Those of you who have done this sport, please get in contact with me as I have some questions. If you live in INDIANA (bonus points!!!). I've went to the website and it gives a brief synopsis of the sport, led me to the facebook page for the Indiana group (pending acceptance there). But I have some questions.
How long, is the long course?
Are there time limits to complete?
How long is the short course?
How does team riding work? vs. Riding your own ride as an individual?
So far I've written two people in the sport in this region but have not received a response, but there is a ride going on this weekend so I assume that is where those folks are.
Karen that posted here on CMO's, your help would be greatly appreciated. I won't get to start this year, only one more Indiana ride this season. I may drive up though just to meet some of the folks.. and get a feel for how the process works. I wrote another person (Marti C) about an hour from here that also manages a ride about an hour from me. Hopefully she will respond and maybe I can draft her into showing me the ropes over the course of the late fall and early winter. Crossing fingers. As an aside, I feel these rides would be really good for Journey mentally as we can likely self-pace at "Journey" speed. I'm kind of excited about the prospect of trying something a little different.
~E.G.
Hello EG! A long course means there are 10 targets to find, a short course means there are just 5. Doesn't necessarily means the distance is any shorter because the RMs could still use the whole trail system, just put less targets to find. There is usually NOT a time limit, it's up to the RMs to decide if they want one just so that they can leave on a Sunday at a decent time or be able to figure out the placings. I did the Tippy one on Sunday. We found all 10 targets in just a few minutes under 3 hours. According to their maps, there is a total of 14 miles of trails and we rode just about all of them! We got 4th place out of 7 teams; 2 teams found all 10 but were slower (slowest being 4 1/2 hrs), and another team was faster but found only 9. Finding 10 always wins. You can do it alone, I never have. IMO that would be a very hard thing to do. We had 3 on our team, which I think is best. My original partner didn't show so I hooked up with 2 other people I knew.
ReplyDeleteIs there a way we can get in contact privately so I can answer your questions quicker? Do you have a "contact me" email address somewhere here?
Karen
Karen,
ReplyDeleteMy email addy is jackereynolds@yahoo.com
So if you ride on a team, do you have to declare a team for the year? Can you ride with different mixes of riders? Are there good clinics that teach you the skills to be successful (woman who only barely knows that the item in the pouch is indeed a compass...)
ReplyDeleteFor the longer course the mileage can vary then? Just depending on the trail? So it is more about the number of targets than the distance involved. These are usually two day events too right? Which would enable you to get more bang for you buck.
I about died when I saw the entry fees ($10-15) at first I thought it was a typo *LOL*! I've been paying $105 a year in membership/insurance, plus entry fees along the lines of $65 per day. I'm just a little stoked with this as it would put gas in the tank to actually go to rides ☺