Okay everyone. You have until Wednesday to comment on this one. On Wednesday evening, the final decision will be made on the points table and I will begin making the tags for the upcoming race. If you have a suggestion, please post a comment and it will be considered.

The preliminary points table has been adjusted from last year. Checkpoint caches are now gone, point values have been adjusted, and some new goals have been added. Here’s what we have:

• Visiting a cache – 1 point
• Every 100 miles traveled – 1 point
• Crossing state/country borders – 2 points
• Pictures – 5 points
• Exchange with a trackable – 10 points
• Visited cache Difficulty or Terrain greater than 2.5 – 15 points
• Attending events – 20 points
• Earning an FTF – 25 points
• Attending a CITO or MEGA event – 30 points

After some consideration of some of the ideas that have been suggested I will be introducing a new idea for the 2010 race.  Each month will have an additional monthly goal.  Goals will vary and typically require some kind of verification (photo verification will likely be common).  Points awarded for these goals will vary depending on the difficulty of the goal.  Hopefully, this will help keep things lively, adding an extra layer of competition for who can get the bonus goals.

So if you have another idea, let’s hear it.  Again, you have 48 hours from now to come up with an idea and present it for consideration before the final decision is made on the 2010 Points Table.

TripCyclone

Some of you may have heard about the Great TB Race on Twitter. Likely because I have posted a lot of notes about it lately. For those who don’t follow me on Twitter, I am…bet you couldn’t figure this out…TRIPCYCLONE.

Last night I was in the Christmas spirit. So, I announced a contest to begin at 7 PM CT. The winner of the contest would win free entry to the race. In other words, I would send them the tracking number and activation code for one of my spare TB’s and give them an option of several items to choose from. They pick an item, they activate the travel bug, I drop it into the Check-In Can. No TB purchase, no shipping…free entry.

To enter the contest, you had to answer a question. The question was “When was the official start date of the 2009 Great TB Race?” In the three hours I left the contest going, I only got four entries. Being nice, I gave one bonus hour. Still only four entries. So what is the correct answer?

Originally, the race was to begin January 5th, 2009. That was at the end of October 2008. By December, I had changed it to January 7th as the planned start. But, as the original race rules stated, the race would begin on the publication date of the Starting Line cache. The publication date of that cache, called THE GREAT TB RACE STARTING LINE, was January 8th, 2009. That was the answer to the question. Two out of the four entries had the correct answer. Only one of them one, using RANDOM.org to draw the name.

So, with that, let’s welcome Tenchi_kun to the race. His travel bug is awaiting activation.

Anyone else who might want to follow me on TWITTER, you might see some additional contests coming between now and the end of the year.

TripCyclone

For those new to the race, or those who have been following it for a little while but didn’t know about the banner photo, here’s the scoop. The photo of all the travel bugs that acts as our banner was taken before the start of the 2009 race. The photo shows almost all of the racers that took part in the race. A few are hanging on the edge of the giant ammo can in the background, but were cut off in the automatic cropping that WordPress does.

By the way, if it isn’t readily apparent what the size of that ammo can is, consider this. On the far right side of the photo, near the back, you can see Scooby. To the left of Scooby is a large tan bag. Just to the left of the bag is a Batman Pez Dispenser. Most of you can easily imagine the size of a Pez Dispenser, so compare what you know of that to the size of the ammo can. Yeah…it’s BIG! When the 2009 race started, it was about 2/3rds full of all 81 travel bugs.

For 2009, this ammo can was placed in Kansas City as an actual cache. That won’t happen this year, but it will still serve the race. The ammo can is acting as our official Check-in Table, and will help transport the travel bugs to Dallas. As travel bugs arrive in my hands and processed, they will be added to the 2010 TB CHECK-IN. If you want to see whether your TB has arrived at it’s destination, this is the location to do that. The page has already been updated with a list of everything that is sitting in the ammo can right now. Travel Bugs sent to Dallas will be checked-in over the phone until I get down there in two weeks. Phone check-in will occur two to three times between now and when I arrive in Dallas.

One other update is to announce that the next Points Update for the 2009 race will occur next week, along with an announcement of who will be winning the MIA Prizes. Remember, the MIA Prizes are three free entries into the 2010 race. If you have already entered the race and you happen to win one of the prizes, you will have the option of having your entry redrawn for someone else or sent to you to replace the travel bug you used for 2010.

TripCyclone

As of right now, I have roughly 43 entries to the race, give or take a few as some cachers decide if they are entering one for the whole family or one for each member.  With this amount, we now have half the amount of racers as we did this year, and the race was only announced three weeks ago!  That’s pretty good.  Keep the entries coming everyone.  Just go to the 2010 Race tab above for entry information.

As each entry comes in, I have been sending out e-mails with a mailing address that you need to send the item to.  Next weekend, I will begin changing that mailing address to reflect the alternative destination.  This is merely an extra step to ensure that nobody’s travel bugs get left in Kansas City because they arrive late.  I will send out an e-mail to everyone who has already entered with the same alternate shipping address in case you are still waiting for your travel bugs to arrive in the mail so you can send it to me.

Over the Thanksgiving Holiday, the official starting line has been drawn. THE GREAT TB RACE KICK-OFF PICNIC was published. This event is to be held on New Year’s Day in Dallas, Texas. At this event, all of the contestants for the 2010 race will be released, officially marking the start of the race. If you happen to be in the Dallas area at that time, feel free to stop on by for food, activities, door prizes, and the official start of the race.

With that, I get back to my regularly scheduled, late night, weekend lounging.

TripCyclone

The goal of the Great TB Race is earning points.  In 2009, a simplified point system was used, with a range of point values from one to five.  Even halfway through the race, there were aspects of the point system I was already thinking of changing if I did a second race.  With entries for 2010 already coming in, it was time to address the issue of points.