Discussion: 12WRC 2014 South Dakota Entry in Phase Two

Registration for the World's Rogaining Championships opened on November 1st for all participants. Preference was given to pre-qualified entrants until November 15 with Phase Two of registration. The 24-hour experience in the past two years requirement is no longer applicable to team registration after Phase One.
As of November 15, 136 teams of 289 participants from 16 countries had applied for World's entry. The competition is shaping up very nicely with excellent athletes from across the globe. The top five participating countries are USA - 11, Russia - 40, Australia - 33, New Zealand - 32, and Canada - 23.
It's going to be an awesome event, even if I am a bit biased. Check the event website, peakassurance.net, for details. The Blog often includes photos from the World's course. Come see for yourself.

Sure that's a typo for the USA participant count... or, are the Russians coming to take over (North American rogaining)?

I suspect there is a digit missing, though I did notice that the 2 Russian teams registered in our class each had 3 members, so maybe there is a plot afoot......

Thanks, Cariboo Silvertip. Yes, some organizer must be typing too fast...

The USA count was running about twice as much as other countries at that time, but yes the Russians are making an excellent presence. The current Top 5 Country Count is USA - 119, Russia - 42, Australia - 33, New Zealand - 32, and Canada - 26. We now have a total of 17 countries represented, as Norway joined us also! We have surpassed 300 entry applicants and climbing. It's going to be a great event - an excellent course and spirited competition!

Welcome all and keep `em coming!

How can the Russians afford to travel all that way?

An equally inoffensive question would be "how come Americans can suddenly afford to pay a $125 entry fee"?

$125 is still pretty cheap, in terms of dollars per hour (well under $6/hour). An Ironman Triathlon is $675 and has no shortage of participants.

AR typically cost $200-250 per person for the same 24 hours.

And there isn't a 24-hr all-you-can-eat buffet.

But T/D is right. I've been a proponent of higher rogaine entry fees but it's a relatively lonely point of view.

Several years ago, I remember following (online) a race in South Dakota with spot trackers. Is there a chance that those will be available for this event?

You buy or rent one and embed the track in your webpage... am I missing something?

Yes, you are. How about organizers rent the whole set and tracking site and distribute one for each team. Team pay $10 - $20 per person to cover the costs. Or a sponsor covers it.

Why SPOT if TracTrac most likely will do OK? I hear there is decent coverage.

Back to sidetrack...

Nominal GDP per capita of IRF member nations (IMF estimate), USD 1k/year

1. Australia           67.3
2. United States       51.7
3. New Zealand         38.3
4. Czech Republic      18.6
5. Estonia             16.7
6. Russia              14.3
7. Latvia              13.9
8. Ukraine              3.9

This isn't PPP adjusted, I don't believe that PPP is meaningful for purposes of comparing income available for travel and leisure.

I don't know how it all works. I just remember following online teams in South Dakota and it was really interesting.

My teammate was asking about how we could track our route, and I thought I'd ask.