Ridecamp: Re: [RC] musings re "the good old days"

> I wrote an article once making fun of some of the old stats...to give you
> the gist of it...don't think some of those 50 milers were over 40...or
> 35.  Remember one had a win time of something like 2 1/2 hours.  The
> first course I ever did varied considerably in length the first several
> times I did it.  I remember when the record holder commented something
> like, "The winner took 4:15? *I* won this ride in 3 1/2 hours" and
> someone else said, "Yeah but it was 10 miles shorter that year"  GPS sort
> of stopped some of that.

While that was an issue sometimes (and occasionally still is, alas...), I
know that many of the courses that had some phenomenal times were pretty
darn accurate on their mileage.  I can remember Darla Westlake doing a sub-3
50 on RT Muffin and coming in with her eyes as big as saucers, saying she
had NEVER ridden that fast for so far in her life--and coming from a rider
like that, it is believable.  I rode the course myself in subsequent years,
and did not feel it was short.  The weather conditions were perfect, the
footing was perfect--just one of those ideal days.  We are more often
blessed with low humidity and coolish days in the NW, which is surely a
factor in posting some of those fast times.

Heidi


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