Quote Originally Posted by efacc View Post
addionally, from an optical perspective, it feels patronizing. oh, those women are beginners, they can't handle 40 minutes... now, i know that's not the intent but it can be interpreted that way.
amusingly, here in portland, the men beginners race for 40 minutes, but the women beginners, who race a combined field of Cat B, Beginners, Masters 35+ A, B & 45+, and Jrs 12+ (which for the first crusade race last year numbered somewhere around 270 women!), race for 45 minutes. i'm sometimes jealous of the guys for having 5 minutes less, but overall like having the full 45. i've only done 30 minute races at the evening races here, and it felt like it was over before i really started to get a feel for the course.

fwiw, this is my 2nd season, i'm still racing Beginners since they don't have a Women's C category and the leap to B or even B 35+ is HUGE. there are still many skills that i don't have to consider myself anything more than a beginner, even with a season of races under my belt.

OBRA has added a theoretical Women's C group, but they're not scoring them separately or anything, you're still counted among the Beginners. it's purely to gauge interest, and it looks like next year, they'll be adding it for real, since enough women have already said they'd be racing that category if it was an option.