Allamuchy.....another view!

[C.Puncher]

I am Larry, of Team ChristPunchers. I have competed at Allamuchy for the past six years. I have done numerous trail maintenance hours on parks all around New Jersey, including Allamuchy, Clayton, Allaire and Six Mile Run.
I disagree with the early shut down. I was on the course from 9:25 pm to 11:00 when I arrived to scan and embark on the second half of my double. I was having a blast....... while the trail was difficult, it was not impassable. I was able to ride every down hill section, and had to walk some of the steeper climbs.......which was the case for a majority of the field dry or wet!
These conditions, by far, are NOT the WORST of what Allamuchy has produced in the passed years. Last year was the first dry race I've ever seen up there.
We all sign a waiver absolving the race promoters of legal liability in the event of injury. WE, as adults, and Juniors with Adult consent, have the responsibility to decide whether or not to ride or WALK sections of the trail.
The beauty of ENDURANCE racing, is finding out how much you can take, in the most extreme conditions. This includes, weather, physical exertion, mental toughness, exhaustion, hunger, and mechanical failure.
The last thrashing of Allamuchy (2007) was corrected in one weekend of trail maintenance, which would've been a more appropriate solution.
I have found the explainations for cancellation to be weak, and not consistent with the personality of a race I've loved, since my introduction to it.
There was NO look of Relief when the rug was pulled out. .....it was a look of DISBELIEF........

 

[smonice]

I 100% agree with you. I was just prepping for my first night lap when I heard the race was called. We were in the 4 man division and super upset about the decision to call the race. I think that if you enter a 24hr race, you need to be prepared for anything. As the summer has showed us so far, rain was going to happen and I'm not sure about anyone else, but I rode over 50% of my rides this year in the rain so I was ready for the conditions. Maybe a better solution would have been to change the course on the fly and possibly shorten it or something to avoid that middle section. I think the majority of the skilled riders that were still flying through the course would agree and say that canning the race was a mistake.

I mean seriously, I just paid all that money to ride a 24hr race and was only able to enjoy 10.5 hours of it.

Another thing that annoyed me was the decision at the team meeting to stop riders an hour early from going onto the course. It seemed as if they wanted to get off the site as quickly as possible and the rain gave them the perfect excuse to do so.

I was also annoyed that no one came around to the campsites to let the teams know what was going on. I thought that was very unprofessional.

After talking to the rest of my team, it would be highly doubtful to ever do this race again.

My 2 cents.

 

[zip]

I agree with Larry, During my daytime laps I was walking some sections and planned, in advance, which additional sections I would walk when it became dark and rainy. My one and only night lap , in the rain, was Fun! I was enjoying it because I was not taking any unnecessary risks just to shave off a little time. Remmember, who wins is the person who completes the most laps, and everyone was working with the same environment.
The trail damage was already done by the time the race was called.
The die was cast before the race even started during that "vote" to shorten the race to 23 hours. What kind of vote asks for "yays" and then decides without even asking for "nays". I couldnt beleive it.

 

[Fogerson]

I was also annoyed that no one came around to the campsites to let the teams know what was going on. I thought that was very unprofessional.

This torqued my ass too. By the time one of our riders hit start/finish, came to the site to tell us it was game over, it was clear that the decision was made and activities had been underway for a time to shut things down. It was a bit of a shock to walk the 30-40 yards down the hill and see the "guide ribbons" gone for the outbound riders from start/finish.

Somebody should've walked the grounds with a blow horn or something.

 

[elzoller]

I hate to be in the promoter's shoes, it was definitely a tough call. Compared to 2005 & 2007, this was an easier course in my opinion and the weather wasn't as bad as in those years either....they didn't cancel then. The storm of 2007, that Jim mentioned in the other thread, was EPIC and that was the must fun lap I have done in any race.

Is it just me or was it a big decrease in the number of participants this year?
The course was practically empty on my 'patrol' lap in the late afternoon and the lot by waterloo village was practically empty too.

I hope this decision doesn't make it worse for them. It would suck to lose the only 24hr race in NJ.

 

[mwlikesbikes]

I get the impression that the organizers coulda handled the situation better instead of "by the way, the race is over".
And what's with "voting" to stop riders going out at 11am? I think if the race went full distance people would've had issues with that.
I wasn't there so I can't give an opinion on wether or not they were right in stopping the race but it's pretty much expected that in the 24HOA you will have to race in the worst conditions possible.

 

[Panhead]

I hate to be in the promoter's shoes, it was definitely a tough call. Compared to 2005 & 2007, this was an easier course in my opinion and the weather wasn't as bad as in those years either....they didn't cancel then. The storm of 2007, that Jim mentioned in the other thread, was EPIC and that was the must fun lap I have done in any race.

Is it just me or was it a big decrease in the number of participants this year?
The course was practically empty on my 'patrol' lap in the late afternoon and the lot by waterloo village was practically empty too.

I hope this decision doesn't make it worse for them. It would suck to lose the only 24hr race in NJ.

I think its done. If attendence was down and they pull the plug like that, I don't see many coming back. I will wait for the last minute if not day of in the future.

 

[Bleeder]

You have to remember, we are all guests on these trails, they're not our trails, we make them and we ride them courtesy of Allamuchy BS Camp, The state parks and whatever land owners are trails are on. As such the promoters have to consider the interests of the land managers first. As riders we want more trails and more access, the only way we can acheive that is by keeping the interests of the land managers aligned with ours as a riding community. We are stewards of these trails, they made the call based on trails conditions, weather forecasts and considerations of the efforts of the volunteers that will be needed to bring these trails up to sustainable levels again. Race participants are not the only users, in less than a month, JORBAfest will be out there.

BTW, myself and another patrollers left at 11 to sweep the course for riders. One rider had to be extracted (one very pissed rider). Granted we're slow as shit and we bumped another team of patrollers at Cranberry Ledges but it took us until 4 AM to finish sweeping. Most of the single track is now double track, mud flats were unrideable, granted you could walk it but the organizers made the right call in consideration of the racers, the weather, the land owners and other user groups.

If you like events like this and you want to participate in other races in the future sometimes you have to look at the big picture and suck it up.

 

[idbrian]

The stranded pissed off rider sounds like an interesting story that should be elaborated.

 

[montclairbobbyb]

I hope this decision doesn't make it worse for them. It would suck to lose the only 24hr race in NJ.

R - It did rain harder 2 years ago, but we at least started the race with good trail conditions... This year I couldn't believe how bad the course was even before the race started...

I'm with you... this IS the only 24 hour race in NJ... Just be thankful I'M not the one putting it on, or you'd end up with something like... a "Mutant" 24-hour race on dirt roads all throughout Jersey, where the finish line would end at some shack in the Pine Barrens.... No, we've got to keep Paul and Dan in business....

BB

 

[elzoller]

R - It did rain harder 2 years ago, but we at least started the race with good trail conditions... This year I couldn't believe how bad the course was even before the race started...

I'm with you... this IS the only 24 hour race in NJ... Just be thankful I'M not the one putting it on, or you'd end up with something like... a "Mutant" 24-hour race on dirt roads all throughout Jersey, where the finish line would end at some shack in the Pine Barrens.... No, we've got to keep Paul and Dan in business....

BB

Will the mutant involve disco balls and aliens????? :hmmm: Just make it end up in a brewery....😉

 

[smonice]

Bleeder,

While I 100% agree with you about the trails, you have to take into consideration all of the time and money people put up to attend this event. They held a vote at the beginning of the race to end the race early, why didn't they hold a vote to cancel the race?

For some of us that do one 24hr race a year and are skilled enough to ride the course, even in these condtition, it was a shame to have this happen.

Maybe they should refund the 56% of the race fees, travel expenses, and food/drinks teams bought since that is the amount of time we were robbed from this race.

Anyways, the past is the past for a reason but trust me when I say I will not make the mistake of doing this race again.

 

[DanBrodeen]

Maybe they should consider an alternate course option? Once one gets beaten they start sending riders out on the alternate. Anything is better than ending it. There should have been an announcement at 10pm at least that the race would end soon to give everyone a chance for one more lap.
There is so much strategy involved in the 24, just because you have the most laps after 10 hours doesn't mean you will have the most after 24.

 

[mwlikesbikes]

Bleeder makes some great points. Am I right in understanding that some of the race was held on fresh singletrack? If that's true I'm not sure how well it would've held up in the dry.
As I said before, I wasn't there but the more I hear the more it seems to me that they made the right decision.

 

[gtluke]

I know a way to make it run smoother and up the attendance.
One word
maddawg

 

[Norm]

Am I right in understanding that some of the race was held on fresh singletrack?

I asked, and I'm told that's incorrect. Many thought the first bit of ST was new, but in fact it is just not heavily traveled. Generally, race promoters do not do that because the impact of a race on new ST can be disastrous.

 

[Kirt]

I asked, and I'm told that's incorrect. Many thought the first bit of ST was new, but in fact it is just not heavily traveled. Generally, race promoters do not do that because the impact of a race on new ST can be disastrous.

100% correct. Nothing new. That 1st bit was in the race last yr.

 

[Tommyklein]

alternate course

My hat's off to the course designers this year, but that's only when it's not raining. It had the perfect mix of climbing, technical, and singletrack all in one lap, but once it got messy it probably wasn't enjoyable for most people. A shorter alternate course might be an idea for years to come in case it just so happens to storm again. An alternate course could be mostly fireroad and singletrack that's capable of taking high traffic and tons of water, so damage is limited and riders are safer, although jorba does a great job every year to fix the damage and make it look like nothing ever happened. So what if it's not as technical and good as the planned course at least you can finish the race and keep more people happy. Just my 2 cents take it for what it's worth.

 

[Allamuchy Joe]

There is another way to look at it -- besides the course damage there is a ton of damage done to the bikes. Hundreds of dollars worth of damage sometimes -- new chains, clusters, rings, brake pads, pivots, bearings, etc. At that point, the mud acts as a lapping compound reducing your chains & gearing to crap. That costs a lot more than the 56% of the entry fee.

Hey, its the engineer in me.

 

[graveyardman67]

There is another way to look at it -- besides the course damage there is a ton of damage done to the bikes. Hundreds of dollars worth of damage sometimes -- new chains, clusters, rings, brake pads, pivots, bearings, etc. At that point, the mud acts as a lapping compound reducing your chains & gearing to crap. That costs a lot more than the 56% of the entry fee.

Hey, its the engineer in me.

Oh please. All I could think about was how I would destroy my "race only" Superfly. In the end I opted to just ride my Rig SS for fear of the days I would spend trying to get that baby back to "race" shape.