Managed Wilderness Traverse event HQ at the McDougall Rec Centre in Nobel - These days, this mostly consists of:
- Reading and writing a bazillion texts with various volunteers - big thanks to 'Bent for the bluetooth keyboard that made this much less painful. The volunteers and I send each other tons of info about what's happening or coming up, and ask and answer questions throughout the race. This was almost non-stop for about 28 hours, counting the time taken to deal with the info in the texts. Sometimes my phone would go off 3 times in a minute.
Texting replaces the unreliable, expensive race radios we used to use. The one disadvantage is that people don't overhear other conversations so we lose the chance for someone to jump in and say, "Hey! I'm nearby and I could help out!" Otherwise, it's much better. I have a written record of all the conversations so the system is much less prone to error.
- Updating the leaderboard, team statuses, and short course info - we aim to do this near real time, subject to the ability of our CP volunteers to send us info. I follow a lot of races and hate that leaderboards are usually stale and unreliable so this is one of my pet projects at WT. Because the tracking was wonkier than usual this year, the leaderboard was extra important.
- Talking with real live people who come into Race HQ - volunteers and occasional members of the public (although I'm afraid I am often too busy to be sociable). Thankfully, Clean and 1L were able to help.
- Responding to mesages from DeLorme devices, most of them from racers.
- Problem solving - This is the "meat" of the HQ role - the part I love and hate the most, the part that is most like racing. It's a bit like emergency department triage; what needs to be dealt with first? And how to do it with limited resources? Example of one such moment when our only roving driver was out on another call:
(1) The 3-member volunteer team at a key CP had just discovered a broken headlamp and had no spare batteries for their other headlamps, which were already dim. The sun had just set. Stores were now closed.
(2) The TA farthest from HQ was running low on water for the racers, couldn't find a place to refill, and was in the middle of nowhere. All our water containers were out on the course already so we couldn't fill something up and take it to them.
(3) A team had dropped out at the far end of the race course and wanted a ride back to Nobel. Dropped-out teams are wet, sometimes chilly and definitely ready to get off the race course. Often it takes some coordination for our driver and the team to find one another if they have not dropped out at a CP but luckily this team was at TA2.
OK, quick, solve these problems without leaving the arena! :) With the help of roving driver Tom Koster (two-time 2nd place finisher at WT and owner of a spare headlamp) and Bob's awesome gas station shopping skills, we made everyone happy over the next 90 minutes.
There was one potentially serious injury - a freak accident where a racer jumped onto one end of a log and the other end flew up and hit him in the head. He and his teammate are very competent outdoors people and strong athletes who handled the situation well. He was able to finish the trek but soon after that, his teammate and our medic team decided to call an ambulance to get him checked out by the hospital. He was released and slept the rest of the night at HQ with his teammate waking him at 2-hour intervals. They were doing well and the teammate said they'd like to come back and finish next time!
Other than that, the biggest "situation" was a team that inadvertently used the 911 function on the DeLorme tracker in a remote location on the trek. Fortunately, after a few tense moments between Bob, DeLorme HQ and myself, they sent a follow-up message to say they were lost. Phew! It took a little longer to get in contact with them and help them out. Their cell phone battery was low, just to increase the challenge.
Although it was non-stop, the HQ role felt manageable this year because of the stellar work of my co-pilots on the HQ team, Clean and 1L. I just gave them access to our system and said "Go!", and they provided incredible coverage all weekend. They provided a staggering amount of real time info with photos on the WT Live Coverage News, Facebook and Twitter. It's well worth checking it out now if you're interested in seeing how the race played out. There are different stories on the Live Coverage News vs. Facebook but Twitter is similar to Facebook and less detailed. It may be worth searching for the #wtrav hashtag on Twitter to see what volunteers, racers and spectators have posted. The Breathe Mag team provided excellent coverage too with outstanding photography; we're so lucky to have them.
You can access all the different types of info from our Live Coverage 2014 page. Keep watching it as I post racer reports and more photos over the next week or two.
http://www.wildernesstraverse.com/live-coverage/li...
Much appreciation to our amazing volunteer team, to the racers for your ongoing support and - as always - a huge thanks to Bob for all that you do for the AR community.