Latest message from Laz on Ulist:
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a few random observations:
1) it is awfully hard to get out any kind of post. the time constraints, even with two teams splitting the task just leaves almost no time (if we are to get the 3 hours of sleep and at least one meal a day, that it takes to be sharp)
2) team RY has the same problem, except worse. a 2-man crew, with only one vehicle. if they are not responding instantly to the demands of about a hundred bozos (who really have no valid reason to believe that they deserve a personal explanation) it might be because they have all they can handle to keep the run progressing.
3) given the tone and tenor of the commentary, why would they volunteer their data, anyway? I would not. the burden of proof *is* on the claimant. but they are not required to prove it to every person on earth individually...
4) monitoring the run does not mean dogging every step. most of the time we have been going a mile up the road, and picking the first *safe* place to wait, and watching the clock. some of the time, we go anywhere from a quarter mile up, and "hide" to watch them pass. afterwards, I make sure they saw we were there. that way they know we could be watching any time. it feels rather silly resorting to such tactics, but "trust" is not an auditing standard.... the route they selected was not the best researched, and a lot of the time, it is not even safe for their vehicle and the runner. it is not our objective to get someone killed. interestingly enough, the RY team greeted us with open arms. they wanted to be monitored. yesterday morning (about 3 or 4 am) they altered the route to take a better road, and called ahead to us, so we would not get separated.
5) this is the most inexperienced team imaginable to take on a task like this. one of the most amazing things is that they have gotten this far... and they are not even ready to kill each other. I will confess to having helped them out a time or two. (at least I hope it was help), it is just not in my nature to watch someone kill themself.
6) I can confidently say RY has covered everything since we got there on foot.
7) lost in all this was a truly inspired performance by RY today. (during my shift) he left Effingham at a painful walk, classic multiday deadlegs syndrome. he tried several times to launch one of those strings of fast miles that got him yesterday's total, but just could not get it going. he walked on into the start of serious heat. we had been doing the math, and it looked like he was dead meat. the only way he could get today's miles in was to start running, and his legs were shot.... then he somehow forced himself to run... and run....and run...until he managed to bail out his day, and have a chance to repeat the process tomorrow. rayk has a picture of RY during this stretch. I hope he can post it somewhere. it is worth a thousand words.
8) there remain serious questions about the first part of the run. I hope they do have the data that will present a believable explanation for all of the discrepancies. if not, the "record" (should he make it to NYC in time) should not be validated. even if he did the entire run, if the supporting documentation is not airtight, records should not be counted. ... I still consider this a possibility. my impression is that the RY team looked at the data going out on the tracker page as funsies, merely intended to entertain his fans and direct people to where he was. equally possible is that inexperienced personnel and loose organization will leave them without the documentation they need.... I do not know. auditing the data was not part of the assigned task, and there is not time to do so, even if it were.
laz