The
Trailblazers is an
online hub for adventure racing in the Southeast; they have a very
active online forum that's worth checking out. One recent debate
is particularly interesting:
link to TrailBlazers Forum Conversation. It asks the question, "Why plot checkpoints 'on the clock' in an adventure race."
I refrained from weighing in on the TrailBlazer forum, mostly because
it degenerated after about the first day or two of comments, but I want
to consider the question now and base it on my experience with
adventure racing.
First adventure race I ever did was the 18-hour "
Howl at the Moon"
in Florida, maybe in year 2000 (I forget exactly). Like I've said
before, Florida races always have whacky maps and instructions and the
Howl was no exception. We had points to plot but not on a UTM
grid -- they used a variety of Lat/Long, azimuths, literal directions
like "Bushwhack east until you cross a railroad track and then head up
to Simon's Swamp." Don't ask me which direction "up" was and, of
course, Simon's Swamp was not on the maps. Anyway, the race
started at 3 PM and they gave out the maps and CP instructions at 2:15
PM. Most teams had a good handle on where they were going by the
3 PM start.
The next few races I did were 12-hour races by
RacingAhead
(great races, by the way, but now under new management so I can't speak
to their quality). At the time, the owners of RacingAhead had
gone all over the world to race (Elf, Eco, etc). These were much
better run affairs than the "Howl" and these were all "Plot on the
Clock" races where the race started and all the teams rush back to
their cars, folding tables, and rulers to start working with
maps. These initial Racing Ahead events really shaped what
defined "a good adventure racing experience" for me and when we formed
HRAdventure we worked to emulate the great quality of
RacingAhead.
I did a race with a group from Ohio, Ambush -- man, that was lowsy and
the race fees were the most expensive I had paid. They gave out
8x11 photo copies of maps the race director had taken from his atlas
and desktop topo program; all points pre-plotted (and a couple
mis-plotted at that!). I won't dwell on the pitfalls of that
event, but suffice it to say I was unimpressed and didn't think highly
of pre-plotted maps. I've never done one of their events since.
A few months later I raced another event in Vermont that was all "plot on the clock" and had a great time.
I think I'll stop the history lesson there, before I get into my more
recent experiences with 24+ hour events. You should see the
pattern forming by now, anyway. Out of my first half a dozen
races, all the "plot on the clock" races were really fun and I had
somewhat less than stellar experiences with the alternatives.
To date, all HRAdventure events have had 100% "plot on the
clock." It's worked out fairly well. In hindsight, we
should've given the maps and CPs for the
Storm the Eastern Shore
race ahead of time -- the stakes are too high that a team mis-plots a
CP and ends up in either private property (they like their guns on the
Shore) or on some long lost island in the Atlantic. Too
risky. We've got lots of changes in store for that race, but
that's a topic for another time.
Our "short" courses have also always had plotting on the clock, which
makes for an intimidating first encounter with an adventure race.
I think, on the whole, our short course teams rise to the occasion and
appreciate that they're getting a more realistic taste of a longer
race, but I also think we could make plotting points optional for a
Short course. Maybe grid the maps for them?
So what? Do I have a conclusion, you're asking? Yes.
We're going to make some changes to the distribution schedule of maps
etc but NOT because a few people on the TrailBlazers forum asked for
it, but because
we want to maximize racers' time on the course for the Tidewater Traverse;
this year, like last year, the TT course is long and teams will need
every minute to beat cut-off times and alternate course
redirections. Some teams will be trying to out run darkness even
though we have long days in June.
Personally, I still really like plotting "on the clock" as it's
engrained from my early positive experiences with AR. I don't see
us going away from it entirely, but I do see us considering each event
and making our intentions known on the web page for each race. We
haven't updated the Tidewater Traverse page, yet, but let me give you
the scoop:
- Topo maps will be distributed at the team address the night
before (to allow teams to grid their maps and any other treatment they
want to give them -- maybe sleep with them under your pillow for some
navigation by osmosis?)
- Race booklet containing the CPs will be given out 30 or 45
minutes before the race start. Our hope is that teams will
actually read the booklet so that they don't end up DQd for a silly
oversight; 30-45 mins should also be enough time for teams to get a
good start on plotting points (I'm betting many will have them all done
in 30 mins).
- Race will start with distribution of the race passport
- Teams still might need to plot points in the course of the race, but I'm not saying anything more about that.
This is a significant change from our previous events where teams must
grid and plot and read the race booklet (at least theoretically) after
the race begins. Hopefully, this will be a good compromise and
regardless, it will ensure teams have an opportunity to ask questions
about routes etc before the race begins. We'll see how it goes .
. .