bigs backyard hour 4:
team
i got a chance to take a first look at the team scoring.
it doesnt mean as much right now,
because there are still technical issues to square away.
a couple of teams havent managed to post results yet.
a few more are still getting it figured out.
but most of the results are coming in…
the leaderboard is most interesting now for one reason;
timing people belong to a culture that requires everything to be ranked.
the backyard poses unique challenges in that regard
because the actual time is almost meaningless.
but timers cannot cope with showing 40 teams all tied,
they MUST be ranked.
and so they rank them by elapsed time.
i see right now that team czechia is “ranked” first.
meaning their team is running the fastest yards of anyone.
guess what.
fast yards are the kiss of death.
last year that was hungary,
and hungary had the early lead as the last team with 15 athletes standing.
but then faltered as the fast laps took a toll later in the race.
i see that they have learned from experience.
a more judicious hungary is a little bit frightening!
just as a benchmark,
the US team is dead last in the time standings.
and still the favorite to win it all.
of course there are teams already behind the US.
i feel bad for those teams.
they had team members not show up to run.
now, some were unavoidable.
over the last week,
since the rosters were frozen
with a thousand athletes involved sometimes things just happen.
i know of a covid and a dengue fever loss.
those athletes cannot help missing the race.
a man fell from a scaffolding
and a woman was stopped at the border for passport issues.
things happen.
but many of those teams are handicapped by someone who did not feel a responsibility to their teammates.
the remainder of the team is going to do their best.
but team backyard is a team sport.
even one missing member puts the rest in a big hole.
