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Re: [RC] LDs as Endurance - tprevattI guess I don't care what it's called as long we can stop this endless talking about it ;-). A little prespective. In the hayday of US track and field (till about 1976) - before durgs ruined the sport the marathon was looked down upon. In fact in the US the guys running the marathon were those too slow to run the "glory" distance events, half mile and mile (or 1500 meters in the Olympics). This was even true of the great Kenyon distance runners - they all ran the half mile and mile during that era. In human running there was a reverse discrimation as what we see in endurance riding. We that did run the mile and half mile in those days did look down on the marathoners and did consider them "second class athletics" - if they had the speed they would be running the glory distances.
Steve Prefontain was the first true marathon runner in the US and would have probably won the '72 Olympics if not for his untimely death flipping his ragtop. Frank Shorter did win the '72 Olympics - a first for the US - and brought in the acceptance in the running community of the marathon being a worthy event on it's own. Now it is an equal footing to all the other events in track and field, but it by far is not considered the "glamor" event. It's status is no different than the 5 k, 10 k or 20 k. In some respects the longer distance runners are still those that are too slow for the shorter distances, but there events are on a equal footing with the shorter distances with the stigma of the past long forgotten.
What we need is a similar acceptance in the endurance community of LDs. It matters little what they are called - if the second class "stigma" of "not really endurance" is still present. We need an attitude adjustment - an acceptance rather than a name change. We need to stop the bickering that is dividing the endurance family and come together and recogonize each for their own merits (from the LD to FEI 100) and own accomplishments. Until that happens - name change or not - we will still be divided and we will still have the periodic "the scum bags that run thier horses into the gournd going for placement and "God forbid" BC on an LD need to be all taken out and tied to the saddle and forced to ride a very slow 100 miles and then pulled off thier horse and whiped with a cat of nine tails just for good measure" fist fights.
It just gets down to a matter of respect. Until that respect is there - what you call it will matter little.
Truman
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-----Original Message----- From: RDCARRIE@xxxxxxx Sent: Dec 6, 2004 8:21 AM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] LDs as Endurance
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