Discussion: Mass start races - to fork or not to fork, that is the question

At the recent 3-Day Fisbones Event in the Maritimes (which also featured the supporting event of the Candian Champs S/M/L) we had two mass start races. Stage 2 was a Farsta - three loops with forking on the first two. Stage 3 was planned as a chasing start but after consultation with runners and people that wanted to go home as early as possible we decided to switch to an unforked mass start.

Was it just me, or was the unforked mass start way more fun that the farsta?

In other words - was all the forking and tricky map printing I did for the Farsta just a load of wasted effort?

I am a big fan of the unforked mass start - not least because without the looping it allows for more interesting courses, that don't visit common controls repeatedly and aren't restricted by the length of each loop

They're different things, different atmosphere and strategy, both fun!

I agree with pi! Nothing wrong with an unforked mass start race. Especially when the number of participants is lower, so that differences in ability and forkings can mean you end up all alone otherwise.

More info - at the Farsta we had about 160 people in the mass start with 8 course options (2 loops, 2 forks per loop with 2 options per fork).

As far as I know after the first control everyone was "running alone" with the occassional merging. So basically, very similar to interval start and no impact from all the work I did as course planner.

In the mass start there were head to head races all over the place. Way more fun, way less effort.

If the Farsta is to be worthwhile, what are the parameters to be used?? Only on sprint courses in easy terrain perhaps?

For a farsta you need many runners of same speed and navigation ability if you want a tight race where the runners bump into each other at common controls and get an intense race experience.

I would say in virtually all North American races, the fields aren't tight/deep enough to warrant forking. The beauty/fun of mass starts is head-to-head racing, which is pretty much defeated if everyone is running on their own within 5 minutes of the start. Even in an unforked course, most runners won't simply "follow" as there is always the goal to get ahead of those around. Whenever I run with other competitors, I am always checking my map to see if there is a "better way" to go anyway.

We have been racing mass start in southern ontario for 20+ years in our OCup series (formerly called THOMASS). The beauty of our THOMASS format is that all categories 14+ race each other with a box of CPs on the course that can be taken in any order. Depending on your age group and gender you can drop a certain number of the 'box CPs'. So it is one course for most participants.Simple to organize and a lot of fun to race (and way more social given the head to head battles).

My wish for Champs races in Canada. With better names for marketing.
Sprint (interval start sprint)
Sprint relay (Canada west vs Canada east)
Time Trial (interval start middle)
Pursuit (chase start long based on middle no fork)
Ultra (mass start point to point with CP boxes as described above)

I'd say the farsta at Vancouver Sprint Camp works well and participants enjoy it. This is because loops are super short and there are around 100 people in the mass start. It's intense and you better keep track on your map to go to the right controls. Of course there is some spread but everyone has some others around them of similar speed to fight with.

yes, I think the Vancouver sprint camp farsta is the exception to the general rule that bmay points out. Usually the fields aren't tight/deep enough, but at Sprint Camp the clientele is more narrow than at most events, with lots of fast runners of more or less the same speed.

Of course - I am also open to the possibility that the forking I set at the Fishbones was bad and caused the problems. Perhaps I set the "tines" of the forks too far apart. (but if I hadn't then people would be running almost exactly the same course each loop)

The mass start was way more fun than I thought it would be, even for a slower runner like myself--normally I'm dropped so fast, it doesn't really matter. But this one had enough people and the visibility was so good that it worked well. I think the Farsta was good too - it is just a different kind of race - more relay like in my mind. We should do both.

Which leads me to the idea that has been churning around in my head for a few years now....maybe we should seriously think about bringing back the relay into the regular format. One idea I had was on non-NAOC years we should have a forest relay and then have a full sprint relay (club or province/state based) as part of NAOC.

Relays are incredibly fun and exciting and therefore we should be very careful as to not have them too often in North America. Once a year at most. If that.

I second Nev-Monster. Eliminating club based relays in Oz has proved an excellent way to diminish the enjoyment of the sport. Other countries could learn from this - Finland, I'm looking at you !

In Adelaide South Australia are club relays are 2 person each person running 2 legs, alternating each year between forest and urban. So meant to be fun and not too serious. Mass start adds to this.

That's similar to WA although teams can have anywhere between 2-4 people, mostly for convenience because 2 person teams means more teams for a club but not everyone wants to run two legs. There's no forking, just four different courses in each category (open or vets) or three in the 'mixed' category (mixed meaning one hard, one moderate and one easy course with a team of three).