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

On Mon, 3 Jun 2002 22:57:50 -0400, Rides 2 Far <rides2far@xxxxxxxx>
wrote:

>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.

Yep, there were some short rides, but not all of the fast ones were
short.  The Shockaloe ride had a very accurate 51.5-mile trail and was
won several times (including by Kahlil and I) in under 3:15.  Ditto
the 100 we finished in under nine hours ... 100% mechanically
measured.  The Shockaloe in the days of sub-3.5 hour fifties used
straight holds (72 pulse), not gates, but the 100 had gates and 68.
'course they were both flat rides with great footing, and cool weather
when we turned in the fast times.  The front runners ran the last leg
of the 100 -- 15 miles -- in an hour flat, we never got below a
canter.  That was the ride Jon Warren was following the front-runners
at the end in his pickup, with a bunch of people in the back.  I tried
to break away on the only uphill in the ride, in the last mile, and
Jon clocked us at 25MPH!  I tried to back off at the top, didn't want
to run down, but no dice ... I had a runaway!!!  After 99 miles in
under nine hours!!!  What a rush.

Ride times clearly slowed when we changed from flat holds where you
had 30 to 60 minutes to recover to 72, and everybody who came in
together went out together, to the vet gates and 64 or 60 pulse rates
we use today.  Our horses are a lot better off for it.

-- 

Joe Long
jlong@xxxxxxx
http://www.rnbw.com


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