Ultra Awards - why just one every 10 years?

[Dan Driscoll]

I’m perfectly happy with the way RUSA has The Ultra Award set up, allowing credit for more than one series per year. I don’t think changing the USA rules to match the United Kingdom rules would make The Ultra Award any more desirable or impressive, I think the opposite. For the overachievers, the RUSA rules allow them to earn credit for as many full series in a year as they like, not just one per year. If you only want to do one series a year and take the full 10 years to earn the Award, you can do it that way and RUSA allows for that as well. I’m pretty impressed with a guy named Gary who was able to darn near earn an Ultra Award (10 series) in one year. No matter how you slice it 9 full series in one year is very impressive. You could always see how many Ultra Awards you could earn in 10 years, there is nothing wrong with earning two or more Ultra Award in 10 years, or earning one Ultra Award in less than 10 years. How about earning 5 or more Ultras in 10 years? It’s actually happening, one Award every two years, for ten years. I think that has plenty of merit. I like the fact the USA Version of the Ultra Award is different than our United Kingdom’s counterparts Award. If you need a bigger 10 year goal, how about the Galaxy Award ? J RUSA certainly has more than enough to keep us all busy. I miss Doris, too J.  DD

 

From: ran...@googlegroups.com [mailto:ran...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of William Beck
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 2:52 PM
To: ran...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Randon] Re: Virtual Randonee

 

Damon,

Thanks for the very nice video. That's certainly the first time I've heard Doris Day in many years.

I wish the US Ultra Randonneur award required an SR series in 10 separate years. It would be a more desirable and impressive award that way IMHO.

Bill Beck

On Friday, May 18, 2012 10:28:34 AM UTC-4, Damon wrote:

I'm not doing much this year. Last year was PBP, next year will be
LEL, and I reached Ultra Randonneur status last year. That's an SR in
10 seperate years in the UK. So I need something to keep the interest
up.There's a 600k this weekend in Wales. I filmed the scenic bits of
it in 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxHWajFKfRU&feature=g-upl
The big unknown about Wales is the weather. The forecast is good, Most
will reach Beddgelert at around 6pm. http://www.yr.no/place/United_Kingdom/Wales/Beddgelert~2656049I'm
a fan of Norwegian weather forecasting.
I'm quite interested in some of the references to Parkway and Skyline
Drives in US routesheets. We have the advantage of sea views with rock
strewn mountains, when we can see them. I'd love to see a few scenic
sequences of US rides to keep up my interest during a season when
there are other priorities. Even though I'm not doing rides I like to
be reminded of what they can be like.

Damon.

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[William Beck]

Dan,

That's a perfectly reasonable way to look at it, and that must have been what the people who created the award had in mind.

My point was that the current award doesn't require what I think is the most impressive aspect of the UK version -- being in condition to do an SR series in 10 separate years.That's more impressive to me (just my opinion) than doing them in fewer years since, once you're in shape to do a 600K, the number of SR series that you can do in a year is more limited by time and travel budget than by conditioning. Putting it another way, the UK version is like the US R-12 award where you have to do at least one 200K every month -- you can't just do 12 rides in the first three months of the year. I like that aspect.

But, as you said, doing lots of SR series in a single year, or 10 in any number of years, is very impressive in its own way.

Bill

[David Buzzee]

Stretching the recognition over ten years does indeed relflect a long-term commitment to the sport. If the calculation has been done, what is the average tenure between someone joining RUSA and later abandoning the membership before ten years have elapsed?

db

From: William Beck <william...@gmail.com>
To: ran...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 12:35 PM
Subject: [Randon] Re: Ultra Awards - why just one every 10 years?

--

[Dan Driscoll]

Would love to know all the stats, on this and other questions, but I can’t get that from the RUSA website (yet) J. I think a lot of RUSA members have already earned an Ultra Award the UK way (at least one series per year for 10 years), and I know of at least one RUSA members that has earned a full series or more for all 14 years of RUSA. UK has a great programs, but in general the USA may have more overachievers, in terms of series per year and total K’s per year, that’s just one of the reasons I like the RUSA rules the way they are, but glad we can all respectfully disagree. RUSA could always add another Award for a series OR more per year for 10 years in a row Or any 10 years in a lifetime. Many would already have it, it couldn’t hurt, but not really necessary, but you could petition for it. The RUSA members that have done it or will do it, already know who they  are, but it’s fun to plant this seed with anyone that has not yet thought about it.

 

DD

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[d_bu...@yahoo.com]

As I recall from my membership days in AUK, many AUKs ride only 200 and the occasional 300 K brevets. I'm thinking that the USA, despite its shorter history, probably has more Ultra Randonneurs (either 10 year or less) than GB. But that's just conjecture until someone does the counting. And lest we forget, some RUSA stalwarts accumulated SRs through International Randonneurs. By the RUSA rules, these count towards Ultra recognition.
db

Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless

-----Original message-----

[Damon]

UK weather is very variable, so it's not usual to do more than one 600
a year. It's all to easy to hit a bad patch of weather which kills the
motivation. There are exceptional riders who do more though. I've
still got to do a Fleche, which would probably get me a Randonneur
5,000 award. It would be easier for me if a 24 hour TT could be
substituted, or if another award incorporated such rides. 24 hr and 12
hr rides are the root of long distance riding in the UK. Adding one to
an SR gives a nice round 2,000 km more often than not, as the median
mileage in our 24 hour falls between 500 and 600km. A target of 312
miles gives something to aim for. Before we had a qualifying SR series
360 miles was accepted as good enough for PBP.

Damon.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

I'm not sure whether RUSA or AUK has more 'hardcore' riders but AUK
has certainly got several out on the fringe.

http://www.aukweb.net/results/fame/detail/ur/ lists AUK's Ultra
Randonners, Jim Hopper is on 31 years (and counting), to go with his 8
straight PBPs on trike. Steve Abraham collected over 40,000km of
(mostly fixed wheel) brevets a few years back, while holding down a
full-time job. Remember, AUK doesn't count 100km populaires in their
'points' totals, only 200+ brevets.

From memory, Brits had to do 375 miles in a 24hr time trial to qualify
for PBP75 only. Since then, AUKs have had qualifying brevets and
before that, foreigners didn't have to qualify.

Dave