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RE: [RC] LD/Endurance - David LeBlancJoe Long said: An endurance ride is defined by its length, and that definition is 50 miles or more in one day. But this is somewhat a circular argument. Somewhat like how sometimes we get a bug reported in software and the developer says that it was "by design". Perhaps so, and maybe the design was even correct at the time, but it may not be the best design now. So, no, no one who has not ridden an endurance ride ... a ride of 50 miles or more in one day .. is a true "endurance" rider. Language changes, and trying to fight that is tilting at windmills. For example, I'm a hacker. I'm a hacker in the recent sense of the word as being someone who programs computers and someone who pokes at computers to see how they work. There's a much older meaning - someone who crudely makes furniture, and I'm not that. Unfortunately, the press has turned "hacker" into someone who is a computer criminal and I'm not that, either. I can correct people all I want, but if I'm sitting next to someone on the plane and they ask what I do, if I tell them I'm a hacker, they get worried. I think that to many people, "endurance riders" are all of us and maintaining the distinction will be about as effective as my trying to claim that I'm a hacker, but not a computer criminal. But they are not an endurance rider until they successfully complete an endurance ride. That's the way it is. We've discussed this before. I don't think doing one 50 is a sufficient accomplishment for a title change. It just isn't that hard, or that big a deal. If we wanted to have rankings like novice, master and grandmaster and then made these ranks based on say mileage - maybe to graduate from novice, you need > 250 miles - then that would be worthy of making a distinction. I worked very hard for several years, then got to add a few letters after my name, worked harder for longer and now get to add more letters. That's an accomplishment worthy of a title change. It isn't a matter of making anything easier. It's a matter of either making distinctions over something that matters (doing it right), or not at all. No amount of trying to make becoming an endurance rider easier by lowering the definition to a shorter distance will change that. Actually, it can happen just by people commonly using the term to describe anyone doing rides sanctioned by an endurance body. You'll argue they're incorrect, just like I can argue that I'm really a hacker in the "true" meaning of the word (conveniently ignoring the original meaning of a furniture maker), and others will dismiss us as archaic (in the language sense). Making a worthwhile challenge easier so that more people can or will "achieve" it doesn't actually allow more people to achieve anything, it just cheapens the meaning for those who actually prepare and do it. Do you really think one 50 is a worthwhile challenge? I don't. I think getting to 1000 miles is a worthwhile challenge. 5000 miles is really impressive. A 3000 mile horse is really something. Not everyone can manage that. Managing to complete one 50 is a pretty low bar. I'd even go as far as to say that someone with 1000 LD miles and zero miles 50 and greater probably knows more and deserves more respect than someone that did one 50 and hasn't done anything else. I know there is a trend today to no longer reward excellence, or have challenges with high standards, because it hurts the "self-esteem" of those who can't or won't do what is necessary to achieve them. I hope we can keep that from happening to endurance rides. IMHO, if we're going to do that, then we ought not make distinctions that don't effectively show a significant level of achievement, and we ought to set up a system to recognize those with a real level of achievement. Many other sports have several classes within the ranks and a well-organized way of distinguishing between them. We don't really have such a system. I think we should either have a really thoroughly laid out, logical system that recognizes significant achievements, or not bother. My mother must have said 10,000 times, "If it isn't worth doing well, then it isn't worth doing at all." Drove me nuts, but she was right. I'm going to try to go back to lurking now... Really. ============================================================ The only thing worse than crewing for a female Endurance rider is crewing for a wet, tired female Endurance Rider! A good crew person has patience, a sense of humor, and knows that sometimes it's best to say nothing at all! ~ Jim Holland ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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