Anyone participating in the Global Autostop Race 1st round?

[sovietsleepover]

I just realized there was one in Europe (where I'm traveling now), and emailed to ask if my brother & I were elligible even though we're Americans. I was looking around on their site at the lists of Russian teams, and almost everyone seemed to belong to a hitching club. Now I'm feeling worried that they will've all learned the amazing secrets to quick and efficient hitching and we'll be busy getting our ankles dirty with road dust..

[tobobear]

Yes the Russians and Eastern Europeans have an advantage.

They have an advantage, this makes me irritable.

I am a child of the cold war and was in the army in the 80s during Reagan years. It irks me to no end to think that the enemy I grew up with (who is now an ally) could possibly beat us in Hitchhiking.

We need teams, we need quality hitchers, we will train, we will coach them, we need to beat the Russians!!!!!!!!!!

Better Dead than Red and all the pap I was fed as a kid, lets win one for the Gipper.

Toby
(I do find it kind of surreal to travel to Eastern Europe and Warsaw Pact countries knowing they are now members of NATO, they trained to kill me, I trained to kill them, and now we train to together to kill someone else).

[elguero]

the "trip" for me was crossing from east germany to west germany in 1999. there was a highway sign advertising that we were entering a different state, and that's it. if someone in the car hadn't pointed it out, i never would have guessed that i had crossed the wall.

[sovietsleepover]

at first i was really excited about participating in this, but i only started hitching about six months ago, and the idea of arriving a whole day later than the rest of the groups (or something equally silly) kind of puts a damper on my enthusiasm! plus i'm just winding down a 3 week hitching trip (the fourth & fifth weeks are mostly lazing about and hitching every several days--i even took a bus today), and don't know if i'm ready to spend a week being Serious About Hitchhiking so soon!

i've never really hitched for speed--the only time i'm concerned about getting somewhere fast is when i'm waiting on the side of the road in the cold and hating it; then usually i want speed precisely because no one's picking me up.

(edited for clarity)

[tobobear]

Here's the deal:

there are a lot of hitchhikers, like me, who have obligations that keep us off the road for the race.

Anyone willing to do the race, and then go on, will have a nation of hitchers encouraging them and offering help and opinions.

This is the olympics of hitching, if you are willing we can encourage you and with a little luck you can win.

If you are a first time hitcher and interested, we will hook you up with a team member who knows the ropes and will show you how to do it. So even a novice can quickly get up to speed.

When you get to the world race, you will have an advantage, an American Passport, you will get easily across borders while other teams are stalled. So you will get ahead on that, the caveat is that there is special rest time devoted to border crossing, so you may go through faster, but it may not help your total race time.

good luck

Toby

[Frank_NL]

Just to bog Toby...

[img:80304c2a3f]http://fkserv.ugent.be/slavia/z3.jpg[/img:80304c2a3f]



And as Atari Teenage Riot from Berlin yelled out... [b:80304c2a3f]"the wall is still between east and west..."[/b:80304c2a3f], but hey, it is a real underground moving band...

[elguero]

and, really, arriving a day later than the competitors wouldn't be all that silly. the teams are likely to be spread out over a few days. and, i really hope you don't think you have to be embarrassed around the people who are putting this together (do i intimidate you at all?)......

[tobobear]

Here is a reality check.
The race across the US last January had some interesting results.

Morgan, the guy who created and runs Digihitch, finished dead last. He never got out of Phoenix, all the other teams made it to Georgia and Florida.

So really finishing a day behind, just means that you will be starting to celebrate your accomplishments and the other teams will be hungover, and you would still have done better than Morgan.

Toby

[Salman]

Yep, I came in dead last on the Scavenger Hunt. (I'm Morgan, by the way). I was burntout and wiggy from all the festivities and organizing the week and months before.

As I've said on the site before-- when your mojo is on the decline, get off the road. That's what I had to do. Hitchhiking competitions are fun, but a person has got to watch out for him or herself.

As for the Global Autostop Race-- it's definitely not for everyone... just those hitchhikers who want to challenge themselves like never before. There will be few 10-minute gaps between racers. 10 hours, more likely. But everyone who completes the race is a sports hero in my book, and we'll sing their praises on digihitch.

[tobobear]

Sorry morgan I am trying not to totally dis you, I just want to point out that even if you finish dead last you still get a lot of respect around here.

Toby