Picture from Planet Ultra

The first Hoodoo 500 is going on this weekend. It’s 519 miles in Utah with about 30,000 feet of climbing. When it was first announced, I was thinking of doing it. It’s closer for me than a lot of the ultra road races and there’s some great scenery. Of course I never got in shape this year and it’s all I can do to make it through easy 100 mile rides.

The solo racers without a crew started at 5 AM this morning and racers with a crew started at 7 AM. Teams started at 11 AM. The standings are being updated regularly. The standings page also has links to pictures that are being updated throughout the event.

The course is of the caliber for Race Across America qualifiers. Planet Ultra told me that they had wanted it to be a RAAM qualifier but isn’t because it was scheduled too close to the Furnace Creek 508. The UMCA has a rule stating

The UMCA will sanction one qualifier per section of the country / continent in a given season. No new qualifier will be sanctioned that would take place within approximately 1000 miles and two months of an existing qualifier.

I can understand the rule for all the other RAAM qualifiers. Most of them have 10 or fewer racers but the 508 has reached it’s field limit the few years. I can’t see that the 508 would be affected much by the Hoodoo 500 being a RAAM qualifier.

One thing that the Hoodoo 500 has done different from the RAAM qualfiers is to have a separate category for solo riders without a crew. The only RAAM qualifier that doesn’t DQ somebody for riding during the night without a follow vehicle is the Adirondack 540. It is also this weekend. They don’t have a separate category for riders without crews. When I did it in 2005, I know some riders doing less than the 4 lap RAAM qualifier were doing it without a crew but I think everyone doing the RAAM qualifier had a crew.

Although I think a race like this is doable without a crew, you certainly can’t be as fast without a crew. I also haven’t studied this race well enough to know how much water you’d need to get between places to get water. I know on some courses such as the 508 you would need to carry a lot of water at times.

I know people have mentioned to me that they would like to do something like a RAAM qualifier but either thought they couldn’t get a crew together or couldn’t afford a crew. It is expected that the rider will pay all crew expenses. By the time you pay for a hotel the night before and after the race plus travel expenses, even for a 3 person crew the costs can add up. I think it’s great that Planet Ultra decided to give racers the option of doing it without a crew.

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