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Show ' ' (- J f , . ' -... . . v I ";""" i- f " i ' "; '-. r . -i' T- I . ' j t . .v. , ill" ? r ' ')!' x n v Vr ' 1 , Iii My" 1 . u 'M . a' ; I v W ; x-y. i n J"y' ' S vA . " .' V:-; i. tl. ..,; V- IA fi-:I .-V " '.I -i ; ; . ' i i , . , . IkT. ' " ; . ' ' i I j (I ' ...r -.. x ; v..' i ' p- !- ! " .:v J ' 1 Vicki Ross (on foot) and Marit Glenne charge up Park City's Ride & Tie course. The 1983 course will be altered alter-ed : the start, finish and veterinary checks will all take place on Bonanza Flats. : Ride & Tie coo irse changes : sKodld-benefit:spetatoi,;-.- to "split the running load right down the middle." Team strategies vary depending on the strength of the runners and the strength of the horse and an unknown variable: how long the horse must , remain in the vet check. Ride & Tie teams must "tie" at least six times during the course of the race. They may also exchange ex-change riders on the run, without tying. The McLaren-Goddard team uses a "short tie" strategy: When the rider catches up to the runner, they exchange. The new rider gallops ahead a mile or so, ties the horse and runs on. The trailing runner should come upon the horse in seven to ten minutes. This strategy gives the horse and runners shorter, short-er, but more numerous rests than strategies involving in-volving "long ties." For the past three years, Con and Tort Wadsworth of Draper have won the Park City Ride & Tie, as well as the last two Levi-Strauss Ride & Tie races. The Wads-worths Wads-worths are said to use a "short tie" strategy as well. McLaren said he would stay within striking distance of the Wadsworths. Their team strategy will be to go out slow and "survive" the stampede-like start, and then build as the race progresses. "There are too many variables to do too much planning," said local racer Bev Gray. Gray and teammates team-mates Dana Landale and "Uinta" were the first female team to finish in Park City last year. Gray and her new partner, Julie Chambers, were the third female team to cross the finish line at the Nationals last month, and placed 34th overall. Gray said she trains by running six days a week for about an hour, and works out Uinta two hours a day. "We'll train on the course this week, and then we'll take it easy until the Ride & Tie," she said. Marit Glenne and Julie McKay will team with the 7-year-old Arabian, "Star," to give the McKay-Chambers team keen competition in the women's division. Glenne, also a distance runner, trains 60 miles a week, including mountain running and speed workouts. The strategy changes with the terrain, according to Glenne. During the first loop of the three-loop race, the strategy is more controlled, she said. After that, the strategy depends on how fast the horse passes the vet checks. Glenne maintains that the "short tie" strategy takes a very strong horse. "Stopping and starting, getting off and on is very hard on the horse." Their team strategy? That's off the record, until after the race. Local teams are gearing up for Park City's 6th annual high-altitude version of the national Ride & Tie horse :' and human race. With snow just melting ; from the higher elevations of the 36-mile course, local two- man teams are riding and running in final training I before the July 16 event. This ; years' Ride & Tie will host teams from many Western states who will be testing the J terrain in preparation for f next year's Levi-Strauss Ride & Tie, called the i "Nationals," to be held in I Park City. ! For anyone left in these S parts not familiar with Ride I & Tie, it's an endurance race I of about 35 miles on rocky, I hilly terrain run by teams of two humans who share one horse. One teammate rides a specified distance, then ties the horse to the nearest bush i or tree and begins running, leaving ' the horse for the J trailing runner. The race continues .in leapfrog fashion, and a winner is 1 declared after the first three-member team crosses the finish line. This year the race will be f more of a spectator sport than it has been in the past, because the start and finish, as well as the veterinary checks, will all take place at Bonanza Flats, just south of Park City on Guardsman Pass. The three veterinary checks ensure the well-being of the horse and set the tone for team strategies. The horse will not pass the vet check until its respiration rate reaches 72 beats a minute; min-ute; the longer the horse takes to recuperate from the hard ride, the slower the team travels. "Two good runners could kill a horse," said Parkite Kent McLaren. McLaren teamed with Guy Goddard, also of Park City, to capture 9th place this year in the Nationals held in Eureka, , Calif. McLaren, a distance runner run-ner and marathoner, trains by running 40 to 50 miles a week, including mountain workouts. The third member of the McLaren-Goddard team is Miscka, a 6-year-old female Arabian that McLaren says is in "super shape." The horse must be in shape, too, and they ride her about 100 miles a week. McLaren and Goddard like |