RUSA Awards

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Dan Driscoll

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Nov 5, 2025, 6:04:32 PM (14 hours ago) Nov 5

to B -RUSA Google Group, Randon

Yes, interesting…

I respect riders’ desires to make Rando Awards easier to earn for themselves, but I also have my own thoughts about a more productive trajectory.

RBAs are RUSA. Without RBAs donating thousands of days a year, RUSA collapses into a Strava perms club. RBAs give generous — often huge — amounts of time and energy; for some, it’s a significant part of their lives. They are not paid employees. Not a cent of your RUSA membership dues goes to the RBAs. Any “central planning” that treats RBAs like franchise managers risks killing the golden goose and stripping regions of their individual personalities. It will hurt Rando more than help it.

If someone thinks an RBA isn’t doing enough — or isn’t doing it in a proper way — I’d strongly suggest, rather than complaining publicly, you first offer to help. Mitch offered to run the Rouleur Rides for Seattle and did a bang-up job. If that doesn’t work, just fill out the RBA application and give it a go.

Rando Awards are not “life and death.” If you don’t have time — due to family and job commitments — to travel to the rides you desire or to deal with local weather issues, adjusting your goals rather than changing rules may be more appropriate. I do not think the ACP would entertain dropping PBP from the Randonneur 5,000 or Randonneur 10,000 award requirements just to make them more accessible to those who can’t make it to France.

RUSA offers a fair selection of awards that require events and awards that allow perms. Below is a list of 16 awards that do not require events and can all be earned with the same 100 km perm, ridden repeatedly out of your own front door and several others that can be earned with just perms. Less than one third of RUSA’s awards require events.

RUSA 1,000 km, 2,000 km, 3,000 km, and 4,000 km distance-per-year awards
Our new RUSA Ultra Distance Awards (1,000 km to 5,000 km)
K-Hound and Ultra K-Hound (one of RUSA’s most prestigious ultra awards)
P-12 and Ultra P-12
Mondial and Galaxy (RUSA’s most prestigious lifetime awards)
The American Explorer Award can be earned with all perm rides of 100 km or less
The R-12 can be earned with all perms out of your front door of 200 km or longer
SR 600 medal and awards for 10 or more Super Sixes — can only be earned with perms

Changing rules years after an award has been created to make it easier is unfair to all the randos who took the time and effort to earn it as originally designed. Past awardees might feel cheated. Rather than change rules for existing awards, how about suggesting new awards that more closely align with what you’d like to see?

As an RBA since RUSA’s inception, I see awards as tools to encourage and engage riders. Not every RBA has to use every tool in the toolbox, and it should be their option to decide which tools work best for their job at hand and the free time they have to donate. I do not believe any Rando award actually draws in non-rando riders. RUSA has not advertised nationally to promote randonneuring — much less its awards. Most of RUSA’s marketing has been done internally to existing members. It’s the RBAs and RUSA members who are bringing new riders into the fold, not masses of riders learning about the existence of the Rouleur Award and wanting to join RUSA to earn it. Awards are not acquisition bait — they are retention glue.

We all may have different perspectives. I’m not saying anyone is right or wrong — just sharing mine, and I’m happy to agree to disagree. We could argue about the merits of changing award rules, but my guess is that our time is better spent skinning this cat in a different way, and that our thinking is probably much more aligned than it might appear.

We’re all skinning the same cat: more smiling randos on the road. Let’s keep the toolbox diverse, the existing award contracts honored, and the RBAs as sane as possible.