Connect Hains Point 100 and Freezing Saddles for Next Season?

While I will not be here next year, I support this idea. It would make sense to have it be all of winter, Dec 21- March 20, and make sure the Hains Point 100 day is included just in case it falls before the Winter Solstice.

@lynnsalvo 130194 wrote:

For next season, I wonder if Freezing Saddles could start on the first day of winter or the day of the Hains Point 100, whichever comes earlier. The HP100 could be a really neat kickoff event and it would be nice to include the miles in the Freezing Saddles competition.

@dasgeh 130199 wrote:

It’s not a bad idea, but I think a lot of us are so crazy/traveling with the holidays, starting on the New Year makes more sense.

Of course, you should totally propose it to whoever is non-organizing next year.

If someone intends to propose it to whoever is non-organizing next year, I would suggest this be done around Halloween. This year, discussion didn’t even start until after Thanksgiving, so I ended up developing the whole registration form in a day to allow everyone time to sign up. That meant some really quick polls on issues that would affect registration. If the competition is to start earlier next year, it would be nice to have some lead time to modify the registration form and get it up in a timely manner.

@Raymo853 130198 wrote:

While I will not be here next year, I support this idea. It would make sense to have it be all of winter, Dec 21- March 20, and make sure the Hains Point 100 day is included just in case it falls before the Winter Solstice.

You don’t get out of it that easily! Unless there is a change in the rules, veterans can join Freezing Saddles even if they no longer live in the area.

@lynnsalvo 130194 wrote:

For next season, I wonder if Freezing Saddles could start on the first day of winter or the day of the Hains Point 100, whichever comes earlier. The HP100 could be a really neat kickoff event and it would be nice to include the miles in the Freezing Saddles competition.

Side bets and Pointless Prizes do not necessarily have to occur during the competition. For instance, both the consularrider prediction and elf-photo caption contests occurred outside the usual time frame. And they could be awarded at the initial Happy Hour, just like the golden ingot.

So one could imagine a motivated volunteer coming up with ways to connect the Hains Point 100 in other ways than just extending the date range of FS.

While bringing in hp100 (and festive 500) miles would be nice, Jan 1 is a good start date, mostly to avoid travel and family time complaints.

I think it goes too long though. It usually warms up nicely by the second week of March.