Whilst this race is different to past years in so far as the distance travelled is not the main focus, but it provides its own frustrations where the completion of cards can potentially be impossible if the cache you need isn't locally available (be it through not existing, muggled, or moved too far out of reach). Compared to previous years where you effectively had to play to your own disadvantage to participate if you were a cache owner, this year's you score when you move a cache was a good idea. The competitive aspect is unfortunate, but I suppose unavoidable when there are prizes on offer, but I'm not sure its that much worse than last year, expect perhaps the large and out-of-the-way (ie suburbia) inconvenience aspects seem up to me - but then I'm probably even more active as a player in this year's race than last year so on the balance perhaps its not that big a change?... I wouldn't say this year was a failure by any means, it's been hard work and I'm close but still not managed to complete a card (and have doubts whether I will with the current cache placements), but I will still chase the caches that I haven't yet found, but where the caches are too large for easy moving and the number isn't necessary for my cards, what's the incentive to move it?... Having said that, I have "rescued" previously moved caches where they were in seemingly "unsafe" or out-of-the-way places too. I don't know how many kilometres I've clocked up in the game so far, but its hundreds, probably over 1000 by now.
I guess a problem with, or rather a feature of, this year's race has been the reliance on a particular cache being accessible and available, whereas in previous years any cache was fair game. Muggle loss, moved out of reach, etc. all potential problems. Slow moving-on/logging still an issue, poor choice of hides up on previous years (some I'd say weren't actually hiding...)
The thing about these races, and I include previous years too, is the fact that they provide a completely different way of playing the caching game, and I feel the experiments with different game-play, rules, themes is a great thing. Sure, there are issues with the sheer scale of the continent and the tiny liveable areas we inhabit getting in the way of the game (eg movement between states) - challenges to try to address for future races I hope. Perhaps some form of post-race debrief/evaluation to see what works/didn't work for participants?
![Shhhhhhh :-$](./images/smilies/eusa_shhh.gif)