Oh the flyer. It's such an innocuous piece of paper. Or used to be. Now it's an innocuous pdf file that you can print out if you feel like it, but it can also sit on your phone or tablet or other portable geewhiz whatchamacallit you have nowadays.
But for whoever wrote that flyer, well, it's a bear.
I just blew away every bit of my available thinking brain power reserves working on a fresh flyer for the 2011 Bethel Spring Series.
Correction, fresh flyers. Plural.
I have yet to file permits, yet to file bikereg, and I have a gazillion things to get done before next Tuesday night.
(My totally inflexible deadline has to do with flying out to SoCal at o'dark hundred the next morning, so it's really a "can't forget" kind of a deadline).
Of course I still don't have the bike I'm bringing out there, nor are many of the parts ready for assembly - they're hanging off of an already-somewhat-stripped down Giant, my good ol' carbon Giant, formerly my main bike, and the bike that won TWO Bethel Spring Series overalls - once under me, and once under a different rider when she won the Series on my (borrowed because hers broke) bike.
So, yeah, I have a lot of stuff to get done before Tuesday night. And it's already Wednesday night the week prior.
Anyway, the flyer.
The flyer has a lot of requirements. There are some actual stated things like entry fee, either "Permit pending" or "Permit xxxx-yyyy" (usually that format).
Hm I think I forgot the "Held under USA Cycling" in front of the permit phrase.
Anyway, there's also distance, start times, directions, date, prizes, stuff like that.
In other words the person writing the flying has to know everything, and they have to have all the information in front of them at the time they make the flyer.
You'd think that after umpteen years of Bethel that I'd have the flyer down, but that's not always true.
Changes that occur every year include date changes (it's not going to be March 3rd every year, it may be March 7th or 10th or whatever), perhaps some adjustments to categories or distances or prizes, usually an adjustment to entry fees, and finally any sponsorship things.
For 2011 the Bethel Spring Series has changes in dates (although it's going to be the Sundays in March plus the first two Sundays in April), categories (no Junior race), distances (P123s are going much further), a clinic, and prizes.
Clinic?!
Yes. I've decided to do the clinic, finally, and committed to it mentally. It's going to be a roughly framed thing, with required reading before the clinic and reviews of the reading while on the bike. Although aimed at new riders, there's nothing to stop anyone from signing up. Well, I want to limit it to 50 and I figure that there'll be an extended Q&A period afterward. The group will ride together at a somewhat controlled pace, then "race" for 5 laps or so at the end of the day's clinic. The last clinic will be basically a race, although no one will score and such.
As for credit for upgrading, I need to look into it. I would suggest that the clinic will not replace racing experience though. It'll just get you going in the right direction.
Prizes...
Yes, prizes. There's a slew of product prizes coming in, all because of a main sponsor that has popped up in a delightfully surprising way. I'm still waiting to announce the sponsor (and the name of the Series) but let's put it this way - it's on the flyers I made and it'll be on BikeReg.
So it'll be soon.
We'll be giving away a frameset at the end of the Series, with all race entries counting towards a drawing entry. I'm still figuring out if we should require someone to be present or not to win - I'd prefer it that way because it's easier, but it's also hard for everyone to wait until the end of the day to see if they won something.
(If you have any suggestions I'm all ears. For now I'm inclined to require winners to be present.)
I hope that all this will be out there in the next 24 hours, if I can get my brain wrapped around the flyers.
Because although they may seem kind of mundane to you, it represents the race to me.
And that's kind of important.
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5 comments:
re: Frameset
It'll be given away on the last race of the series, no? Require them to be there. Make sure you have a family-friendly atmosphere with a central place for riders/families to gather, lounge, congregate, eat, etc... I did races like this back when I was just starting out. They were some of the most fun. Have a BBQ or something.
The frame will be given away, but unless the winner happens to fit a 54 cm, the frameset "on raffle" will only be a symbolic frame - the winner will get a frame in the size of their choice.
Although a BBQ may not be in the works, there is an onsite place that just reeks of coolness. This'll be in the "we'll figure it out between now and March 3" category of stuff to do.
I reviewed my flyers just now. I forgot field limits! I'll have to review again when my eyes are a little less blurry.
I just thought of another thing already - prize money. That's a requirement, listing prize money.
Re: frameset
A lot of riders will be racing in Battenkill on the 10th of April and I am guessing that that will be the last week of Bethel.
It would be a shame to deny a drawing winner because they chose to compete in a much harder, more prestigious event.
I understand. It's one of the debates I'm having internally. I'm still undecided on exactly how to do the drawing.
How complicated does it need to be ?!
Its a drawing.... Just draw a winner and give it away.
No one is going to be entering races they normally wouldn't just because they have a shot at winning a frame.
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