June 12, 2015

Becoming A Ride Manager

Poor hubby. There he was innocently running an endless number of 3 mile loops in the woods over and over and over again (he did 22 total laps before his legs called it quits) in 95 degree heat and humidity thinking about forward motion and nutrition never suspecting that his wife would be signing him up for things in the future.

It all happened in a blur, I swear!

I was hanging out with Wyatt enjoying spending the day with him and checking in on Dusty throughout to make sure he didn't need anything when the RM who put on the Clemson R&T and Equathon posted on the FB page that she wouldn't be hosting the event any longer. She lives 2 hours or so away and only began putting it on here when she got kicked out of Biltmore due to logistics and she needed a last second venue swap. It has been difficult for her to continue to put it on at a location far away where she has actually never even seen the trails and needs to rely on others to do the marking. She asked if anyone else would want to take over for her.

I might have replied yes before completely thinking it through.

I did manage to gather my brain cells together enough to send her a private message asking about the financial commitment since we really have zero extra dollars to invest in a ride. She said that most of the time she breaks even depending on how big she goes on the awards and such. With Dusty being a vet and having vetted the ride last year, we will save even more money.

I'm very excited to do this. I've been dreaming of putting on a ride for years. I am already thinking of different award ideas and how I want to mark the trails. There are some great trails that haven't been used in the last 2 years that I want to incorporate.

The R&T doesn't have a great turn out which plays in my favor. It has different needs than an endurance ride, but with 15 or so entries I can manage it without feeling overwhelmed with a ton of people.

My ultimate goal is to run the R&T here in 2016 then add a 25 and 50 endurance ride for 2017. It is a great venue with a ton of stalls and primitive camping areas for use. We will see how it goes!!!

 

1 comment:

  1. I know it's a ways off, but do post in detail about how you do it! It's rare that we get to read a ride manager's full account of the work involved in organizing a ride. I'm so excited for you!

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