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[RC] declining 100s - terre

Been musing on the subject of declining interest in entering 100 mile rides, and I wonder if we aren't the victim of our own success.
Back in "the good old days" riders were smaller, in general, and 'everybody knew everybody'. Riders all gathered around a campfire at night and socialized. I live in a somewhat 'peripheral' area that is still like this; most of our rides have around 50 horses and we all know each other. Here, once somebody has done a couple of seasons of successful 50s (not 'winning', just solid completions), people inevitable start asking them which 100 they are going to try...
In many places, tho, there are over 100 entrants. It is impossible for everybody to hang out together, or sit at the same campfire, so people tend to break up into small groups of 'friends'. Often, these people know each other because they ride together, and often they basically started together, and progressed together. The problem is that socializing almost entirely with people at the same 'level' as yourself means you don't have any readily available 'mentors', or 'older riders' who will inspire/nag you into doing more. They are at the ride--but they are all over at the old fart's campfire....
We have ridecamp as a kind of 'virtual' campfire. But it's not quite the same as somebody like, say, Maryben looking you straight in the eye and saying "your horse could do a 100", is it?


terre


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