PAC--Answers to a Few Questions

["Linda B. Merims" <lbm@naisp.net>]

Well, I'm back.  I'll leave the long storytelling until tomorrow or
the next day.  I took photos but I have to get them developed.

But to answer some questions that have come up:

1.  Why the strange discrepancy in finish time between the 1st and 2nd horse?
    I.e., if they left vet check 8 (or was it 7?) so close together (I was
    told just 1 minute, 25 seconds), why did they finish 20 minutes apart on
    just a 4 mile stretch?

    I, and a lot of other people, were wondering the same thing at
    the finish line.  Why was it taking so long for the second place
    horse to show up?

    The answer is that the Out Timer at Vet Check 8 (or maybe 7)
    made a mistake and released Melissa Crain onto the trail 10 minutes
    early.  Luckily, the problem was caught almost immediately and they
    ran down the trail and caught her and brought her back to wait out
    the remainder of her 10 minutes.

    This story has not been substantiated by anybody else, but I think
    that it is true in substance, if perhaps not in precise detail.

2.  Why did Stagg Newman fall so far behind Heather Berganz when he was
    first out (or was it in?) at vet check 6?

    This is another question we were asking each other at the finish line.

    The answer I got from a member of the USA East crew as we stood by
    the finish line waiting for Stagg and Rita Swift to show up was that
    the USA East Chef d'Equipe (or vet or whoever calls the shots for
    the team) had told Stagg to slow down (or take it easy or however
    you want to put it).  I'm not sure when this was, but I infer from
    what the lady said that it was at Vet Check 7, at 86 miles) The reasons
    were:

    - Dinah Rojek, member 4 of USA East, had been pulled.  If Stagg didn't
      finish, there would be no USA East team finish.

    - They honestly didn't think Stagg's horse was ready to beat Crystals
      Charm.
 
    - Jayel Super needed a shoe change at vet check 7.

   This story has not been substantiated by anybody else.

Perhaps the most conspicuous thing was the great gap between the first
two horses and the next two (48 minutes) and then the remainder of the
field (another 24 minutes).

When Angie and Roger get back home I'm sure we'll get lots more stories.
I've got a whopper of one that involved one of my rooting interests,
Becky Harris and GA Tyfa Mynte from Ohio with USA East.

Miscellaneous truth:  Crystals Charm was flown back east into Hartford,
Connecticut and then shipped by trailer the 2 1/2 or so hours straight up
91 to the Woodstock area.  I met one of the members of his team (they were
wearing "Big Red" red T-shirts) at the next-door tack shop.  He
said that they had "Fed-Ex'd him to Vermont."  True.  He really did
fly Fed-Ex.  The guy said most Fed-Ex employees don't know they
ship horses and he had had a heck of time convincing them that they
really did.  It was the first time the horse had flown and he said
that he took it like, well,...a champ.

Oh, and I had a complete *blast*.

Linda B. Merims
lbm@naisp.net
Massachusetts, USA