A Few of My Favorite Things

I am one of those types of people that will write something on a list that I have just done just for the satisfaction of crossing it off the list. Crossing an item off the list is one of my favorite things as a race director.

I keep notebooks, I am a pen and paper kind of girl and each race we produce gets its own dedicated notebook at the beginning of the planning process. It is my race brain, everything that needs to get done, every contact, every issue, every meeting goes into these notebooks. There are several satisfying things about these notebooks.

At the beginning of the year, when all the pre-planning down season stuff is happening one of the things I love to do is to start a new notebook. I feel as if I am starting fresh. Each and every event gets almost all the same lists; Permit, insurance, porto-potties, update website, update volunteer sign ups.....Yet I get some sort of pleasure out of writing it all out, one by one. I think it is because I get to see the scope of work in front of me each year.

Which, makes the second satisfying thing about these notepads: Putting them away, blank at the end of each event. At the beginning of the year I have this huge stack on my desk, each laid out, so organized. As we tick off the events I tear out the pages, file them away with that year's file folder and stow away the notebook until next year's plans start afresh. One of my favorite things is seeing that pile on my desk dwindle as the year goes on.

The things that drive me crazy about these notebooks: The items I can't check off until the day before race day. Things like "Print out volunteer list" or "Buy volunteer food." I can't seem to stand the sight of unchecked items.

These are just a few of my favorite things! Others include giant jars of leftover Nutella from races!!