Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

One thing missing, at least in this part of the country is the fact many of the rides had between 75 and 100 miles of trail. Now so many rides have loops that are shorter and are repeated. To me, and I am sure many of the older riders, this is boring and tedious. A deterrent to the longer rides.

 

Bob

 

Bob Morris
Morris Endurance Enterprises
Boise, ID

-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Truman Prevatt
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 5:19 PM
To: DVeritas@xxxxxxx
Cc: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [RC] declining 100s

The first ride I did had 11 in the 25 and 4 in the 50 and it was in 1990! Endurance got started late in FL. It was an easy jump from 25 to 50 because you all hung around together and there was encouragement - "hey you've done a couple 25's the last one in 2:30, it's time to move up to a slow 50". Same was true for 100's. Most everyone wanted to "give it a shot." Now in FL a small ride is 60 people and we have gone from three rides in 1990 to 9 or 10 next year.  Most are running close to 75 and 100. When they were small we had more people doing 100's than we do today! We have lost that community we had just 10 short years ago.

Like anything there are many causes and it's more complex than just one thing. However, the close knit family aspect of endurance riding is clearly not what it used to be and I think it shows in a lot of ways - the decline of 100's being one.

Frank and Terre we must be getting old, we sound like old farts sitting around the campfire reminiscing for days gone by - and sigh, maybe never to return.

Truman

DVeritas@xxxxxxx wrote:

In a message dated 7/21/2003 2:29:09 PM Mountain Daylight Time, tobytrot@xxxxxxxxx writes:

Back in "the good old days" riders were smaller, in general, and
'everybody knew everybody'.  Riders all gathered around a campfire at night
and socialized. 

    I remember at rides I'd be talking in a basecamp with other 100 mile riders, someone would walk up to the group, and before you knew it, we had talked them into entering the 100 in the morning.  That used to happen alot. 
    A rider, saying, "What the heck, I'll do the 100, too."
    More times than not, they'd enter, ride it, complete it and we'd all have a late dinner together.
    The bigger we grow, the more we seem to limit ourselves to the little areas we find comfortable, understandable and more easily managed.
    Venture.
    -----Frank