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Re: Is 100 miles in one day too much? RE: [RC] WEG 2006 - Truman PrevattSteph Teeter wrote:Perhaps this is heresy... but is it possible that 100 mile horse races areYou are correct it is heresy and you should be placed on a dunking stool in downtown Moscow in Feb for saying such things ;-) .......... but the discussion needs to happen. In human sports there are 'ulta marathons' but this is also an extreme,Takes too long, can't be formatted for spectator appeal, doesn't have corporate sponsor to name a few. It's easy to say 'well, just throw in rocks and mountains to slow themI suspect if you ran a WEC on the OD trail in the summer or the Tevis trail you'd find even worse completion rates than we see now. Give the current format of Endurance the only way to reverse the 'last manIn reality the average completion rate in AERC 100 mile ride is about 60%. So you really can't expect better than 60% at a FEI level ride. At the Tevis it is probably 50% - maybe a little less. A lot of things can happen in 100 miles. But if we were given the opportunity to change the format (currently 100I think it gets right down to speed. I think there tends to somehow be a misconception that distance racing is about something other than speed. Bottom line the horse, human or dog that can maintain the highest speed for the given distance be it 100 meters or 100 miles is the winner. The superior endurance comes into play in that it provides the ability to maintain a faster speed than the competition. But all other things being equal a runner with more speed will make faster runner at any distance. You shorten the event - speed becomes more important. You run it over multiple shorter days - speed will be a bigger factor than 100 miles in one shot. Would a format of 80 or 120 km be safer for the horses in a WEC than 160 km. If you look at the AERC pull rates (15% for 50's through 75's and 40% for 100s) for a clue - the answer is most likely yes. Is this an acceptable solution? You run the WEC at 40 km "then you might even get it into the Olympics since it could now be covered as a spectator sport. Is that an acceptable solution? I think in the long run such a move to run the WEC at anything but 160 km in one shot would have a significant negative impact on the 100's in the AERC since significant support for 100's comes from our folks who are working to get horses ready for FEI events. If the FEI championships were 80 or 120 km there would be little incentive for these people to ride 100's since that would not be the event they are trying to get ready for. However, that's a different issue and should not impact what the FEI does of does not do. Truman -- "Life is about obstacles. Endeavors in life are not to be overlooked. Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but how we react to what happens. Not by what life brings us, but the attitude we bring to life." Wade Boggs, on his induction to the baseball hall of fame. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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