No. \u00a0This has nothing to do with a wedding. \u00a0HA!<\/p>\n
Yesterday was something old and new all at the same time. \u00a0I was a volunteer again. \u00a0At a race again. \u00a0That’s the old. \u00a0The new was it was a Triathlon!<\/p>\n
I’ve volunteered at road races before. \u00a0Those are so much fun!!! \u00a0Encouraging the runners…telling them that hill isn’t as awful as it looks (It isn’t! \u00a0It’s worse!). \u00a0I NEVER tell the runners that they’re “almost there.” \u00a0I hate it when people tell me that when I’m racing.<\/p>\n
Road races are fun, though. \u00a0Having done my fair share of racing, I can commiserate with them. \u00a0I have a pretty good idea how they are feeling at that part of the race. \u00a0As I rule, I really feel sorry for them at that point because I KNOW they feel like they’re about ready to die by that point. \u00a0Kinda. \u00a0Not really. \u00a0But kinda. \u00a0\ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
A Tri, though. \u00a0This was the new part. \u00a0Volunteering at a Tri when I’d never even been to a Tri before. \u00a0I really didn’t have much of an idea what I was in for.<\/p>\n
I started my “job” Friday at 4:00 pm. \u00a0I was scheduled to do packet pickup. \u00a0It was fun meeting the people who would be participating. \u00a0Seeing them with the pre-race jitters asking all sorts of questions. \u00a0The #1 Question being, How many porta potties will there be in the morning. \u00a0Funny, but a very. important. question.<\/p>\n
I worked packet pick up that evening and got home around 8:00-8:30 pm. \u00a0Late.<\/p>\n
Saturday morning, I was up early. \u00a0I had to be back to do packet pickup for the people who didn’t make it there Fri. \u00a0I needed to be there by 5:00 am.<\/p>\n
How many of you get your packets before race day? \u00a0I ALWAYS get my stuff before race day. \u00a0I was amazed at the number of people who waited until Saturday morning to get their stuff! \u00a0They were frantic and running around like crazy people. \u00a0They needed their bib numbers. \u00a0They needed to get their bikes ready. \u00a0The needed to get body markings. \u00a0They needed to get their timing chips….They were running late. \u00a0*They should have picked up the packets the night before is what they should have done!*<\/p>\n
The race got started and people splashed into the lake and started swimming. \u00a0I packed away all the registration stuff. \u00a0Packed up all the extra race shirts, bibs…..Then it was off to the food people.<\/p>\n
I was supposed to check on the food people to make sure they were getting all their stuff set up okay. \u00a0Helped them with questions and headed off to the awards area.<\/p>\n
All the awards were stashed away in an RV parked on the far side of the race area. \u00a0I had a golf cart to use. \u00a0Loaded up the golf cart with the awards and drove it over to the table next to the podiums. \u00a0Made all the awards look pretty on the table and headed over to the finish line.<\/p>\n
They had given me two other adults and a bunch of little kids to work the finish line. \u00a0I had to get the sprouts (little kids) organized. \u00a0They were to hand out water\/Gatorade and cold\/wet towels to runners as they came across the finish line.<\/p>\n
The two adults and myself had to stop racers as they finished and take off their timing chips (the chips were on a velcro strap around their ankle) and put them in a storage tub. \u00a0Some of the runners had used a safety pin to made sure the chip\/velcro wouldn’t come off, so we were fighting with safety pins. \u00a0A little bit of a pain but peace of mind for the person racing. \u00a0That timing chip wasn’t going to come off while they were racing! \u00a0Smart in the long run.<\/p>\n
Things at the finish line were going great until the sprouts got a little enthusiastic in their work. \u00a0They wanted to be the first one to give the runner his\/her water\/Gatorade, etc. \u00a0They made a road block of little bodies in front of the finish line. \u00a0Nope. \u00a0That wasn’t going to work.<\/p>\n
Off I went to break up the road block and encourage them to let the runners through and THEN give them their stuff. \u00a0Funny, really. \u00a0They were having fun.<\/p>\n
After we had that all straightened out. \u00a0The kids decided to a trade sides, etc. \u00a0The would dip their cold towels in the ice and cross the finish line area dropping ice cubes all along in front of the finish line.<\/p>\n
Nope. \u00a0That wasn’t going to work either.<\/p>\n
I picked up ice cubes before a racer slipped and fell on the ice and gave the kids a little more instruction.<\/p>\n
Nobody slipped and fell. \u00a0We got all the timing chips off the racers. \u00a0The kids had fun! \u00a0It was great!<\/p>\n
We took off for awards next. \u00a0I had to help present awards then pack up the race.<\/p>\n
Got home in time for lunch. \u00a0Then I took a 2.5 hr nap.<\/p>\n
I was super tired and paid for it on my run this morning. \u00a0Hahaha!!! \u00a0Got my 6 miles in today but they weren’t much fun.<\/p>\n
What a great experience, though! \u00a0Basically, the RD (race director) said to me, “I know you can do this. \u00a0Do it.” and took off to do administrative stuff. \u00a0It was fun!<\/p>\n
Knew tons of people there! \u00a0Some of the racers were people I hadn’t seen since my last race in May. \u00a0Some of them were people who have been coming to my house on Saturday mornings for our new running group. \u00a0Some of them were friends (IRL) who were there to volunteer, too. \u00a0It was like a huge family reunion! \u00a0Such a fun, fun time!<\/p>\n
So, yes. \u00a0It was something old AND something new all at once. \u00a0Am I going to go out and learn how to swim so I can do a Tri? \u00a0I’m thinking, NO. \u00a0I’ll stick to the volunteering end of this sport. \u00a0Running I know I can do. \u00a0I tip over on a bike and I don’t know how to swim. \u00a0I’m thinking I should pass on this one. \u00a0I do have a great deal of respect for the people who can do this. \u00a0It’s tough stuff!<\/p>\n
That was my weekend. \u00a0Trust yours has been good as well!!! \u00a0New week tomorrow! \u00a0Let’s make it great!!!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No. \u00a0This has nothing to do with a wedding. \u00a0HA! Yesterday was something old and new all at the same time. \u00a0I was a volunteer again. \u00a0At a race again. \u00a0That’s the old. \u00a0The new was it was a Triathlon! I’ve volunteered at road races before. \u00a0Those are so much fun!!! \u00a0Encouraging the runners…telling them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,8,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3305"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3306,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3305\/revisions\/3306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}