Ken Finch

At Piece of Cake we have always tried to balance the fields to try to make the most people we can happy. Needless to say, no matter what we do, not everyone is going to be pleased. But we recognize that, at least here in Oregon, Masters racing is pretty popular. Hence the three Master's fields. We've also always tried to support both Women’s and Junior's racing. And remember most Masters racers usually have a choice of either racing in the Master's field, or in their respective category. This puts you ahead of the many people who have no choice at all.

Figuring out which fields to offer is a bit of a balancing act. You can't simply keep adding more fields. We had just about every member of our team working the race as well as everyone who answered my call for volunteers. We simply didn't have the people power to add more fields.

I've heard from people during the past two years asking for various combinations of age and category in different races. Sometime when I post that we're thinking of making a switch, I'll often hear back from the same number asking us not to do it.

The bottom line is I think most promoters around here strive to include as many people as they can in their races. And it's not always about money either. We certainly don't make much charging $5 for juniors and running 10 racers in those fields.

That being said, we will probably take a fresh look at this race for next year and I'm open to suggestions on how to structure the fields. Of course that's no guarantee that everyone is going to be happy, or even that we'll end up with anything different then what we have.

Ken Finch and Prestovelo.