flex option.
Slate 3 was third (about 20%) with the Carver getting 60% of the vote for the flex option.

Also, for those who crave even more info, find a summary of all the bids here.

I’m sure the debates about the slate (and the slate process) will continue to be spirited. Right away it’s clear that the fall will bring with it a fast and furious close to the circuit. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out, especially with a long one like Nahant coming so close to the season-capping marathon. Battle weary legs will be tested!

There also seems to be a potential conflict with the mountain circuit: the Mt. Washington Road Race will be on Saturday, June 15th in 2013 and that only leaves two days to recover from the ‘fast’ 5k. There are plenty of runners that like to do it all, so it’ll leave some tough decisions (for some…the true gluttons for pain won’t think twice!).

What do you think of it all? Did your slate win? Not a fan of the slates in general? Let us know in the comments.

**UPDATE: Jim Johnson alerted us to the fact that the Mt. Washington Road Race isn’t actually part of the mountain racing circuit. My bad. But still, it’s a classic race that for some is an annual tradition, and as Jim explained, it’s a race that many of the mountain circuit competitors do anyway. With so many races out there these days, there are bound to be conflicts in scheduling. I wonder how the three fall races will line up with the cross country activity around here.