Crowd Sourced Marshals (CSMs) for The Munga

[The Munga]

Hey folks

 

We know plenty of you enjoy spending hours watching the blue dots on the Munga! Our unusual format makes certain aspects and rules difficult to police. Current Covid-19 protocols requires us to be a CSA sanctioned event and thus make use of a Commissaire. However, for obvious reasons, what the comm. can do is limited. When the winner crosses the finish line, the back marker is somewhere near WP4, about 700km back!

 

So, we are looking to maybe 'outsource' part of the marshalling function. What this would involve is simply keeping watch online on certain sections of the route where we know riders often go off track, and then reporting it. This is the basic gist, but we will fine tune it as we go. This forum can probably already think of a few folk who would meet the criteria, which are:

 

1. Remain neutral in the race

2. Have a good standing on the forum

3. Be prepared to watch the race online and follow the dots 24.7 for a 'shift' over a certain key section.

 

Will these people be paid? We are not yet sure. As a general rule we pay all our volunteers etc, but this is novel and may evolve into a thread where Joe public simply polices the section 24.7. 

 

Anyway, I look forward to your comments on the idea and if you are keen to be involved, please pop us a mail at info@themunga.com

 

cheers

 

Alex 

 

 

[Monark]

Brilliant idea.

[eddy]

Would be happy to do so, but can only meet the first and third condition....

[AMH]

Brilliant idea.

 

Just the evolution of Marshall’s really. Trying to solve a complex problem.

[Rowl]

Keen to know more, will drop you an email.

[Shebeen]

Paid dot watching, SARS will be excited!

 

Is this to actively identify people off course to send them back or just to flag transgressions(or both)?

 

I think your real answer is just to do it with geofencing software alerts, but if there's a thread/process with a report button I'm happy to click and alert when watching.

[JohanDiv]

I'm going to follow this thread. We've been seriaas dot watchers the last couple of years, but will only be able to commit to 24/7 dot watching later in the year. Might even still enter the race myself if everything I got planned for the year falls into place perfectly.

[The Munga]

Would be happy to do so, but can only meet the first and third condition....

 We will put you on the bottom of the list then!

[The Munga]

Paid dot watching, SARS will be excited!

 

Is this to actively identify people off course to send them back or just to flag transgressions(or both)?

 

I think your real answer is just to do it with geofencing software alerts, but if there's a thread/process with a report button I'm happy to click and alert when watching.

One of the key focal points in the race is safety. When a rider has spent 40 hours on their bike with no sleep, they often fall asleep on their bike! This is fine when its on a lonely dirt road, but obviously another story on a busy tar road. So most of our 'detours', while they may seem like a stuff around, they are really because we want to avoid the above scenario.

 

As an example, the two tar sections before RV2 in Britstown, and RV3 in Loxton. In both cases the route turns onto tar roads, and then within a kilometre, turns back off the tar road into the veld, on a farm track. These are easy turns to miss for a rider. So these sections would be red flagged for you guys, and the minute you see a rider missing this turn, you alert the 'chain of command' and we try and get hold of the rider, or inform the rider when he gets to the RV that he has a time penalty. 

 

This is a working idea, but that is pretty much the gist of it. We don't have the resources to monitor every rider over 24 hours over those sections, hence reaching out.

[Pure Savage]

Nobody on here is in good standing on the forum. 

 

We do have someone which 90% agree on is the worst though.

[Shebeen]

One of the key focal points in the race is safety. When a rider has spent 40 hours on their bike with no sleep, they often fall asleep on their bike! This is fine when its on a lonely dirt road, but obviously another story on a busy tar road. So most of our 'detours', while they may seem like a stuff around, they are really because we want to avoid the above scenario.

 

As an example, the two tar sections before RV2 in Britstown, and RV3 in Loxton. In both cases the route turns onto tar roads, and then within a kilometre, turns back off the tar road into the veld, on a farm track. These are easy turns to miss for a rider. So these sections would be red flagged for you guys, and the minute you see a rider missing this turn, you alert the 'chain of command' and we try and get hold of the rider, or inform the rider when he gets to the RV that he has a time penalty. 

 

This is a working idea, but that is pretty much the gist of it. We don't have the resources to monitor every rider over 24 hours over those sections, hence reaching out.

cool, makes sense and i'm sure the resources are out there to help.

 

As long as the emphasis remains on navigation being part of the required skillset to compete. Even following a gps breadcrumb route needs training. don't ever make this a hand holding safety net and dumb this down (please)

[Danger Dassie]

Forward thinking idea, keen to see where the concept goes. All the best.

[GhostSixFour]

Sounds like something machine learning would be able to do

[dirtypot]

I like this idea.  I spend ages dot watching anyway, so this would make it even more interesting.

[dave303e]

You know you can automate this as a digital function with a GIS geofencing query and a few other spatial/non spatial queries.

 

Geofence a small buffer around the route and as an athlete leaves that area set up an automated alert. You can activate no go zones where you know mistakes are made as separate triggers to warn you of mistakes.

 

Then you can also set up digital alerts for other safety reasons the same way they do with the iritrack at Dakar. If a rider is stationary for a certain time period outside of a designated stopping point you can set up an automated alert. Bear in mind human dot watches between 2at 5 am are going to be iffy at least.

 

These set ups are fairly common in a few industries and fairly reliable. 

[Dusty]

Silk Road Mountain Race has similar concept. Every rider is allocated a dot watcher who literally can be anywhere in the world. They watch your dot from a safety perspective. I'm still in contact with my 'watcher'. Great idea.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Dusty