Re: RC: LD was nervous horse

[David LeBlanc <dleblanc@mindspring.com>]

At 08:28 AM 5/3/00 -0400, Carol Thompson wrote:
>We frequently have LD'ers running over 50's and 100's unless they are
>spread out or set on a different trail.  2 hours for a 25 mile ride is
>not unusual on the flat.

Jennifer and I just did our first 60 at Stookey, and though we took it
really slow, we planned our pace so that the first of the 30 mile riders
would catch us about at the first vet check - even though we missed the
start by 15 minutes on purpose.  Most of them didn't actually pass us until
well into the 2nd loop. I had the same fear of a horde of 30 mile riders
coming around us at warp speed, and knowing that my horse _can_ go that
fast, she'd want to - we know the rest of that story.

One of the things I found from looking at several hundred ride results is
that 50 mile 1st place speeds are actually a little faster than LD 1st
place speeds (though they are close).  Bottom line here is that you can
plan on the front running LD riders to set a pace about equal to the pace
that the leading 50 mile riders will set on the first loop. In order to
avoid congestion at vet checks, etc. ride management needs to do a little
bit of math and try and stagger the start times to avoid too much overlap.
I'm sure that people doing 100's have similar stories about the front
running 50 mile riders coming up on them.  


David LeBlanc
dleblanc@mindspring.com