Comments on: Route to Christmas: Day 23 2024

By: Jan Kocbach

Jan Kocbach — Tue, 24 Dec 2024 09:19:38 +0000

@Tapio: Ah, I am not talking about the legs I included in Route to Christmas, I am talking about the legs I looked at overall when searching for legs for Route to Christmas. If I’d taken the first 24 longer legs I found, straight would have been best for 23 of them. So I’ve tried to find legs where there are real alternatives from a route choice perspective. These are not the legs I’d want to run (as I enjoy more running in the forest than on roads and paths), but legs that pose an interesting route choice challenge. And based on the routes people choose, I think it looks like there was a nice mix?

By: Tapio Leino

Tapio Leino — Tue, 24 Dec 2024 09:14:16 +0000

Jan, obviously we don’t rate the legs the same way. I checked the routes of the leg winners (green routes on these 2024 legs), and only in 7 cases the winner had mostly (75% or more) been running in the forest. On 8 legs the winner had run approx. half of the leg using paths or roads, and only on 5 legs the winner had been using paths and roads on most of the leg length. Also there was 5 sprint legs. I was taking about the 5+8 > 7
The road and path routes can also be very interesting, of course!

By: Jan Kocbach

Jan Kocbach — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:16:22 +0000

@Tapio: More than 99% of the legs I have looked at are either legs where straight is quite obviously fastest or legs where several alternatives (including straight) are timewise equal, so that the route choice is not really decisive :)

By: Tapio Leino

Tapio Leino — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:03:30 +0000

Thanks for the latest 23.12. route choice problem. – Most of the earlier problems this year, and in many earlier years, looked like you would like to suggest us that in most cases it is better to go around using paths and roads (no matter how much additional running distance)?? – I did not like such route choice problems. This latest 23.12. problem returned my belief in selecting the straight route choices! – Well, not in the Alps region of course!