Re: RC: Re: Difference between LD and other distances

[Linda Cowles <kadence@ix.netcom.com>]

I like the point Kathy Meyers made, and commented on nicely by Nancy Mitts.  I've
been a runner off and on, and there are 1k "Fun Runs", 5K, Half Marathons,
Marathons. I never heard runners... go on like this.... about legitimizing Fun
Runs.

Endurance isn't for everyone. What makes it endurance? Enduring 50 miles or more.

I thought I was a soooo hot runner when I got to the point where I was running 5
miles 3 times a week with a long run distance of 10 miles... nobody else at work
was doing that! Then I started hanging out on the ultra runners news group....
uhh ohhh. Their shortest ultra event was 30 miles! **Running**!

It reset my expectations of myself. I started training to compete at those
distances and found that, for my life style (which included endurance
conditioning 2 horses, a full time job, a ranchette and a family), I couldn't
compete at Ultra Running. I couldn't train the way I needed to finish at a level
that met my expectations.

I didn't try to redefine Ultra Running. I sucked it up and ran for pleasure. I
still do. I can do 30 miles in one day, but not the way I want to... so I settle
for admiring the people who can do it.

*REAL* Endurance is 50 or more miles at a time. One rider, one horse. It isn't
for everyone.

Sub-endurance distances are fun, challenging for some, they are "distance'
riding, and are almost as expensive on a per event basis... but they aren't
"Endurance". As a sub-ultra trail runner, my costs were the same per event. I
could run Marathon distance, but I didn't run Ultra distance. Whats the
difference? Hills, trails and about 3.5 miles.... the ultra runs I wanted to do
were all at least 30 miles in the mountains vs 26 something on streets. I'm a
wanna-be with a glorious dream.

I AM an endurance rider... and not a great one! Just a me-too rider with only 1
100 mile ride, many 50's and a few easy top 10's, on the books. I complete 50's
easily, and that's what counts. Not always fast, but always easy.

I enjoy an LD ride, although I try and do the shorter mileage as a drag rider. LD
isn't endurance. The typical LD distance, 25 to 35 miles, is a great trail ride.
When I'm "just riding" I take horses on 25 mile rides that are as tough as our
toughest AERC rides, and if the ride pace is moderate, almost any horse or rider
can do it. I took Cammie, my 16.2 racing appaloosa, a VERY big, very hot ex track
horse who had only been trail ridden lightly for the past year, no "endurance"
conditioning, and completed in LD with great vet scores at Fireworks (30 miles) a
few years ago. In easy boots, because she was barefoot. THAT much of a pasture
pet. It was her first competitive ride; she was track-raced for a year, so it was
VERY exciting for her. She did wonderful, after she finally relaxed. I rode her
carefully.

The limitations to competing in real endurance vs LD are usually self imposed...
it's tougher for the people. I've seen all breeds and ages compete, people of all
conditions. Rio was racing down the 100 mile trail top tenning and still BC'ing
at an age when most horses are pasture pets. I've chased Julie Suhr many miles,
in spite of the fact that I'm decades younger; my ankles are great and hers are
the pits. Yet Julie often completes before I do - on 20+ year old Buddy. Gavilan
is 8.

I know Julie's secret. It's the same secret that got Cliffy Lewis through a LD
ride, and it's the secret that's taken Bandit, Trilby, Rio and Karen Chaton so
far. It's Desire.  It's Determination. They all have the "Wantzmo" gene.... No
matter how much they getz, they WantzMO! McCrarys all have it. My family has this
gene, I have it, Gavilan has it... my priorities aren't endurance right now, but
I recognize Wantzmo when I see it.

My next horses name's going to be Wantzmo!

And, sorry folks, "No time to condition" doesn't fly as a valid excuse either...
I did Swanton 100, a VERY tough piece of trail, very successfully on Gavilan with
a 50 and a 30 under us this year, and my conditioning plan was one aggressive
ride a week, 15 to 25 miles. He looked fatter and perkier the day after the ride
than he did the day before.

Actually, maybe most horses couldn't have done so well... I was riding with Julie
Suhr, and... maybe she's like Peter Pan, just magically got us through the
ride... Julie Suhr.... what was the actresses name who starred in Peter Pan? Was
it... Julie Suhr??? Oh, Andrews... Julie Andrews...

Name your daughter Julie.

If you don't want to go 50 miles, you don't want to do Endurance.  You don't have
to ride fifty miles to have a great time! You DO have to ride 50 miles to ride
Endurance.

Keep you standards high. If you make it easy, it'll lose its mystique.

> The fact is, Endurance isn't for everybody. Unfortunately, in a push to
> increase membership, it has been promoted as such. The fact is, it's for
> people who are willing to push a little beyond their comfort zone. The funny
> thing is, for me, the comfort zone always creeps a little farther down the
> trail.......
>
> Nancy Mitts

Go Nancy!

Linda Cowles



BMcCrary27@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 10/16/2000 9:06:39 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> sbrown@wamedes.com writes:
>
> << Their reaction -- "Why would anyone bother riding the lower
>  distance if the organization won't even count their miles when they're
>  helping support the organization?"  This is just the unanimous viewpoint in
>  my half-dozen rat study of people involved in other disciplines. ;-)
>   >>
>
> Answer: to TEACH and LEARN.  To teach a horse how to play the game, to learn
> how he is going to react to the game, to test whether a young horse can
> tolerate a lower level of stress before subjecting him to the higher level,
> to discover whether a horse has recovered sufficiently from an injury to go
> back to the higher level, to discover whether the rider is well enough
> conditioned to handle the greater distances...  any number of good reasons.
> And besides, LD is just fun once in awhile...on those days when you (generic)
> just don't feel like working that hard, but you want to go for a good long
> ride and you want to visit your friends.  And as far as sampling the sport,
> that's exactly what LD was originally designed to offer.  And there are a
> great many who still feel that is what LD is designed to do.
>
> Barbara
>
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