Saturday, February 20, 2010

What You Do Not Know Because You Are Not Me, by Michael Ring

What you do not know because you are not me.

There is a lot of thing you probably don’t know.  You probably don’t know what it is like to be a Race Director.  Last Summer I was Race Director of the Summer Speed Series. (Can anyone suggest a new name? I was told the word “speed” was intimidating.)  That was easy, no goody bags, no electronic timing, no race applications, no credit card payments. Just 2 or 4 helpers and 30 or 50 people have a race.  Easy.  That was easy. 

Now I am Co-Directory of the Cherry Tree 10 Miler and Relay.  It has all the stuff the Summer Speed Series did have an more.  There are “relationships with sponsors”, park permits, inside and outside baggage check.  I gotta have an ambulance, volunteer HAM Radio operators, and do we need “split callers?   We need like billon bananas, we need trophies, and I gotta get 120 gallons of water and 2500 cups.  Oh, crap I just remembered that I gotta make sure there are enough toilets at the start/finish line.

As I right this race in five days.  When you read this it will be over.  In the next newsletter I will congratulate the victors and thank all the people who helped.  But right now I gotta send an email to U-Haul.