This coming year brings several changes to the Wasatch 100!

Our next race date is September 06 and 07, 2024.

The volunteer meeting will be Tuesday the 3rd of September at the Sugar House Park, in our usual spot which is on the grass just east of the Lakeside Fabian Pavilion parking lot.  The meeting will be at 18:30.

At this meeting we’ll be discussing the changes.  The course is a bit different (close to the end).

The Wasatch 100 has entered a new phase of how the race is run and contracted with a company to provide runner tracking and times.  For many decades the aid station teams take the times and transmit that data to a central location (Net Control) where the data is provided to runners and crews.  We’ve improved these capabilities over the years, introducing a website to track runners. 2024 is the perfect time to introduce automated timing.

Gates and access points will be used to read in the times of our runners as they progress through the course.  These times will be transmitted by commercial means (cellular networks and satellite) to the company database.  A connector is then used to share the times into the Wasatch 100 system.  While the timing company will have their own website with additional functionality, our tracking website will be unchanged.  We consider our system the source of truth.

The Wasatch 100 system accepts the times and brings in other data from the aid stations.  It is the system of record for tracking the runners, overdue situations, leads, finishers, DNF (Did Not Finish), and all other aspects of the event.

Aid Stations are expected to operate the same as years previous, the only difference is that you won’t have to transmit times to Net Control…unless there is a problem.

We’ll be deploying the same packet radio network as we do every year.  Aid Stations should be prepared to perform all tasks as they have in the past.  Runner numbers and timing should be taken by the staff as a backup to the automated timing system.  Staff should be running audits of their data to look for gaps in the automated system and then pushing any missed in/out times.  Net Control will also be monitoring the data and will call for fill-in information.

Another aspect of the automated timing is that it relies on chips or similar tools to “read” the runner passing into or out of a checkpoint.  It is possible that the “chip” fails.  If this happens, we won’t have information.  If a runner’s “chip” has failed, we’ll want to notice and warn the next aid station so that the chip can be swapped out.

Aid station teams may be asked to bring in the timing hardware and set it up.  Especially if it is a remote location.  Training for how to operate the timing setup is planned for the Tuesday evening (03 September 2024).  Please plan to attend.  It is possible that there could be some troubleshooting so please give your full attention to this activity.

Ultimately, our responsibility remains the same.  Keeping track of our runners and ensuring their safety.  Packet radio and voice radio will be used as it has in the past.  We hope that if the automated tracking works well, that takes some burden off of our volunteers and allows us to focus more on the safety aspect.

Runner lists will be sent by email to all of the aid station captains and lead radio operators well before the race. DNS lists will be available on the packet system after the start.

The race itself starts 0500 on the 6th of September.

Note that PEAK node on Ensign should not be used this year.  There is an issue on the UHF side.

Please check out your radio and TNC gear and let us know if you have any questions at [email protected]