Re: Maggie's article

[Merryben@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/2/98 7:27:33 AM Pacific Daylight Time, rides2far@juno.com
writes:

<< The beauty of Ridecamp is that you have people with 300 career miles,
 telling people with none what helped them most...while they can still
 remember.  If you want NEW members, I would think that these people with
 100's of thousands of miles might have a little problem relating to their
 problems. >>

Actually, I have no problem relating to problems of newcomers.  I not only
teach newcomers, most of them are 7-12 years old.  I know exactly how they
feel.  Does this also  imply that those of us with over 7,000 miles and over
55 years can't remember when we started?  I have found that Julie Suhr ,
Ruthie Waltenspiel, Becky Hart [although she's not over 55] and other friends
of mine, give me a lot better information that the 300 mile ridecampers.  They
can tell what helped them most while they still remember, however, they don't
have a whole lot to remember.  The people with no miles would do a lot better
by listening to people who have, as Maggie says, "been there, done that",
although I do hate that expression.  The most important advice I give
newcomers is to be careful who they take advice from.  There are a lot of
people with no experience giving an awful lot of advice.  And guess what, I
actually can remember my first endurance ride, the Diamond 50, which I rode
July 6, l974,  24 years ago.  I remember a lot of the people that rode that
ride because they are still riding.  Is all of this whining about Maggie's
article another example of this list.  A lot of people on this list take
everything so personally.  Maggie does get a little strong in her opinions
sometimes but that is just Maggie.  I think we should pay more attention to
what she said about those "who want to change the rules to fit individual
levels, who want loopholes so that everybody has a chance to finish....."  The
most important thing about her article was that there are no guarantees that
everyone will finish.  Don't take everything so personally that you all get
insulted if you haven't ridden a lot.....Maryben