[RC] re: David's miscontruing of comments - Cindy Collins
That is completely NOT what I meant, David.? To me, it's like 5 K runners wanting to get year-end national "marathon" awards for doing 5 Ks.? When I did a 5 K, I did not run around saying I was a marathoner.? I just watched a 60 mins TV show about the current generation wanting/expecting trophies for just showing up at a game, etc.? THAT's what I'm talking about.
When Tevis gives a buckle for completing a 25 miler, talk to me about it.? When the Western States Run holds a 5 K, talk to me about it.? You have completely misconstrued my point.? You think the old timers are so awful, but you can't even begin to see how spoiled, whining, and "it's all about me" the other side sounds.? We have to all let this go, cause we'll never agree.? The sport will continue to cater to the two opposite ends of the sport that the "old timers" dislike for financial reasons and we'll never agree.? We're deteriorating to name calling and lies about each side, so it's hopeless.? Just for the record, though no one here seems to care much about the truth, I am not advocating banning 25 milers.? It's philosophical and that seems too deep for some.? Cindy
On Nov 12, 2007, at 12:01 AM, David LeBlanc wrote:
Cindy said:
Even if I can't ride like I used to, I still want the sport focused on 100
mile rides.? Even if I can only ride 25s, I don't want 25 milers winning big
awards and being given national championship status.??
That's about like 10k runners trying to say that 5k runners ought not get
any awards. It's the same thing, just different distances.
There's something you might not expect going on up here in the NW. In PNER,
we _require_ placing for LD (and BC), and even (shudder) give _points_ for
top-10, AND lump all the distances together, and then give out reasonably
nice awards on the basis of all the rides you did, without regard to
distance (except for some awards that are specific to one distance - an
obvious one being the 100 mile points award).
To hear people talk here, all that should be one of the signs of a coming
apocalypse, and surely endurance and the coveted 100 mile distance ought to
be doomed in our area. The funny thing is that we've got a lot of 100 mile
rides, and increasing participation - our 100 miles starts for 2007 is up by
26% over last year alone.
Something interesting going on there - the NW, SE and MW regions are all
favorable to LD, they've all got a lot of 100's, and the SE and NW have more
100-mile starts year over year when it's remained flat across the whole
country. I think that giving 25 (and 50) mile riders recognition and
encouragement is the way that you grow new 100 mile riders and keep this
