Re: ...hold my magnolia(NC/BigHorn)

["Laura Hayes" <mark@madbbs.com>]

OHHH, I love the Shell Creek base camp!  I have been trying to figure out
how to get to Big Horn next summer, and that just added incentive.  I did it
in 1980something on Rushcreek Noel and it became my very favorite - BTW, it
took me hours longer than any other 100 I have done, and I still loved it.

laura hayes #2741

----- Original Message -----
From: <guest@endurance.net>
To: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2001 11:41 AM
Subject: RC: ...hold my magnolia(NC/BigHorn)


> Cindy Collins sunsetrim@hotmail.com
> Some days the level of entertainment provided by my fellow endurance
> riders is more than I can bear without a mint julip in my hand!  As
> Tennesee Williams' Blanche said so eloquently, "I have always relied on
> the kindness of strangers."  So, thank you to my defenders:  Drin, John
> B., Jackie, Angie, Karen, Kerry, and Sandy B. (if I missed anyone, please
> pardon my appalling manners...I've been out of the deep South for too long
> and have hung around Yankee riff-raff and various other DIMR and XP trash
> for so many years now...I do feel the vapors coming on!)  On a serious
> note, Dear Jim H., I do not know where you came up with your conclusions
> about me, but they are sadly misplaced.  If you took the time to study my
> record, you'd see that while I have won a few rides, I've spent much more
> time in the back of the pack.  Also, I was born and raised in South
> Louisiana and did my first endurance rides (LD, by the way, and never
> considered them endurance) under the eye of Joe Long and Kahlil in
> Mississippi and Alabama in 1980.  I also finished a tough 100 miler in
> east Texas in 1990 on a wonderful Fadwah daughter from the CA desert.
> Sooo, despite some folks tacky assumptions, I do understand mud, heat,
> humidity, and bugs.  I just choose not to live with them in my old age.
>
> What some gentlemen seem to miss is that I've never said I was of
> Championship caliber...I would not even dream of putting myself on the
> same level with the Kathy Arnolds or Valerie Kanavys or Becky Harts or
> Dave Nicholsons or Boyd Zontellis, etc..... of our sport.  The point is
> that I want the standard for a championship to be that high...I don't want
> the AERC to drag the standard down to my level so I can "be a
> champion"...what is there to reach for then?  I truly believe that every
> time I finish a ride, I have won something priceless, but that doesn't
> make me AERC National Championship caliber.
>
> Finally, least someone out there think I am a whimp cause I'm not out
> there in the heat and humidity...truly, at this point in my life, I do not
> have the funds to attend an Eastern ride.  It is not because I wouldn't
> enjoy doing so.  I would love to ride the OD some day and it will probably
> happen when finances and the right horse come together for me.  However, I
> will defend my honor in saying that I have finished the Big Horn 100 six
> times and only once in the top ten.  One of those times, I rode with my
> leg in a cast with multiple breaks.  The BH can be 100 degrees or snowing.
> The elevation ranges from 4,500 to over 10,000 ft.  It was twice the site
> of the ROC and there's a reason for that!  Age has NOTHING to do with
> riding tough 100s...Mae Shlagel rode it and finished it in her 70s.  Also,
> for the BH supporters and folks who hope to attend...I am working very
> hard to GPS the entire course by next July.  I have way points on the last
> 25 miles, already.   Marking has been a tough issues for us.  White spray
> paint and flour have been used, but are really hard to see in the snow!
> We also are going to have our base camp back on Shell creek next
> year....y'all come.  Thanks, again, for listening.  Cindy
>
>
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