Mad Monkey: AFAIK the game comes from Germany where it's (well) known as "Ostfriesisches Deichwandern". I played it first time as PBM years ago in a club in Vienna. The "zero point rule" is the only rule which we (me and a lot of comrade-in-run on a Czech discussion server where we played it for years) have added due the translation and testing. I can live with the rule, as I already said, I didn't see it executed much often, but of course it could be deleted (again). I think, both points of view (for or against it) can be defended.

I've googled now for the German version of rules and I've found several variation. I'd prefere the variant with the eliminating of more runners per round if there are lots of them on the route. 2 are eliminated by 10+ runners, 3 by 20+, 4 by 30+ and so on. Then it should be possible to run such HUGE runs without any time problems. (This game should be fun and I'm personally not sure if any game, which lasts for approximately one year, can be...)