Complaints and Suggestions for Improvement: RTWR 2007!

[MM 426]

Hi all,Lots of good suggestions so far. We're all going to work together to make the Race work better each year. (Of course, not everything will be to everyone's taste...)One common reaction was that the Race was too long. People were simply exhausted at the end. The exhaustion factor clearly needs attention.Some have suggested running the Race mostly over two weekends. With a 3-4 day "time-out" in mid-week. Would that help people who work? Would it reduce fatigue? Would it break the teams' momentum?What would be everyone's reactions to such a suggestion?Best,Mike

[Guest]

no, it would break the momentum.2 weekends would mean effectively 2 days, taking into account that when it's saturday just past midnight in Europe it's friday afternoon in the US, and when it's sunday evening in the US it's monday morning in Europe.So you'd have to start the race saturday morning in the US and run it to sunday evening Europe time which is sunday morning for the US...The first few races took less long because there were less objectives to be met.The 45S requirement combined with the tons of bonusses in Chile and Argentina effectively stretched the race this year by 24 hours (especially combined with the 8500ft rule over half the world which caused a lot of lost time as well).Mind I like the idea of such bonusses and requirements, but in the concept of a round the world race it's too much of a good thing.So either give the teams more freedom in routing and aircraft choice and reduce the incentive to go to far off locations to pick up bonusses. Currently it is profitable to take a 6 hour detour to pick up 10 hours in bonus time for example, multiply that by 4 occasions and you have a full day extra duration on the race just to get some bonustime.Or reduce the length of the race. Organise something like the London-Melbourne race, which goes halfway around the world.That would likely (with something the bonusses and restrictions imposed now) be a 3 day race.There are many alternatives to that of course. Anchorage-Terra del Fuego is a nice one, flying all along the American continental spine.Or Reykjavik-Beijing.

[Guest thespazzz]

I for one would hate to break the race up. Start it and run till its over. To force a "break" in between to me would kill the whole thing.Personaly I don't mind the exaustion factor. It's part of the fun. But I also perfectly understand that most people can't afford to take a week off work for the race.I agree there needs to be more freedom in race routing and planning. And the Altitude Restriction needs further refinement.I'm not sure how to feel about the overall time it takes to compleate the race. One one hand not everyone can get time off and run for that long. On the other I was sad to see it end and wished there had been more opportunities for myself as well as others race. Though if we start adding in other events throughout the year that might take care of that.

[buzzbee 52]

I agree with Spazz. Breaking it up would sort of defeat the purpose. What I really enjoyed was the multiplayer aspect and the challenge agains the other websites. It might be a lot of fun to have shorter individual races.