Re: RC: RE: Finish Lines

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/10/00 6:48:57 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
truman.prevatt@netsrq.com writes:

<< The basic rule of thumb I use is the finish line is at least 200 yards 
from the
 entrance of the camp, it is open and clear with a long run out and there are 
no
 vehicles near it except those of management.  At any road crossing I arrange
 for the Sheriff's department to have warning signs out and personal to stop
 traffic.  The Sheriff's department has been more than happy to help with 
this -
 of course I give the Sheriff a free entry.  At one ride which was on public
 land, I had rangers at camp who went out to block the forest service roads 
that
 came across the trail the last two miles when the front runners were coming
 along. They were happy to do this. Better a little precaution than an 
injury. >>

While I don't disagree with you, Truman, sometimes it is the terrain that 
dictates the available finish lines.  I would suspect that this is the case 
with the Posse ride.  In rugged, mountainous country, flat areas with long 
run-out areas are simply non-existent.  The only choices available are to 
have the ride or to not have the ride.  Clearly in the case of the Posse 
Ride, the management was quite safety conscious and forewarned competitors as 
to the limitations of the finish.  Apparently the competitors involved did 
not heed the warning.  A conscientious competitor who is apt to be running up 
front will take the time to preview the finish area BEFORE the ride to see 
what limitations there may be.  A manager can only do so much.

Having designed several courses, including a Pan-American course, I'd have to 
say that one also has to consider what sort of ride one is putting on.  On a 
Pan-Am or World course where racing is everything and there are international 
medals at stake, a clear finish area is an absolute priority.  However, since 
putting on a World or a Pan-Am is a relative rarity, one has the luxury of 
hunting for just the "right" ride site, which includes the sort of parameters 
you mentioned.  Our Pan-Am had a trail section right before the finish, but 
opened up onto a grass landing strip, which could easily be roped off and 
kept clear--pretty ideal for racing!  But when you consider that in our 
region there is an AERC ride almost every weekend (and multiple rides on many 
weekends) all spring, summer and fall, and in our local area, there is one 
just about every other weekend, one quickly runs out of "ideal" finish lines 
that connect to decent trails.  I don't think any of the riders really want 
to run just the same few courses weekend after weekend, just for the sake of 
an ideal finish area.

You are also fortunate that you have a sheriff's department that is 
interested in helping out and that your rangers are likewise interested.  We 
coordinated with our sheriff's department for two years before the Pan-Am, 
and they were willing to provide mounted Search and Rescue people to ride 
drag, help with contingency plans for injured riders, etc., but would NOT 
provide personnel for the two or three pavement crossing areas that I as a 
ride manager considered to be critical.  Go figure!  And forget ANY of that 
sort of help for a "generic" ride...  As for the rangers--their solution to 
road use conflict is to tell us to put up a warning sign.

We had to work with a new course on our ride this past weekend.  We had three 
choices of access to camp.  Two involved county road with potential of 
conflict with off-highway vehicle users accessing a site above our camp, and 
one involved a less-than-ideal run-out area but access was limited to riders 
and ride personnel.  We opted to make the latter the finish, with warnings to 
riders that the finish was tighter into camp than we would like.  We started 
all three distances down one of the county road sections, and simply took a 
vehicle down to the point that the riders left the road and parked it 
crossways in the road blocking traffic until the riders had passed that point 
so that we would not have a vehicle plowing into a large group of riders.  
This was an option at the start where all riders travel the first mile in a 
relatively short time frame--it was NOT an option to protect a finish that 
can go on for hours.  We started our second loop out the county road section 
that had the best visibility and had wide shoulders so that riders could see 
and avoid any conflict with traffic.

Sometimes management simply has to make the best choices available, and 
riders have to either use a certain amount of common sense.  If riders are 
not willing to do so, then we stand to lose a great many rides that are 
otherwise excellent in terms of footing, scenery, management, etc.

Heidi