Milwaukee Area Fall Frenzy Race Rules and Guidelines

Aligned with the USARA Standard Rules

Authority and event-specific instructions. The Race Directors (RDs) have final authority to interpret these rules, assess penalties, and make course or cutoff changes when conditions require. Race instructions, maps, passport, briefings, and written race-day changes are part of these rules.

1. General Responsibilities

Follow all registration, gear, competency, course, and event-specific requirements communicated by the RD.
You are responsible for information provided in pre-race emails, written instructions, videos, briefings, maps, and the race passport.
Use only maps provided or expressly approved by the RD after the race begins. Travel on the course before the official start is prohibited.
Direct questions to the RD. Information from other staff is not official unless the RD has authorized it.
Comply with any request to acknowledge a rule, safety, or course change in writing.
Race numbers must remain visible. If attached to a pack, the pack must remain with the team.

2. Rules of Travel and Team Conduct

Follow the mode of travel, mandatory routes, out-of-bounds areas, and stage order shown in the race instructions, maps, passport, and briefings.
Never trespass. Respect private-property boundaries, posted signs, road restrictions, and all mapped out-of-bounds areas unless the RD expressly directs otherwise.
Team members must start, travel through, check in at checkpoints and transition areas, and finish together.
Teammates must remain within 100 feet/30 meters of one another and be able to communicate verbally at all times. One teammate may not run ahead to punch a checkpoint unless the entire team remains within that limit.
Teams may not punch or carry another team’s passport if the teams separate by more than 100 feet/30 meters.
If a teammate withdraws, notify the RD or staffed transition area. The remaining team may continue only at the RD’s discretion and will be unranked.
Any team withdrawing must notify a live race official at a staffed location or contact the RD using the information in the passport.
Treat racers, staff, land managers, spectators, and the public with courtesy and respect. Do not provide inaccurate or incomplete information or tamper with event equipment. If a checkpoint flag has fallen, rehang it.

3. Checkpoints, Scoring, Cutoffs, and Results

Visit checkpoints using the mode and stage specified and prove the visit using the method required by the RD, such as e-punch, passport punch, photograph, recorded clue, or completion of a special activity.
If a checkpoint or verification device is missing, document the location when possible and report it. The RD may consider backup-marker codes, photographs, testimony, and tracking data when deciding credit.
This event will use the scoring and ranking method stated in the event-specific race instructions and passport. Unless those instructions state otherwise, teams with more credited checkpoints rank ahead of teams with fewer, and finish time breaks ties.
Finish-line and intermediate cutoffs are those published for the event and are measured from the actual event start unless the RD states otherwise. Event-specific late penalties and short-course procedures will be stated in the passport or course instructions.
Initial results are unofficial and become official after post-race review by Race Directors.
Protests must be submitted in writing within one hour after the team finishes and will be reviewed by the RD.

4. Mandatory Gear and Safety Equipment

Carry all mandatory personal and team gear for the full event. Carry stage-specific gear for the full stage. Race staff may inspect gear before, during, or after the event.
While biking, every racer must wear a secured CPSC-certified helmet. Rear lights must be activated while riding on roads. A handlebar-mounted front light must be activated while riding on roads prior to sunrise or after sunset.
While paddling, every racer must wear a properly fitted and fastened Class I-III or Level 70, 100, or 150 PFD. Inflatable PFDs are not permitted. When paddling in darkness, illuminated glow sticks must be secured to each PFD and to the bow and stern of each boat.
Lost or broken mandatory gear must be replaced before continuing unless the RD decides otherwise. Borrowed gear requires the owner’s permission.
Race staff may provide gear or repair assistance only when the same assistance is available to all teams.

5. Assistance, Communications, and Prohibited Items

You may receive assistance from the general public, other racers, or race staff when that assistance is not dedicated to a specific team and is equally available. You may not receive navigation help, food, liquids, medication, equipment help, or competitive information from friends, family, or dedicated supporters.
Do not cache food, liquid, or equipment before the race unless the RD expressly allows it.
Cell phones may be used only for an acceptable safety, medical, or emergency reason. Report any such use to race staff at the next staffed location, particularly if the phone was sealed.
Unless expressly approved by the RD, prohibited items include outside maps; GPS-enabled handhelds, smart watches, and bike odometers; handheld radios; night-vision equipment; electronic distance-measuring devices such as pedometers and accelerometers; firearms or other weapons beyond an appropriate knife; and motorized assistance.
Non-GPS bike odometers and handheld map wheels are allowed unless event-specific instructions state otherwise. A device with an RD-approved adventure-racing mode (e.g., Garmin devices) may be used only after validation by the RD before the start.
Use of prohibited technology for navigation or competitive advantage may result in disqualification.
USARA and United States Anti-Doping Agency standards apply. Medical, chemical, nutritional, or mechanical doping may result in team disqualification and referral to USARA.

6. Penalties and Race Director Discretion

The RD has final authority to assess penalties. Depending on the severity, competitive advantage, safety consequences, and event format, a violation may result in a warning, time penalty, checkpoint deduction, loss of checkpoint credit, unofficial classification, or disqualification.

Penalties may be based on reports or evidence from race staff, racers, media, supporters, the public, photographs, or tracking data; the RD does not need to personally witness the violation.
When a violation creates a measurable advantage, the RD may neutralize that advantage and add an additional penalty.
A time penalty that moves a team beyond the published cutoff may cause the team to be treated as a late finisher under the event-specific scoring rules.
- Race cutoff is defined in the passport for your race length and final times will be determined based on actual start time of the race. Teams will lose one CP for each full minute they are late. For example, in the 8-hour race if a team’s elapsed racing time is 8:01:00-8:01:59 – loss of 1 CP, 8:02:00-8:02:59 – loss of 2 CPs, etc.
- Race officials reserve the right to alter time cut-offs or the course itself to accommodate changing conditions.
Immediate or repeat safety violations, deliberate trespass, tampering with event equipment, unauthorized caching, prohibited assistance, doping, or prohibited navigation technology may result in disqualification.
Missing mandatory gear may result in a time penalty, checkpoint deduction, delayed continuation until corrected, or removal from the course, depending on severity.

7. USARA Seven Principles: Leave No Trace

Milwaukee Area Fall Frenzy adopts the USARA Seven Principles described in the USARA Race Director Playbook: Event Planning. Racers and staff share responsibility for protecting the land, wildlife, and communities that make the race possible.

Plan Ahead and Prepare

Know the rules, weather, hazards, gear needs, and course restrictions. Follow permits and race instructions, and avoid actions that concentrate damage in sensitive areas.

Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces

Use approved routes and durable surfaces when required. Where off-trail travel is allowed, avoid sensitive ecosystems and use legitimate route choices that disperse impact.

Dispose of Waste Properly

Pack out all trash and clean transition areas. Use toilets or provided waste systems when available; otherwise follow applicable backcountry sanitation requirements and land-manager rules.

Leave What You Find

Do not remove or disturb plants, rocks, artifacts, structures, or natural objects. Avoid sensitive historic or natural sites and comply with any equipment-cleaning measures intended to prevent invasive species.

Minimize Campfire Impacts

Do not build fires unless needed for safety and permitted. If a safety fire is necessary and allowed, keep it small, use only dead material from the ground, extinguish it completely, and scatter cold ashes as permitted.

Respect Wildlife

Keep a safe distance, do not disturb nests, dens, burrows, or other sensitive habitat, and follow all race and land-manager instructions concerning wildlife.

Be Considerate of Others

Share trails, roads, and public spaces respectfully. Yield when appropriate, minimize noise and light disturbance, and avoid interfering with other visitors or nearby residents.

8. Emergency Procedures

Injured Competitor or Medical Situation

Protect yourself, teammates, the injured person, and others from further harm.
Provide first aid within your training and available resources; make the person comfortable and protect them from the elements.
For a serious emergency, call 911 first, then notify the RD. Provide the exact location, time, and nature of the incident.
For a non-emergency issue requiring assistance or withdrawal, contact the RD by phone or tracker. If able to self-extract, withdraw at a staffed checkpoint or transition area.
If there is no reception, use the international distress signal of six whistle blasts and/or six flashlight flashes, repeated as needed, and send another team or member of the public for help with written location and incident details.
If you encounter another team or person in a medical situation, stop and assist. Notify the RD. Time credit may be provided when assisting someone other than a teammate.

Lost Team or Competitor

Stop, stay calm, and use the map, compass, visible landmarks, and known roads or trails to establish a safe location. Do not enter private property or prohibited areas except when necessary to address an immediate threat to life.
Use the emergency contact method in the passport. Call 911 for a serious emergency; otherwise contact the RD and describe your location as precisely as possible.
Use of a phone for a legitimate emergency or safety reason does not automatically disqualify a team. The RD will determine any scoring or ranking consequence based on the circumstances and whether a competitive advantage resulted.

9. Event Equipment Return

All teams must return their e-punch/fingerstick at the finish or upon withdrawal. The team captain shall be charged $30 for a lost fingerstick.
Teams issued a race tracker must return it at the finish or upon withdrawal. The team captain shall be charged $150 for a lost tracker.

10. Definitions

CP: Checkpoint to be visited using the mode and stage specified in the passport or course instructions.
TA: Transition Area.
RD: Race Director.
Officially ranked: Eligible for placement under the event-specific scoring rules.
Unofficial or unranked: Permitted to continue or finish but not eligible for official placement.
Checkpoint identification: CP flags display a number or code. Other courses or race lengths may use nearby controls; teams are responsible for confirming the correct checkpoint.