Very well put, Kathleen!
On Sat, 7 Jul 2001, Kathleen Fitzpatrick wrote:
> For what it's worth... I can tell you that as Katie Kelly said,
> running open tends to push -everyone- in the class to run better. In
> open class the competition is typically -ALWAYS- better. This is
> nothing against the ladies' class, it's just that the ladies' classes
> tend to have real issues when it comes to having enough competitors -
> even for the more popular classes. This can leave ladies without the
> competition necessary to justify running in ladies. Understandably,
> there are clearly times when the ladies' competition is BETTER than
> the men's - but not often enough. Anyone that has run against Paula
> Whitney or Patty Tunnel or others like them should know what I'm
> saying. Certainly to compete against the best, against either sex,
> can be wonderfully challenging. That's what it's all about, right?!
>
> If not for issues regarding a more 'family friendly' setup, what other
> reason is there for making the difference at all? We all know that
Every justification I've ever heard can ultimately be boiled down to "more
trophiess".
> fundamentally women should be better drivers because smoothness
> typically comes naturally to women as aggression typically comes
> naturally to men. And, at the very least, there is no reason one
> should be better than the other on course. Yet how often have we seen
> a woman take an open class championship at Nationals? Once?
Exactly. And if you want to talk advantages, on average, the women are
lighter than the men, too. This rot of comparing autocross to athletic
sports like marathons and professional tennis is nonsense; the physical
differences don't pertain. It's more comparable to "skill" sports like
shooting, sailing, etc.
> If you don't care about the head to head competition then fine. Maybe
> what this means is that we should have 3 classes - open, women's and
> men's. I don't believe that the majority of men or women will meet
> their true potential until they run against the best in their class
> and that means running against the best competitor. For them - this
> means one thing - run open.
Yes. And if one says they don't care about the head to head competition,
then it's pretty hypocritical to be handing out trophies, no? Make it
Open and unscored Fun runs and be done with it.
KeS
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