Dragon Boat West

All, I’d like some input on a possible format question.  Our race in Colorado is looking to create more of an identity to attract more teams, hopefully some of you.

This year the divisions will start and finish their races in one day. As an example, the club teams will all race on Saturday.  Sunday will feature the lower division teams.

The idea is to provide the club teams 6 races in a single day – quite a challenge for a single day race.  2 of those races will be 250m and 4 will be 500m.

Which format would you prefer to race in:

Format A:
Time Trial 1: 250m
Time Trial 2: 250m
Time Trial 3: 500m

Seeding will be based upon the lowest accumulated time (or some variation of that)
The next two races will determine who races in the Finals.  The final heat will determine champion and consolations.


Format B would split out the 2-250m races to a bonus round.

Race 1: 500m TT
Race 2- Based off seeding from TT
Race 3 –Determines finals and consolation heats
Race 4 – Finals and consolations

Race 5: 250m seeding – one race to determine seeding. Top 3 teams move to finals.
Race 6: 250m champion and consolation.

 Race format B would give you the ability to place 1st in both and/or a chance at redemption. No extra fee would be required – this is a luxury to the club teams. The same roster would be used for both races.

Please comment – what format would you rather participate in for a single day event?

6 races a day is really really tough, might even injure recreational paddlers unless they intentionally take it easy, and then would it be fun to watch?  But if you insist, I would do format A, even perhaps cut it down to 200m instead of 250m.  Doing four 500m races beforehand would leave paddlers with nothing in the tank for 250m races.

Happy New Year Stan! Hope you are doing well.

I concur with Illuminate on his feedback. So if I had to choose, Format A for me as well.

If not already done, you may want to download the race results/format from the Whistler Dragonboat Festival. Pretty close to the format A you propose. Albeit, it was over 2 days and they ran 200m qualifiers/prelim races with the 500m races for semi's/finals. I thought it worked well in terms of how they used combined times & race placements to determine advancements.

results can be found here: www.whistlerdragonboat.com

All the best for the 2011 season! Cheers.

I love sprints, so automatically I'm biased toward sub-500m races :D Format A!

6 races in a single day = *pssh pssh* (Whipping sound)
Have you heard of S&M?

I think 250m is an odd race length. 200m!

I think 6 races in a day is doable, but at the end of the day you might see a big separation between some of the teams who aren't as conditioned—which I know is part of what makes you a better team, but if you're trying to encourage more teams to participate, giving them a better chance of remaining competitive throughout might be in your favor.

That being said, it might also attract the more dedicated and competitive teams to your event — maybe even becoming a marquee event. Though there may need to be some other form of incentive to draw teams at first, but it could work.

But yea, I love to sprint too. So I voted for A

Speaking of (de)conditioning... I've developed a nice layer of cushion to avoid gunwale burns  :shock:

Thanks for the feedback.  This is good info. We will consider the injury side of it. I was basing this primarly off my team's conditioning with the understanding/expectation that teams would prepare for the 6 races. Perhaps we can allow an extra alternate or two to compenstate.
-stan

Happy New Year to you as well! How is the offseason treating you? Unfortunatly we are covered in snow and the earliest we can take the boat out is April - with nice cold water.

Thanks for the link, I have downloaded that schedule and will be reviewing.
Keep in touch!
stan

You hit it - we are not only looking to provide good head to head competition, but one that will bring the best out of everyone with a gruling day.  We race at a mile high - we are trying to create an identity to come throw down for 6 races in high altitude.

Our hope is this will draw interest considering the challenge we hope to offer!

LOL- I am usually at this point after the holidays. This year was more disciplined and I am in better shape now than I was during the racing season. Still a way to go though!

I too would prefer format A.

When you refer to mile high, where exactly is that located stan?

Denver, Colorado....it's nicknamed the "Mile High City" because Denver's elevation is exactly one mile above sea level. It certainly would make for an interesting challenge to race at high altitude!  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWU8XWksg_0

I thought it was denver..everytime I watch a nuggets game, the commentator always mentions the high elevation lol

LOL  :shock:

so people outside of denver actually watch nuggets games? 

Thanks Doc.

Maybe we can woo you to bring your team out this way sometime....

the "occasional" game lol