Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Promoting - Bethel Spring Series 2010

So the poll for the 2010 Bethel Spring Series has closed. The question - which days, other than Sundays in March, should we run the Series?

The most popular answers are Feb 28 and March 18. April 11 and 25 received about equal votes. I'd do some statistical analysis if I could, but I passed Statistics in school by guessing on 19 of 20 multiple choice questions (one final exam), so I don't know very much about statistics. Therefore I can't conclude that anything is statistically significant or all those fancy terms.

The poll also let me think about what dates I can and can't hold the races. (FYI - I didn't vote in the poll.)

Feb 28th is the last day of the North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show. I have a special place in my heart for such shows, and therefore I don't want to overlap it. I can think of some individuals (like the one that said "Uh-oh" on one of the helmet cam clips) who make a living in the NAHBS market, and they've also lent long and consistent support to the Series.

I also don't want to drag the Series out to April 25th. It's hard running the races. I end up a zombie after each Bethel until about Wednesday, which means that by the time I recover from the Sunday prior, it's about Thursday or Friday. Two months of that is a half month too much for me.

Then I have to start prepping for the next race.

So anyway, if I leave out February 28th and April 4th (Easter), that leaves April 11 and 18.

After a lot of thought, and lots of teammates telling me NOT to hold the race on the 11th, I've decided that there will be a race on the 11th as well as the 18th.

Yes, on the 11th.

Okay, I have to get my fire-proof suit on so I can fend off all the flame comments.

Seriously though, I figure that we'll lose one weekend in March due to snow/ice, and we usually have one bad weather week (a Nor'easter, with driving wind and sideways rain) where each race has like 20 riders. With just five weeks of scheduled racing, there's little margin for an eliminated day, especially combined with a poor weather day.

Now, to boost morale of participants, I'll have at least one or two announcements to make regarding the races.

That'll wait though because, naturally, first I have to get permission from the town. The fax went out, and now I'm just waiting for the next Board of Selectman meeting. Technically they have the power to shut down the race, but pending their approval, the whole thing gets rolling.

So, I wait with fingers crossed.

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