Discussion: Billygoats in Australia

Sunday 5th July is the inaugural Boomer at Umuna http://attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_4057

As far as I know, this is the first Billygoat race to be held in Australia. Is this correct?

I think that there has been a few, including some in NSW.

I organised the "Turkey Traverse" in 2006 in inner Melbourne. Competitors caught the train 5 stops to the start from Clifton Hill to Ivanhoe. It was a mass start, covering 3 forested park maps (Darebin Parklands, Yarra Bend Park and Quarries Park), with a couple of streets in between. Depending on the course several controls could be left out, introducing the strategy element to the race.
The result came down to a sprint over the last 500m between Bryan Keely, Leon Keely, Jim Russell, Paul Liggins, Warren Key and Milo (Warren's dog).

Did Milo win?

Often a medium / shorter length version of a "goat" race is called a "kid." So would the corresponding Australian version be the "joey."

I was going to call it the Joey, but the long course is 13km, 500m climb, and while setting I've seen several large (as tall as me) WA Grey Boomers, but no joeys. Besides, Joey at Umuna doesn't roll off the tongue.

I have trouble understanding the enthusiasm for the concept. OK, I have never run in one, so this is ignorance speaking. I suppose the skill is in setting the course so that there are a lot of legs that could be candidates for being dropped out. But wouldn't this mean lots of similar length legs and a tendency to circle shaped courses.

What are the signs of good course setting for this variant?

I think you have to try it. First, the mass start and head-to-head racing are important in making the race what it is; if it was interval start, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun. Second, you can in practice force people to go to any control you want them to by adding a nearby control, so there are few constraints on what the course setter is restrained to do by the format. Third, for the runners, there is skill in deciding what to avoid when skipping - a technically very difficult control? one in a vague area? one with a trail route around from the previous control to the next one? one with a large climb? one near the end of the course so you benefit from pack running as long as possible? or near the beginning if you are slower and want to get ahead of the pack to keep having faster people passing you to show you the way into controls? the last control, because it's just cool?

IL here are a couple of examples of Billygoats from Peter Gagarin's website:
2007 http://www.petergagarin.org/2007/20070520(billygoa...
2005 http://www.petergagarin.org/2005/20050410(billygoa...
There's certainly a lot of direction and leg length variation in these, and quite surprising 'skips' by Gagarin.

I looked at those examples. I thought there was a consistent strategy... drop the second control 8-}

feet has covered most of the high points. I've only run a few 'goat events, but I'll add a few reasons to his list.

It's good training for running relays, especially when you have too few people to make an actual relay worthwhile---that is, if you have too few people, the relay becomes an individual race, not head-to-head.

Unlike most adventure races, there is no preplanning before the race. The race starts and the runners take off and start reading their maps, so there is a distinct advantage to people who can read the map well while moving. The skips and forks add to that advantage, because the people who are reading the map better can pick better routes and better skips, and be more aware of what the other runners are doing. There are a lot of stories where people who lost contact and/or decided to follow ended up disqualified because they didn't realize they skipped too many controls, or because the pack ran by a control and the follower didn't notice.

I understand the basic idea for the course is a longish M21 course with a lot of climb. Sometimes they're more grueling: Possum Trot IX, for example, is 14.8km with 880m climb. (But numbers like that can cause people to drop to the short course, so it's a trade-off.)

Here are some Possum Trot maps and a few of ebuckley's Absurdly Detailed Skip Analyses:
Possum Trot Archives

And here is ebuckley's 2006 race report for my club's goat event, the BillyPig, with map links.

Thanks for that cedarcreek. The event is on Sunday, and we actually have two visiting US sailors entered. Results and routegadget maps (and possibly some skip analyses - but not absurdly detailed!) will be at www.wa.orienteering.asn.au, hopefully by Monday. Also check the logs of APers whose names are on the AP event listing.