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| Riders follow me out in the Europa Cycles shop van as the first Trans Iowa got underway. Image courtesy of Dave Kerkove |
Now, you might think having any cutoff is unfair, and not "how you or anyone would run an event", and that is perfectly valid and good reasoning for you. However; I will remind you of the influence of Mike Curiak again and tell you that "this event wasn't for you". So, with that said, here's why we had that set up.
Jeff Kerkove, as stated previously, was a 24hr endurance racer and as such, was very familiar with cutoff times. In fact, Trans Iowa was at first possibly going to be a 24hr event, but a quick session of math in the very beginnings of the event's life made us realize that was "super-human" territory. So, we had to rely on Jeff's knowledge of what it took to complete a 24hr MTB event, what sort of mileage was possible by the average finisher in the solo category, and then extrapolate that over our initial course length, factor in weather, cue sheet navigation, time for stops, and possible mechanical repairs. We arrived at a "ten miles covered every hour" formula to figure what time to set for the half-way checkpoint cutoff and for the overall time stamp of the event. Since T.I.v1 was shorter than any Trans Iowa afterward, the cutoff overall was 32 hours.
The cutoffs also did two other very important things- It kept riders moving, no time for sleep, and less temptation to cheat. Secondly, and most importantly, it kept us from hanging around all weekend and into Monday waiting for riders to finish. We had jobs to get back to, and vacation time wasn't a thing for either one of us. We already were spending a lot of money out of pocket, and losing a day of work? Not happening.
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| Drop bags, used for one year at T.I.v2, were an influence from the Dirty Kanza 200. |
We did not agree to use a loop course until v3 simply because the first DK200 happened after T.I.v2 However; I think the DK200 announced the drop bag thing ahead of T.I.v2 and we could see why drop bags made sense. For us, this eliminated the "pit crew" style support we observed during T.I.v1, and how some folks had escalated this into a highly organized part of their rider's experience while others did not have any such support at all. This disparity was a negative in our view, and we could see that if we allowed the practice to go unchecked, it would quickly become an outlandish situation. We already had folks running food orders, massaging riders, tuning up bikes, and swapping out clothing and gear. Jeff realized immediately that this was like the "best funded solo 24hr racer pits" and that this sort of thing was a clear advantage to have over those who couldn't afford such amenities. So, a simple drop bag was all the support you could have at v2. Whatever fit inside the drop bags we provided was what you could rely on.
Volunteers were another sorely needed addition to v2. Obviously, with Jeff's parents running the show at the checkpoint, and with Jeff in the event, I was left alone to run interference for the riders on course, looking for possible issues, and also to be a course observer in the end, with little to no sleep, and absolutely no experience in the matter at hand. This led to a very personal self-criticism when I felt I had fallen asleep briefly and allowed the winner, Ira Ryan, and second place Brian Hannon to go by me at my observation point without notice. What I didn't know, and would not ever have known without stumbling upon an obscure link on Ira Ryan's old custom bike website, was that he and Hannon did not go by me. You can read the details in my old post on Trans Iowa Ten Years Of Tales #4.
This fact led to all sorts of issues with myself and the Decorah folks, namely Richard "Deke" Gosen, who was pretty upset at our lack of organization. It should also be pointed out that had we been on the ball, like we eventually were for T.I.v14, Ryan and Hannon would have met the same fate as Gleason, Zitz, and Tomasello did. It wasn't that we were unwilling to enforce the rules we had, it was that we were incapable of doing so. That was on us, as I have said many times, so the results of v1 are official and only by hindsight and enlightenment from the participants after the fact do we get the true tale.
Anyway, I was impressed upon by all of those folks, by my experiences, and by my own pride to take things a few steps higher for v2. In fact, I had arranged for two folks to be "course watch dogs" nearer to the end of v2. I also had several folks lined up to be our finish line volunteers, but as everyone knows now, that wasn't necessary. Despite that, I knew that future Trans Iowas would need more folks to facilitate the running of a quality event. Thus the small crew we had at v3 and that continued on and grew until the last Trans Iowa where I had over a dozen volunteers.
Next: Changes And Evolution Part 2
I can't imagine running a 300+ mile event without some sort of cutoff time, you could end up being there indefinitely. For those events that I've done that have had cutoff times, 10 mph average seems to be the norm... although some folks are bad at math and don't actually include all the distance in their cutoffs times. For example, it's almost always the case that 100 mile race is going to be over 100 miles, often times by at least 10 miles which would be an 11 hour cutoff but I've seen more than one event use the 100 mile/10 time as the cutoff. Not entirely accurate since you're still 10 miles out at that point if going the required speed.
ReplyDelete@Rydn9ers- Or that was the intentions of the RD to make it so you had to hustle harder to get in under the time cut-off.
ReplyDeleteFYI- The "10 miles covered every hour" formula we used was not "10mph/average" speed, which a lot of folks get confused by. The formula we used meant you had to go faster than 10mph average speed- more like 12mph-13mph average speed- to make cutoffs. So, by effectively raising the necessary average speed by using a certain cut-off, you are either making the race more difficult, or compensating for favorable conditions. Speaking from an RD's perspective here.
The formula we came up with has been borrowed by many events, but not all understand how it works either, and there may be issues with that. But in any case, it is an arbitrary, subjective decision, and it isn't really anything comparable for events- one to another.
Any potential competitor/rider that is considering an event has to do their homework, and decide whether or not a particular event's set up/rules agrees with their proclivities and sensibilities as a competitor/rider. If riders demand that sort of thinking be handed to them by RD's, then that's where "sanctioning bodies" come from. Otherwise, complaining after the fact is a moot point. If you agreed to sign up- you should have seen the rules, thought through the event's requirements, and asked any pertinent questions ahead of the event.
That's my thinking on the matter.