Comparing This Year's Mt. SAC Invitational to Previous Years
2021 Mt. SAC vs 2019 Mt. SAC (Full Report)
Before we get to breaking down the results, let's continue our series of looks at this year's meet vs 2019 (plus a bonus look today). As you can see, there is very little difference between the last two editions of the meet. 2021 was under 7 seconds faster overall, which could be attributed to the rain (especially considering that the top 100 also was slightly slower this year). Athletes that ran in both races performed an average of 51 seconds better this year, which is in line with other meets we've seen. Interestingly, the athletes in the bottom 50% improved more than the ones in the top 50%, the first time we've seen the rank-and-file improving that much.
| DIFFERENCE | THIS MEET | THAT MEET | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Average | +6.63 | 19:20.00 | 19:13.37 |
| 1st-10th Place | +4.07 | 14:58.17 | 14:54.10 |
| 1st-25th Place | +3.82 | 15:08.74 | 15:04.92 |
| 1st-50th Place | +3.56 | 15:18.40 | 15:14.84 |
| 1st-100th Place | +5.34 | 15:31.66 | 15:26.32 |
| Common Athletes | -- | -- | 876 |
| Ran Faster | 492 | 684 | 192 |
| Ran Season Best | 88 | 190 | 102 |
| Average Time | -51.51 | 18:21.25 | 19:12.76 |
| Median Time | -1:01.40 | 18:13.60 | 19:15.00 |
| Middle 80% Times | -54.34 | 18:19.35 | 19:13.69 |
| Top 10% Times | -50.55 | 15:43.33 | 16:33.88 |
| Top 25% Times | -53.24 | 16:15.28 | 17:08.53 |
| Top 50% Times | -56.42 | 16:55.96 | 17:52.37 |
| Bottom 50% Times | -46.61 | 19:46.54 | 20:33.15 |
| Bottom 25% Times | -35.99 | 20:38.24 | 21:14.23 |
| Bottom 10% Times | -29.79 | 21:15.86 | 21:45.66 |
| Average Difference | -51.51 | -- | -- |
| Median Difference | -2:28.40 | -- | -- |
| Middle 80% Difference | -51.47 | -- | -- |
| Top 10% Difference | -36.28 | -- | -- |
| Top 50% Difference | -46.17 | -- | -- |
| Top 25% Difference | -43.21 | -- | -- |
| Top 50% Difference | -46.17 | -- | -- |
| Bottom 50% Difference | -56.86 | -- | -- |
| Bottom 25% Difference | -54.89 | -- | -- |
| Bottom 10% Difference | -1:07.64 |
2021 Mt. SAC vs 2015 Mt. SAC (Full Report)
I also wanted to compare to 2015 because that was the "classic" version of the course, to which the meet returned this year. This report shows a much more stark contrast: 2021 was more than 1 minute slower overall. The most likely culprit here is the rain, and I also wouldn't discount the effect that the pandemic has had over the last two years in holding back training for many runners.
| DIFFERENCE | THIS MEET | THAT MEET | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Athletes | +3 | 4998 | 4995 |
| Overall Average | +1:07.75 | 19:20.00 | 18:12.25 |
| 1st-10th Place | +14.47 | 14:58.17 | 14:43.70 |
| 1st-25th Place | +12.54 | 15:08.74 | 14:56.20 |
| 1st-50th Place | +9.94 | 15:18.40 | 15:08.46 |
| 1st-100th Place | +8.85 | 15:31.66 | 15:22.81 |