CTR 2011 Detour due to trail closure
Sometime on the afternoon of the first day of the 2011 CTR, the US Forest Service decided to change the status of a short portion of the trail from "expect delays" to "closed" due to safety concerns of a contract crew removing hazardous trees. This closure was a surprise to everyone, and the first racers arrived, quite literally, minutes after the closure had been posted. Riding a closed trail is obviously in violation of the 3rd rule of the CTR: Don't break the law. However, the 1st rule of the CTR is: Race ... along the entire CTR route. I was able to post an "official" CTR route change sign a few hours after the closure.

This has been quite a conundrum as the detour is 1-3 hours faster. I don't feel it is fair to DQ riders that rode the closed trail because they were concerned about not having an "official" time in the CTR due to a course deviation. However, I also don't feel it is fair to give a time penalty to racers that rode the detour since it became the official CTR route shortly after the trail closure.

Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a perfect solution here. While I know it will aggravate both sides, particularly racers that may have been leapfrogged, I have simply let the finish times stand. Hopefully this will set the precedent for future CTRs about decision making mid-race. As I said from my "soapbox" at the start of the race, or something similar anyway, "Imagine every racer making the same decision as you. What is the impact? Now imagine there are 1000 racers making the same decision. Choose wisely!"