Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

At 05:51 PM 9/3/2004, Sharlene Roberts-Caudle wrote:
> She had only ridden 2 LD rides, but she said that there were politics 
> involved and that disapointed her.

No offense, but people who don't have much experience often will point to 
others as the cause of their problems when they don't do as well as they 
wanted to.  I'd say that an LD rider who cares that much about placing is 
not focusing on what LD rides are for.  Additionally, before assuming that 
your friend is correct in her assessment of the situation, the "other side 
of the story" needs to be known.

Personally, I don't think the first side of the story is all that 
unbiased.  I have *never* been to an endurance ride (admittedly I've never 
done an LD) where I felt there was any politics involved with placings, and 
as you mentioned, of all the complaints on RideCamp, changing the times is 
not one of them!  I'm not saying what your friend complained about 
*couldn't* happen, but I am saying that once upon a time I was a newbie 
too, and I went through a lot of sour grapes before I allowed my eyes to be 
opened to the truth.  In my mind, I pointed my finger at ride management 
for what really were my own mistakes or just plain ignorance.  I just 
didn't know any better - I was new at it!  I think that describes what 
happens more accurately than blaming politics does.

Volunteer for a ride and become educated.  Get rid of the competitive 
attitude when doing an LD.  Those two things alone would probably change 
your friend's mind about politics in endurance.

________________________________
   Lif Strand      fasterhorses.com
           Quemado NM USA