I look forward to hearing about your races, Renee. Yes, results will totally depend on who shows up. That's why goals based on personal achievement, rather than results, are always good.

I'm in an interesting situation in one of our local series. I decided to race masters even though all the women in that category kick my butt (many masters national champions in our races). However, I'm able to compare my times with the other categories and the women's start list as a whole, so I can see progress. In the first race, I finished 41st of 53 total women (A,B,C, and masters). This race I finished 36th of 52. Progress, right? Of course, my real benchmark is where I'd finish wth the Cs since I raced Cs the last three seasons. For the past two races, I'd finish 6th in the Cs which makes me happy.

My goals, however, have very little to do with placing, and more to do with things I can control -- how I handle different technical areas of the course, barriers, mounts, etc.