Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Staying after rides

My experience is just like yours, Barbara.  The awards are attended 
by less than half of the entrants.  However, a lot of the folks that 
do attend have purchased extra dinner tickets for friends and family, 
and they enjoy the ambience and early evening breeze.  I try to make 
the awards more interesting than just reading horse and rider names. 
Some haul their horses home and come back from the awards, since it's 
an urban area ride.

The bulk of the early departures are LD riders, who finish by 1 and 
don't want to hang around till 4:30 for the dinner and 6 pm for the 
awards.  I can understand that, but can't figure out how to run 
things differently, with riders still on course until possibly 6 pm. 
The LD riders have been more likely to haul home and come back, 
though.

We maintain an "early departure" sheet for completion awards only.  I 
refuse to be pressured to figure out weight divisions, etc., while 
we're still conducting the ride!  If they depart without those 
awards, they make arrangements to pick them up at a future event (or 
on a training ride together).

Same with the "Lost and Found".  I won't send that stuff out, but do 
bring it to other events.  THIS year, I'm not hauling any of it 
around any more.  Yuck.  I had a 30 gal. water trough full of stuff.

It occurs to me that many riders who haven't helped with ride admin 
might not know what we're up to in the late afternoons.  Some of the 
things we're doing during the last couple hours before the awards is 
accounting for every rider--whether they're pulled, completed or 
still out on trail, checking the number checker sheets against the 
vet check in time sheets, making sure juniors stayed with their 
sponsors, calculating BC for both 50 and LD, assessing weight 
division winners, insuring evacuation for pulled riders, making sure 
our volunteers are taken care of (T shirt or dinner) and in the case 
of this ride, all of the IAHA criteria and awards placement.  Results 
from the finish line continue to dribble in, and we need to make sure 
all points stay manned.  We still have around 2 dozen mounted 
assistance people on trail at this point.  Checks for the caterer, 
the vets (we have 6, 2 are part-time) are hopefully prepared ahead of 
time, but not always.  ;-)

Lynne
Norco Riverdance (PS) 8/31/02
http://www.lynnesite.com/nrr.html

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