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Re: [RC] Endurance Futurity? - Truman Prevattrides2far@xxxxxxxx wrote:100 miles and get to thinking about how to get folks back on "the path". I've been thinking about this on the many airplane miles I've put on the last two months. Times have chances since I started and the 100's don't hold the same place when everybody really saw the 100 as their goal. This is compared today to everybody saying it's their goal on ridecamp because they don't want to sound like a whimp. Today there are many more options out there. The sport has evolved and will continue to evolve.For a lot of reasons some having more to do with the pace, pressures of the world and lifestyles - the 100 has seemed to have lost it's status to the multiple day rides. The multiple day rides are growing by leaps and bounds (even on the percentage level ) while the 100's are flat on an absolute level and declining on a percentage level. I think it's going to take more than the AERC can do to turn this around - unless the AERC is will to pay riders a hundred bucks plus pay the entry fees to do a 100 :-) . As Bob Dylan once said, "the times they are a changing." Change is the only constant in the universe and stopping it is normally futile. On my first horse over 1/3 of her miles were in one day 100's - however, for me I'm very happy to see more multiple day rides in the SE where I can go for several days, ride some, hang out some and just relax. I'm happy to see more multiple day rides where I can take both my old horse and young horse and ride both. The real draw it seems is to be able to go to a ride stay awhile and have the options to do several rides on the same horse, several rides on different horses. As gas prices continue to rise - this will probably become more important. The multiple day events offer more options to people. The more I look at the numbers and sit back and think about what they mean the more I think the 100 is evolved past its top status in endurance - except at the international level. For the 400 +/- AERC I members they are very important - in fact their life blood. For the rest of the AERC membership the numbers show that the 100 are of little interest. You can't measure interest by the people that say on ride camp that's what they want to do. You measure it where the rubbler meets the road - how many actually show up to do it. If you want to bring the 100 back to the average endurance rider who does a few rides a year for fun - then I think it going to take more than a few bucks to do it. Truman -- "If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." - Carl Sagan =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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