Everybody’s Scalin’ – Can You Have Too Many?

I’ve written before about how the best parts of trail runs are typically the social aspect. It’s always more fun to run with buddies than to go solo. Can you have too many, though?

When I got heavy into scaling a few years ago I made it a goal of my fledgling club to have gigantic trail runs and scale competitions. Hey, if 4 friends are fun to go out with, 30 must be even better right? Why just comp with a couple close friends if you can do it with 50?

Luckily enough, we grew fast and I got to experience this regularly. And it was great fun! It’s just that doing it a bunch got old. It really has nothing to do with the people; I’ve been fortunate to meet a bunch of awesome hobbyists and they are a blast to run with. It’s all just a logistical thing.

It’s tough to herd big groups of people together at a trail run. Someone always runs late. Someone always immediately breaks down in the parking lot. Someone is always lost and can’t even find the meeting spot. The more vehicles you have, the longer people have to wait to attempt an obstacle. It gets even more tedious when you are talking a scored competition. Waiting around 3 hours for maybe less than 10 minutes of actual on crawling course time lost it’s appeal after about 3 events (it’s even less fun to be the poor sap with the clipboard taking said scores!)

After two years of running primarily in big groups I experienced some nasty “scaling burnout” last fall. I just recently got my groove back. What was the remedy? Going out with a small group and wheel the p*$$ out of my rig!

I’ve been out trailing several times this winter with just a couple guys and it’s totally re-stoked the fire. There is basically zero wait time – we just carpool, bash the trucks and head home. There is little downtime and a maximum amount of fun.

My point is this; it’s easy for a single person or small group of guys to get jealous when they see pictures of some of the gigantic scaling clubs/meets out there. You may think to yourself “my area sucks, I wish there were that many people interested around me!”. And yeah, there is something to be said for that. Being in a gigantic group can be a load of fun. It can also be a headache. Be careful what you wish for! No matter how big or small your gang is, just remember that as long as you’re having fun, you’re doing it right.

Have a nice weekend. I hope you get to do some wheeling wherever you are. I know I’ll be out on the trail enjoying the spring weather!

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