Gear Bin Saga

Posted by Grant on 3. August 2009 23:33

If we were to survey Untamed New England 2009 racers, and ask them what single facet of the race gave them the most pre-race headache, I'm sure many would point to our gear bin arrangements.

Since our race did not require a support crew (support crews are a huge hassle for teams), teams were permitted to leave gear with us, the race organization. We would stage the gear along the course at designated locations. Each person was allowed 1 "personal" gear bin and each team was allowed 1 "team" paddle bin; the paddle bin would be staged before and after paddle legs, the personal bin would be staged independent of paddle legs.

Fairly straight forward, right? Races have done this for a long time. No big deal.

At our previous races, we laid down specific requirements for the volume of the gear bin that would be permitted. This sounds easier to enforce than it actually is, as advertised container volumes can be unreliable. It turns out a 24-gallon bin can actually hold 30 or more gallons, or depending on how the volume is calculated it might hold more like 20 gallons. As our 2009 Untamed New England race had something like $15,000 cash and prizes on the line, including prestigious AR World Championship spots, we didn't like vague limits to the amount of gear somebody could bring. I could envision a situation where a team protests because Winning Team X had a 35 gallon "24-gallon" container -- and brings the legitimacy of the race into question. The "fuzzy" volume approach wasn't going to cut it.

So we decided to put a firm weight limit on the gear bins: 40 pounds for the paddle bins and 30 pounds for the personal bins. It was an arbitrary number, but one we tested out and felt comfortable would permit racers to stage changes of clothes, a bit of food, and some other key equipment. There wouldn't be extra space, but this was a sensible baseline to work with.

This drew so much fire from participants, I never would have expected it. Granted, some would say my sense of "reasonable" is somewhat skewed, since I look at 2 miles of rocky hills with an old trail on it and think, "let's have teams portage their boats to start the race through this, and mix in a few orienteering points while they're portaging too" -- Untamed VA 2008. The examples of my distorted reality are numberless . . . but I digress. It was in the midst of this pre-race griping by teams about the weight limits that I seriously considered abandoning the gear bins altogether, and having teams carry everything except their paddling equipment. I've raced where you don't see a manned checkpoint for 3 days -- let alone a staged box of fresh equipment for you -- so the gear bins struck me as a total luxury to begin with.

About this time, one of our staff people commented that "the sport of adventure racing is hurt by the complaining of adventure racers." Her point was that if adventure racers were as resourceful and resilient as they purported to be, this shouldn't be much of an issue. Instead, she saw this gear bin question as getting blown out of proportion; to her, it made the sport look like squabbling marathon runners upset that the aid stations on the course only had water and oranges instead of cookies and calf massages all around!

I'll just leave it at this: the weighted gear bin requirement was blowing some minds. Was it really possible that our race was the first to put a simple weight limit on this sort of thing?

Now that the race is over and we can learn from experience, I stand by our decision to limit the weight of the bins. No, racers couldn't put 4 pairs of shoes, a spare bike, or gallons of water in their bin. But there was room for the essentials and just a bit more -- and that "bit more" had teams strategizing and carefully planning around their equipment. It rewards teams for packing smart and light, and being resourceful.

Why pack water in your gear bin when you can purify water any time on the course? The weight of water will add up very quickly.

We require teams to have tarps or shelter as part of the equipment they carry with them at all times. Why put a tent in your gear bin when you're carrying a shelter in your backpack for the entire race?

There's no room for multiple sets of clothes: probably just one change of clothes besides paddle clothing (remember, the paddling bin is perfect for handling paddle-specific clothing). The race is just 3-days, folks, how much clothes can you change into?

We did learn some valuable lessons and, in the future, we will do some things differently. We'll avoid the cheap digital scales we used for weighing the bins -- that took way too long and, since teams understandably waited until the very last minute to hand in their bins, this compounded the problem; we'll use a scale like the this instead. I've also devised a scheme where we reward teams who have their bins under the weight allowance on the first weigh-in (15 minute head start?); this would reward the teams who are organized and come prepared to the gear bin drop-off.

We'll probably increase the weight limit from 30 to 40 pounds for personal gear bins; this is just a compromise based on feedback from participants -- we can't ask our staff to move 50 or 60 pound bins for teams (although some teams seem to have the desire to stage that much gear!), but we can do 40 pounds. I know, I'm too soft on racers.

Some suggested that having one 40-pound paddle bin for teams of 2, 3, and 4 people was unfair. They pointed out that it should be a sliding weight scale based on how many racers you have. It is a valid point. When you're staging 200 bins of equipment, however, enforcing different weight rules based on the size of the team becomes a real headache. Besides, the Premiere division for the race is 4-person teams and any other team is out there in our "Open" division and not in the running for the main prizes; I don't feel too bad about this simplification. Maybe we'll change it, but don't count on it.

Am I the only one, besides our sponsors and the media, who liked a chance to relax before the race? Pre-Race Reception

One last thing to consider in all this is the pre-race schedule. We handed out maps and race instructions at 8 AM on race morning, with the race starting at 12 Noon. Teams were simultaneously plotting routes and packing gear, and it made for a frantic pre-race morning. Truthfully, the race began once the maps were distributed because the time was so tight to get everything done. In a perfect world, we could distribute the maps and instructions the day before and then race morning is just about collecting gear bins . . . but there are drawbacks to doing the instructions the day before:

Teams may find it tougher to make time for the race; we're effectively adding another day to the event by having formal race instructions going out one day earlier, even if it is at 5 PM for a race starting the next morning. From 5 PM on, in this scenario, the race will be "on."

We really enjoyed having the Long Trail Ale reception the evening before the race; it was casual, fun, and a no-stress way for teams to catch up and socialize. The media loved the chance to interview racers. It was optional, so a team arriving later wasn't missing anything critical to the race; but for teams who arrived in time this was a fun addition to the race experience. If we hand out maps at the end of the reception, would there be so much socializing and general "hanging out" that we saw this year? I doubt it. If we distribute maps etc as part of the beer social, there would be an entirely different mood and intensity at the event. Indeed, there may very well be no beer and no social!

So what to do? I like letting teams relax the night before the race; I like having a brief "social" window to catch up with some racers and staff. A concensus may be building, however, to provide maps and instructions (or at least a subset of maps and instructions?) at the conclusion of the beer social or later on that night. We could do the race brief at that time or save it for the next morning, after teams have reviewed their materials. This would probably mean a race check-in from 7-9 AM the next morning (where we just collect bikes and gear bins), with a race start at 10 AM. I'm just tossing out one scenario here, but under this particular schedule I see a very short night for most teams. I've been there, so I know: you review and digest maps and the race instructions, plotting and planning your course for the next day. You pack and repack your gear and, before you've had a chance to hit your bed, it's 4 AM and the sun is coming up . . . you're about to start a 3 day race in an exhausted condition . . . not my personal preference but some racers have indicated that they like this approach.

Truthfully, I'm just talking in generalities here because the final schedule will be set in part by the course and the specific layout of the race. Maybe we'll go with a night start next time? If we're handing out the maps at 5 PM now, we might as well start the racing at 12 midnight, right? That makes it nearly a 4-day race, then, doesn't it? Oh, what a slippery slope . . .

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Comments

Mike said,

I volunteer for enough races to know that the race director can never please everyone. So don't worry about pleasing everyone. The amount of racers who return to run your events again and again is testimony to the quality of races you put on.

An my input: keep the weight limit as is, it adds another layer of strategy and decision making to the race.

Keep up the good work.

Troy said,

As an organizer I totally agree with the last comment, you will never be able to please everyone, your return the next year speaks volumes to the quality of your events.

Staged gear bins? No support crew? If you didn't use this approach we wouldn't be able to race, so we will meet whatever weight or size limit you impose. We will pack accordingly and we will know that all teams are facing the same challenges. Nuff said.

Complaining and whining? It was very dissappointing to hear the premiere teams complain and whine about everything....this is adventure racing, you are ambassadors of our sport, we look (looked) up to you and try to learn from you. What did you teach us?

Thanks Grant, we will be back and we will bring more people with us.

Cheers until next year
Team Natural Selection AR.com

Jonathan said,

Don't change on the weight requirement. I thought that worked great. Life out of a box is fine. Our biggest challenge was rearranging the morning of when the "purpose" of the bag and the box shifted a bit. We had perfectly trimmed our stuff the night before and all of the comments regarding amount of clothes and not packing water weight were pretty obvious. Cowboy up people! It became obvious when instructions were passed out that the paddle bag was more like a mini team gear bin. It took us a couple shots to dial it in. If we had a leg outline (no utms) the night before we might have been packed perfectly first time. But that's not a big deal at all.

I'll do anything to avoid support crew wrangling. It puts in more adventure.

Grant said,

I, too, have been thinking about a "leg outline" that we would provide a day or two prior -- this way you would know how to organize yourselves and pack. Might be a good compromise.

Eric Cone said,

I'll second the "leg outline".

I'd also like to have the option of checking in the Sat Phone and Shelter on Wednesday since they tend to be at the bottom of a pack.

Chris Yager said,

I wouldn't change having a weight requirement; I though it worked out quite well. It adds even more strategy in to the event planning. Things were a bit crazy with the gear shifting to the paddle bin, but that added to the excitement. There actually was plenty of time to get everything set but during the process it never feels like enough.

And definitely stay unsupported; I don't think you'll find too many people saying anything otherwise.

I am a bit confused though - no one else had a spare bike in their bin? I wondered why I had so little room for food. Time to rethink my strategy a bit.

Eric Cone said,

With the amount of spare bike parts in our seatpost bags, we could of just about made a spare bike! We just needed a frame and wheelset. ha ha ha

Mike said,

I think it would be hilarious to see something like a Bike Friday stashed in someone's bin for emergency use

Grant said,

I know people were rolling out of the start with lots of stuff taped/strapped to their bikes and to themselves. I'm betting there were some interesting wrecks on that opening bike leg.

It would be fun to weigh every racer at the start (including their pack, bike, etc) and award prizes for the heaviest. That would be some very interesting data, too!

Eric Cone said,

My pack at the start was around 40lbs. Bike around 35lbs.

The extra weight actually kept me from wrecking a few times by keeping my back wheel on the ground vs endoing. My other two teammates weren't as lucky with endos.

An optional weigh in would be fun. You may want to do that without the gear for medical reasons (get a base weight for racers).

Grant said,

No no no -- we've gone around and around with our medical staff about this and don't see the value in getting pre-race stats on racers. In a perfect world, we'd have weight, blood pressure and other vitals . . . but it's not practical and it'd be more about covering our asses than it about improved safety on the course.

Jill said,

A volunteer perspective:

Personally, I loved the prerace outline as a volunteer and microorganizer. We had all the teams checked-in within 40 minutes - amazing! - and I think everyone was through gear check in about 30 minutes after that. So, teams had around 90 minutes before race start. It's not a ton of time, I know, and I definitely appreciate this; but I've always seen managing gear check in as part of the race challenge (for teams and for us!). To note, we did have teams lining up BEFORE we arrived to set up check-in (<< 6 am). Getting through check-in early was clearly part of these teams "strategy", and I salute them for it.

Would a leg outline distributed the night before fundamentally change the frantic pace of race morning? I'm not sure...one tends to fill whatever time that they're given with activity. We'd also have to ensure that we did this in a fair manner for all teams (traveling that night or not, with email access or not). Tricky but not an impossibility. I could probably get behind this as a compromise.

Wednesday evening anything "race" related is such a slippery slope and honestly, I'll push pretty hard to avoid it. As a race organization you have to offer the same advantage to every team, right? Which means that we could be doing phone and tent check for up to 45 teams the night before the race, which we need to secure a location to accommodate it and staff up, which means we need volunteers early, which means that everyone is "working" a day earlier. It seems like a small thing to do for racers but it would essentially mean two temporally distinct gear checks. Sounds gratuitous. From a purely selfish perspective, I also can't tell you enough how nice it was to drink a Longtrail, eat dinner amongst relaxed teams, catch up with old friends and get media and volunteers up to speed on the course flow on Wed evening. Was wonderful and would take a lot to snatch those blissful slow-paced hours away from me.

Personal Gear Bins weights; I'm still a bit mystified by this and I'm a little relieved to see such logical feedback (although you may be a biased bunch ). Agree with Grant, we'll seriously improve the logistics for weighing in bins next year. But, jeesh, it's hard enough to con your friends, parents, and friends-of-parents to take vacation time, travel up, and drive around a UHAUL with a few hundred bikes and bins around winding mountain roads. ...but it's simply unreasonable to make them schlep bins around that weigh 50-70 lbs around for 3 days. Bin weight limits (30-40 lbs) just can't be up for negotiation.

Nevertheless, Kudos to teams that suffered the bin weights and took this aspect of the race in stride...and special accolades to those that didn't abuse our volunteers at weigh in...

May your SPOTS always be transmitting and your satellite phones in range...

Jill

Eric Cone said,

Now that you mention it, getting pre-race vitals wouldn't help because of the remote locations most injuries/illnesses occur. If someone is dehydrated or hyponatremic then getting to a hospital is far more important than knowing the persons pre-race vitals.

I'd be fine with the check-in the way it was IF we had a leg outline for the first 24hrs of the course. I would only do an outline for the first 24hrs, keeping the last 48hrs unknown. May be I need to figure out an easier way to pack those items and keep them dry.

Love your last comment, it complements Grant's "may your maps always be dry!" ha ha ha

Russ said,

Yep - you need to be strict with the racers. Make the same rules clear to everyone for fairness but be strict. Have a cutoff for handing in the boxes before maps so we only have to concentrate on one thing at a time. Races are rarely won or lost on the contents of a gear box, but when there is no racing yet the racers minds will focus on this too much. They need to learn that 'less is more'. Less clutter, faster transitions. Give racers access to the scales to weigh their own before handing in and yes have a time penalty for late boxes. After 2 practice years this is how ARWC 2007 worked for Wilderness ARC. From memory the weight limit was similar for a longer race and for similar reasons - safety for the volunteers. Just stick to your guns!

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