[CQ-Contest] What is Multi to you?

[Ria Jairam]

When I worked with the NYC marathon, the elites got their own start times
and separate categories essentially. These are top class runners that will
basically blow away most others.

For a general competitor one does need to meet a minimum time to qualify
but the bar is pretty low and adjusted with age. Something like 3.5 hours
to run a 26.2 mile course for someone in their 40s.

The serious competitors go first and finish first but the rest of the crowd
plows along well behind them, running for charity or just personal goals.
It's more of a celebration of running rather than an actual race for many
people, and yes it's an achievement for people who are getting fit, or have
other personal challenges (eg wounded veterans) where they use the marathon
to achieve something they can be happy about.

There is also a questionable qualification of "competition at the highest
levels." If you're not on the east coast (or like W7WA, a chip shot from
JA) you're not going to do very well. Notable exceptions are statione like
N2IC, K9CT, K5TR and even K3LR (who is basically in Ohio) but those guys
have very decent stations that would probably beat everyone if they were
out East. There are stations who previously competed in other parts of the
country either relocate/guest op/remote up East and significantly boost
their scores, or go to some DX location like the Caribbean and
automatically gain an advantage. That's not to say they aren't good
contesters otherwise, but it does prove that you can't prove a competitor's
skill level simply by how they place in the top 10.

Ria
N2RJ



On Fri, May 12, 2017 at 8:48 AM, Ed Sawyer <sawyered at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Major
> contests, in my opinion, are about competition at the highest levels - not
> about attracting new people.  Is the Boston Marathon about getting people
> to
> try running?  Maybe through motivation in watching it - but not by
> participating.  Other contests should be potentially having this goal -
> Field Day (whoops its not a contest - wink wink) or Regional QSO parties.
> Not the best of the best contests.
> <CQ-Contest at contesting.com>
>