Volunteers Needed
for the Bandera Endurance Trail Races
at the Hill Country SNA in Bandera TX
9-13 January 2013
Wednesday-Sunday
The race Directors of Bandera are Joe & Joyce Prusaitis. They also drag along a small herd of thier family, some of thier kids, in-laws, out-laws, distant relatives, cousins, friends, and who ever else they can cajole into this project. They focus their attention on the proper care of the volunteers so that the volunteers can focus on the runners. Every volunteer gets a shirt and gets fed. Main concerns this year are the aid stations. All of them are in need of help. Also need some glow stick hangers, course markers, course guides, car parkers, etc. There are quite a few jobs needed to manage this race effectively. Most of them are listed below. If you’d like to help, please let us know. We’d love to have your help. Please call or email and note the day(s), time(s) and means to contact you (name, phone, email, when to call)
Email: or phone: 512.294.6456


6 AID STATIONS: All of these stations have different hours that need staffing.
LAST CHANCE Roger Davis open: 7:30am Sat
close: 5:00am Sun
BOYLES Needs Somebody
water only for 25km/50km use		 open: 7:30am Sat
close: 9:30am Sat
CROSS ROADS Dinty Moore
Bottle Sox 		open: 7:30am Sat
close: 3:00am Sun
NACHOS Bill Gardner
Run In Texas 		open: 7:30am Sat
close: 8:30pm Sat
CHAPAS Paul Stone
little Rocky & Hogs Hunt 		open: 7:30am Sat
close: 10:30pm Sat
LODGE Doug Ratliff
Alamo Running Buddies 		open: 7:30am Sat
close: 7:30am Sun

The aid station responsibility is the care and feeding of the runners. The aid stations will be set up and tore down for you. You need only show up and manage it during the race, i.e. (1) Hand out food & drinks, (2) Keep the table stocked, (3) Cook hot foods/drinks, (4) Make sandwiches, (5) Cut oranges, melons, bananas, (6) and do whatever you can to take care of the runners. One person needs to manage the stock (you need to know at all times what you have and how much). Inventory the stock to see what is low, missing, or in excess. Somebody else will be constantly checking with you to see what needs you have. You should know before they ask, as they are covering every aid station and will only be there for minutes and then gone. Keep in mind that foods and drinks that are in demand early may not be later on. Some things go fast early on and then something else goes fast later on. After dark is when hot food and drinks become more critical. New this year: I would like to keep a few hot foods available during the day. You do not need to tear down the station, but please clean it up and pack it up when you get down to the last few runners. Make it ready for the Course Control guys to tear down.

AID STATION SUPPORT: (Mark Licatino)
Stock & Support the aid stations. Also, manage the drop bags. 5am Saturday until noon on Sunday. Also: Stock the aid stations.

Pre-race stock can be done with a crew of 2 people. Aid station support is minimal early on, as they should already be set for a few hours. Time can be taken to arrange the drop bags. Later on, one person can check on the stations, while another gets copies of the drop/finish list, while another can run into town if there is a need.

Pick up and deliver the water & food to each station. Constantly check all stations food/water to make certain they have what they need. Go to the store for additional supplies when needed. Get what you need before you need it. This is a support job only. You do not need to put up or tear down the stations.

Pick up all drop bags at 7:00am on Saturday. Organize the drop bags numerically (separate 100km, 50km, 25km). Check the (DFL) Drop/Finish-List once and hour. Bring back all drop bags from the list. Take one copy of the DFL to each aid station.

COURSE CONTROL: (Henry Hobbs) handles pre-race & post-race.
1) Mark and manage the course. Place all course markers (signs, ribbons, trail blocks, wrong ways, glow sticks). Tear down all course markings after the last runner. Course ribbons, directional signs, trail blocks, & wrong ways (Wednesday-Thursday). Do whatever is necessary to control the direction of the runners. Every effort is made to make it so obvious that anybody can follow the route. Glow sticks are done later in the day: the entire course is covered before it becomes dark.

2) Put up each aid station: includes tents & tables. (Best done on Friday: my concern is with the wind). Put them up and tie them down. These are not difficult but do take some time. Each tent is best done in teams of two. I have a new plan for CrossRoads, as runners will be coming at it from two sides and leaving in two different directions. It will require 6 tents. We will set up 2 early on, then take 4 more from the lodge after dinner.

3) Tear Down: occurs in a rolling pattern following the cutoff or the last runner (whichever occurs first). Care must be taken to not take down anything that might be also used on the return route. This includes all course markings, blocked trails, trash, and aid stations.

4) Trail Guides: at key intersections early to make certain every person goes the correct way on the first loop. There are a few key intersections.

(guide1) start the 25km and then follows the 25km to the first turn. Change the blocks and the signs so that the route is changed and nobody can possibly go back the way the 25km runners came from. This guide then follows the last 25km runner over Lucky peak and into Last Chance. Then this intersection can be changed at Last Chance. The 100km runners will always turn toward Cairns Climb, same as all these runners did. But all the 50km/25km runners on the next time around will go strait down towards the Lodge. We already have all the signs. Its simply a matter of blocking & unblocking, then moving some signs. Continue behind the 25km runners until they get to Boyles. Boyles is a temporary aid station. Once you get there, then all the 25km runners have passed thru and this station can close down. Relase the station and then continue behind the last 25km runner to where Guide2 sits and waits. At this point, you are done. You can head back home now. Should take you about 2 to 3 hours.

(guide2) sits and waits at the intersection of Trail#1 and Trail#5. All 25km runners must turn left and all 50km/100km runners must turn right. Once Guide1 gets there then you are both done and you can hike out with guide#1. Both guides are done at this point.

WedCourse marking
ThuCourse marking & put up aid stations
FriFinish marking, cone the road, signage for drivers
Sat morningsend out trail guides to key intersections
Sat 2pmStart glow sticks
Sat 6:30pmstart course tear down behind the last runner

All of these jobs are best done in teams. Work in tandem so that you can cover more ground working opposite directions from one other and to join up again later. This is true for marking, station setup, trail guide, and tear down. This crew is the busiest and best suites those who want to get in some running. You will likely cover the entire course many times. With teams and shift work, depending on who can work when, this can go all race long or just for shifts depending on what each of you can handle. Might be some overflow between this job and Aid Station support if you get bored.

RESULTS & DATA BASE: (Kyle Wilkie)
a) Manage the database.
b) Work with Late registration to input final entrants
d) Post partial & final results.
e) Create award winner lists for each race.
f) Work with the radio operators live during the race to manage and generate (Runner Position List)
g) The goto guy during the race to find out WHO is WHERE.



PACKETS & REGISTRATION: ( Ann & Weldon Glockzin )
This job covers many small parts and covers different time periods.

1) Packet Stuffing: includes the bags & everything that is stuffed in them. All materials are collected and stuffed long before the race. Race info & sponsor flyers.
2) Shirts: Race shirts need to be sorted by size and race (100km, 50km, 25km) and then split between pre-registered and ‘what is left’ for late registration. Shirts are only stuffed if every race bag has been labeled with name and shirt size. Typically this is not done, but does save some time during packet pickup at the expense of using your time in advance to do this.
3) Packet Pickup: Handout of packets and shirts to all those who have pre-registered.
4) Late Registration, packet distribution, and data entry.
This job needs somebody on Austin initially to collect all the materials (bags, flyers, shirts), to organize a small group to stuff all the bags, and then to transport all this together to Bandera. Packet Pickup & Late registration needs two groups of 2 people each to manage this on Friday from 2pm until 7pm. Packet Pickup and Late Registration occurs again Saturday morning from 5:30am until 7:30am. After late registration is over, all the new data needs to be entered into the database. Once this is done, this job is done.

MEDICAL: (Jonathon Judge & Troy Lischka)
And finally we get to the most important job. We are always in need of medically qualified personnel (Registered Nurse or Paramedic) to be on standby for simple medical emergencies or mishaps and to provide medical aid. Usually, we only deal with cuts, scrapes, stings, and occasionally with hypothermia after dark when the temperature drops.

The event runs from Saturday 7:30am until Sunday 7:30am, but typically, there is little for the medical staff to do. Different shifts will be worked out dependant on how many people offer to help and which shifts they can work.

MAPPING & COURSE CERTIFICATION: (Chris Matus)

a) Make certain of the course distance (for each event)
b) Verify distance between aid stations
c) Create the offical Course Map
d) Create topos and profiles
e) Of course, there is no official certification process for any TRAIL race, but this is about as good as it gets.
f) I asked Chris to describe in detail the techniques we use... and this is his desciption: (Keep in mind: he wrote this description a few years ago, so although the course has changed, the distances and our method have not. We have had occasion to put three odometers on a single bike and carry multiple gps units.

Measuring any off-road course can be difficult and inaccuracies will occur. By implementing a variety of techniques and measuring tools, inaccuracies are kept to a minimum. It is near impossible to have an off-road course be {spot-on} in terms of distance. There are too many variances in the terrain. But, we have worked very hard in verifying the distances for each section of the course and for the overall distance for each race.

A few years ago, we began with this method: A mountain bike fitted with a Cat Eye bike computer, calibrated and verified for accuracy, was used as the main field-measuring device. The sensor was mounted on the front wheel and great care was taken to keep the front wheel on the ground to assure accuracy. This required pushing the bike in the rougher sections. A Garmin GPSMap 76 GPS unit was also used. Its main function was to gather the track information for map making and elevation purposes. The other function the GPS unit served was to double-check the distances from the bike computer. The GPS was set to collect a point every 3 seconds. The course was ridden in sections and the distances were then put together to come up with the total distance. The data from the GPS unit then was downloaded into the GPS TrackMaker map-making software and all the erroneous points were taken out. The software uses elevation gain and loss for figuring distance. The reading was within 1%.

Additional resources: USGS 1 meter Digital Orthophoto Quadrangles: DOQs are a digital mapping product that combines the geometric qualities of a map with the detail of an aerial photograph. DOQs are derived from a scanned aerial photograph that has been corrected so that the image displacements caused by camera tilt and terrain relief are removed. USGS Digital Raster Graphics: DRGs are digitized versions of USGS 7.5 minute topographic maps

Now-a-days, we do this differently: I have a 6ft professional series rolotape measuring wheel (model 623) that I use. I walk the entire course and take exact measurements to the foot. Because the park changes the trails now and then for erosion control mostly, but sometimes for other reasons, I go out and remeasure the entire course each year just before the race. I asked a certified measurer who measures many of the road race courses in Texas with a Jones Counter to check it for me. I told him what I was already doing and he said it would be redundant. That he couldn't do any more than what we are already doing. He could not certify any trail course anyway and said it would be a waste of my money.

We use a GPS to lay down a track for map making purposes, but do not use a it for distance verification. All our numbers come directly from the wheel. The course is as accurate as we can make a trail race. We dont make any assumptions and we double check all our work. Chris Matus who has worked in the mapping/GIS field for 12 years has worked with me from the beginning. Having run this race 4 years, and directed it 10 years, there are no surprises or unknowns. The measuring of it is a slow meticulous process. I make it a point to be as accurate as is possible. I changed the course significantly in 2009 and since then, it's been pretty much the same. I am well aware of the times being posted on this course, I am actively involved with USAT&F and understand the need for accuracy for records. I also understand that although this course is not certified, I make it a point to make it as accurate as I can.