The initial 6 days of responses display a clear trend.

With the mean response to question 3 being well below 1, and the slim majority of responses to question 2 amounting to “thought about doing it but don’t have the skills/experience”, it seems clear that there are lots of folks, both past starters/finishers and aspirants, who have some manner of unfinished business with the Open.  Which is awesome to hear.

I’m keeping the survey open for the rest of the week.  With the responses to question 2 largely split on timing (Memorial Day is either great for folks or terrible, it seems) I am seriously leaning towards bumping the start forward 2-3 weeks, while keeping it in the Bob, and using 2019 to test out some manner of extra event(s) elsewhere.  Trent’s link to the Ultra Pedestrian Challenge was very timely, and while I think the mass start, no route format works well in the Bob, having ITTs on set routes makes a lot of sense elsewhere, especially in places with private land and/or permit issues.  Look for more news before the end of summer.