Everyday Geography at the Green Mountain Relay
When I first started studying geography in school my family and friends were perplexed. “What exactly is geography?” So as we went about our daily lives, I’d point out situations that highlighted geographic thinking and perspectives - the map of tables in the restaurant and how wait staff were assigned, how exits were named on the highway, how we pick out landmarks, the countries of origin of our fruits and veggies… Once they “got it” I tried to stop pointing out those things because it got annoying.
Still, that “everyday geography” pops up now and then in my life and gets me thinking. This past weekend was a great example. I was involved in a relay race across the state of Vermont. Teams of 2 to 12 travelled the 198 miles on foot over the weekend. It involved lots of vans, signs, flashlights, cheers and geography! The event, at least for my team was decided low tech, at least as far as geography goes. Some geographic items that popped out for me:
- Our captain (a geo colleague) asked me halfway through how much technology I’d brought. I had a watch and a cell phone (not too usefuly in the wilds!). He was disappointed when I told him the laptop he saw was used by our two teenage runners to watch movies during downtime.
- I didn’t see a GPS on any runner and we certainly didn’t have one in the car. Instead, per the rules, we carried a full set of maps. They were color and a note inside said a cartographer was paid very well to create them so there was no reason anyone should get lost. The maps were great - mile markers were noted for each leg, along with an elevation profile and get this, cell coverage! There were turn by turn directions, points of interest and landmarks to determine how far along the runner was into the leg.
- I was impressed with how carefully my team members studied their legs before running to be sure they didn’t miss a turn. We even took to reviewing the map with someone else just to be sure we understood it. Some runners even carried a copy of the map, though rain turned some of these to mush.
- Where we knew there was a problem in years past, we reviewed the plan several times. Then, when the runner was on the road we realized we’d misinterpretted the route. So two of us got out (It was 2 am and pitch dark) to stand at the corner and point the way, not just for our teammate but all the runners going by. I have to say that they seemed relieved to have people, actual fellow runners involved in the event, reinforcing the signs. I’m not sure a GPS would have provided the same level of comfort. They also liked hearing about the next turn, which led to the exchange.
- Unlike other relays I’ve done, at night arrow signs were marked with blinking lights. Red ones for turns and green ones as you approached the exchange. That really helped, especially since volunteers were few and tapped for the most important safety and check in duties.
- We learned quickly that every exchange has a port-o-let (did you know of the regional variations for this term? I got a lesson from a runner who’d lived in the west and east…) and nearby a trash can. And, at major exchanges, recycling bins. We all got used to “predicting” where the facilities were at at any given exchange; we developed geographic intuition, so kudos to organizers for being consistent in the layouts!
- The best news? No one got lost. No exchange was missed. We pretty much depended on paper maps, watches and cell phones, and our own sometimes limited mental capacity, to keep everyone on track. There were no RFID chips and at the end of event we turned in paper documents noting each runner’s start and end times for all 36 legs. That entitled us to our official “medal equivalent”: a pin.
- The #2 spatial problem of the event (#1 was keeping the runner on the route) was “stuff management”: how to keep 7 people’s stuff in the van and findable! Anyone who’s travelled for more than a few hours in an vehicle has run into this. We got used to stinky shoes being, well, everywhere, but key things had immovable locations: the garbage and recycling bags, the cooler, the peanut butter… I slowly taught some of the new runners to prep a bag of dry clothes before they ran, so it’d be ready when they got back with no fumbling.
Perhaps I’m a bit of a luddite, but I enjoyed this low-tech adventure quite a bit and applaud my teammates for their geographic abilities at all scales.
