Alta Cross Country Race Pacer Vehicle

[Matt]

I had the pleasure of pacing 4 cross country running races a couple weekends ago. 2 Highschool races and 2 college races. People were very happy to be paced by a vehicle that didn't have fumes and the coaches were super excited that I was pacing them. Total distance was 16 or 17 miles with about 60 % remaining. Here are a couple photos.

 

[Philip]

I do not understand why anyone would choose to run behind when you can ride up front.

 

[C5tor]

Looks like a cool application of the tech.

What pace were you setting? Let's see, a 4 minute mile would be 15mph, right? Hopefully your speedo was correct, and you haven't changed gear ratios, or the poor guys might have run a 3 minute mile pace or something!

 

[Matt]

haha I mostly just made sure they made the correct turns. Different races had different paces but it was closer to 10 to 12 miles per hour for the fastest racers. I do have a gear ratio change but have a running watch that tells me pace/speed.

 

[leeo45]

That is a cool application for the ALTA. I've run lead/escort for a few bicycle time trials and road races including an elite pro race on my ICE road bike. I tried to stay far enough ahead that the fumes wouldn't be an issue but an e-bike would be a great alternative since you could reduce the distance between the rider and yourself. This would improve the safety on the road since it would minimize the chance of a spectator, a car, or a farm tractor entering the race course in front of a rider after you passed. Unfortunately, the ALTA and most other e-bikes do not have the range except for possibly a very short time trial.

 

[Redwolf]

I would never have thought to use a foot race as an excuse to ride my dirt bike...

 

[Matt]

Running races it works well for because really it can pace most distances possibly even a marathon. It was a little too quiet, at times I had to yell ahead to people on the course to get them to move aside because they didn't hear me coming. Otherwise, it was great.