So one of the most frustrating things today, all day, for almost every single race, is that people were consistently showing up at registration without a license.
For more rant, I'll reproduce what I just posed on www.carpediemracing.org:
**Beginning of Post**
March 21, 2010: Going forward, PLEASE HAVE YOUR LICENSE WHEN YOU COME TO REGISTRATION. If you do NOT have your license (or Authorization to Race - AtR), we will be glad to help you - AFTER we help all the responsible folks that have their license.
Although we have an internet connection on site, and we have for a few years, we pay $600 for the internet connection annually. Therefore I am going to charge $10 to look up a license going forward. This charge will be applied to the internet connection charges we pay.
Note: Promoters are not required to have an internet connection at a race. Racers are required to have a racing license.
If anyone with a license or AtR comes up to the counter, they get priority over the unprepared racers. It is simply not fair to make other people wait because someone can't get their license. Don't be a greedy, selfish, unprepared racer that has no license. No one, especially not me, likes them.
I don't think I can make this more clear. As a racer it's your responsibility to bring your license or Authorization to Race to the race.
Many of you may think I'm picking on you individually. I am not. There were so many people who didn't have their license it was mind boggling.
So do me a favor if you want to race the Bethel Spring Series. Bring your license. Please.
Also, Cat 5 registration closes at 7:50 AM. We have two races because there is a rule limiting Cat 5s to 50 racer field limits. We do NOT have a second race so that people can show up later.
If you show up late for your race, you are late. Late racers don't race, they watch the race they just missed.
I gave attitude to a Cat 5 that showed up well into the first race. He was pre-registered and had his license (yay!). He was also in the first race, which, at that point, was probably half over (boo!). I let him in the second race. I was bad but I let the whole pity thing get to me. (This was an individual picking-on thing - I think he was the one that asked me, "Are you the promoter??")
/rant
Other than having a certain race promoter get extremely frustrated with all sorts of unprepared racers begging and pleading to race when they had no legal right to race, and other than one bad crash in the P123 race, the day went well.
So thanks for coming out to race, thanks to everyone who showed up with a license or AtR, and thanks to the folks that helped out and made it all possible.
I should be all friendly by next week :)
**End of Post**
So in case it's not clear, bring your license to the race. Any race you do, for that matter. It makes life a lot easier on everyone.
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6 comments:
Just an idea: Here in the mid-Atlantic the registration folks tell the forgetful people to find a teammate with an iphone to log onto usacycling.org and show them their AtR online. Works pretty well.
More than a few people have done that with an iPhone. That's actually very effective and works well.
Since the rider is doing the work, that's fine. It's when they want me (or the folks helping out) to look things up for them. That gets really old really quick.
But yes, an "electronic" AtR is good.
So, wait: if I want to come and race, do I need a license? Really????
I can't imagine how frustrating your morning had to be for YOU, the King of Patience, to have to write that. Sorry! Don't let anyone complain at you for their own unpreparedness. Sheesh.
I actually wasn't necessarily frustrated at any given point in time. I did get well behind on things because I was spending time trying to be a good customer service type person. Suddenly other things got left by the wayside, all stuff that has to do with taking care of racers in general.
I felt especially bad for racers who arrived on time, trying to register so they could warm up, and got stuck in line because some bozo doesn't have the wherewithal to have their license. It's extremely unfair to the racers who handle their own stuff properly.
I realized that I was sacrificing the quality of the race in order to deal with racers who weren't prepared.
So I've made a choice.
I'll help those who arrive on time and prepared. I'll try and be on time and prepared myself (and, honestly, I'm often behind schedule with different things, but, for example, I now show up at the race course at 6 AM).
I take full responsibility for anything I do wrong, late, incorrectly, etc. I'm now making the racers take the same responsibility for their own actions.
BRAVO,BRAVO!!!!!
As much as you accomodate late entries,how about if you try just limiting the 5 race to just the first 50 that pre-register? Maybe then the racers would get the hint that it is first come, first served.
We never considered limiting Cat 5s, but we ran into a scheduling problem because we could only hold x number of races a day. So two Cat 5 races, with the USAC limit of 50 per race.
I don't want to punish anyone in general, and especially not for being a particular category.
I also think that part of the experience of being a Cat 5 (and, before Cat 5s existed, a Cat 4) is to learn the ropes. This means learning to deal with all the weirdness that make up race day. You may forget things, lose things, do things wrong, etc. That's all part of learning what it takes to race.
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