If I am in jail you will know it was because I was stalking the UPS lady! This is the life of a race director, I suppose, at least this race director.
We recently moved our office. Apparently some of our vendors did not get that memo as they have still been delivering packages to our old address. Run Scared 5K is coming up this Sunday and I get a little anxious about items like these arriving in time. It is a fine balance between ordering too early and having your numbers be way off (either way to many and you end up storing them for all eternity, I think we still have shirts from our first year of some of these events. Or, not ordering enough thus making your participants angry).
So, when I looked online a couple of days ago it had said my boxes had been delivered, but no boxes appeared. I dug a little further and realized they were using my old address. Luckily I am friends with someone else in the building and she looked around and could not find them. The next day she texted me saying my boxes had arrived.
Thrilled I made the trek down to Seattle to pick them up. But alas, only 2 out 7 boxes had arrived. I did some errands around Seattle and stopped back by when behold, I saw the UPS truck, just up the street. She was delivering something to the next building up the hill. I had a feeling that my boxes were on that truck. So, like a stalker, I pulled in across the street, slunk down in my car and watched and waited.
Sure enough, she started unloading the boxes onto a hand truck. I jumped out, waved her down and asked if they were for Run For Good Racing. She was surprised, said yes, how did I know! I gave her a creepy smile and led her to my car.
All boxes now arrived and the hats look great! With even a few days to spare!
Phew!
Let's just hope she doesn't press charges!
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Post-Race-Day-Syndrome
Have I run a marathon recently? Oh no, that is just the day after race syndrome. The day after one of our own races my whole body usually is sore and aching and all I want to do is sleep. Walking down stairs is always interesting and I feel muscles in my body I do not normally feel. Frequently I am ravenous all day. I get the same sense of happy tired accomplishment and similar sense of pride.
Unlike marathon running though, race directing comes with a certain brand of bruising that you might not find anywhere else. I like to think that I am a victim of race abuse.
Why, you ask? Well, the simple explanation is there is a lot of shlepping, pulling, pushing, throwing, lifting, wrenching, carrying, kicking and various other actions that come along with race day.
Today is no different. We put on a small-ish event yesterday. We had amazing weather, a better than expected turnout with lots of smiles, and happy participants. I feel like the smaller the event, the less volunteer and staff support it usually has, which means more of it falls on the race director and our crew.
This nice set of bruises comes from carrying delineators around the course, out to turn arounds and mile markers that were not easily accessible by vehicle. I doubt you will find this sort of bruise patterns anywhere else. Those things are heavy and awkward!
Participants often times do not recognize that race directors take physical abuse to be able to put on these events. There is little time for eating or drinking and I have only gone to the bathroom once, at any of our own events, ever, which is a shame as I would like to be able to use the porto-potties that our company pays for! More often that not race days come with a very very early alarm clocks and the day does not end until late afternoon, and it is mostly non-stop physical exertion. I guess the adrenaline gets my body through. I always try coffee (usually we are too early and coffee shops are not open so I have somebody bring me a coffee) but 9 times out of 10 I set the cup down somewhere and forget it even exists.
So I sit here today, on my couch, trying not to move, happy that the event is over and successful, but bruised, scraped and sore. I am not sure which is easier, running a marathon or race directing. They are both about equally as painful.
Next time you see a race director schlepping that heavy generator, cone, tent, water jug, table....take a moment and thank them for taking the abuse so that you may have a great race experience. You will probably hear a genuine "you are welcome" as we all love our jobs too much to quit!
Signing off, the ice cream and movies are calling me!
Unlike marathon running though, race directing comes with a certain brand of bruising that you might not find anywhere else. I like to think that I am a victim of race abuse.
Why, you ask? Well, the simple explanation is there is a lot of shlepping, pulling, pushing, throwing, lifting, wrenching, carrying, kicking and various other actions that come along with race day.
Today is no different. We put on a small-ish event yesterday. We had amazing weather, a better than expected turnout with lots of smiles, and happy participants. I feel like the smaller the event, the less volunteer and staff support it usually has, which means more of it falls on the race director and our crew.
This nice set of bruises comes from carrying delineators around the course, out to turn arounds and mile markers that were not easily accessible by vehicle. I doubt you will find this sort of bruise patterns anywhere else. Those things are heavy and awkward!
Participants often times do not recognize that race directors take physical abuse to be able to put on these events. There is little time for eating or drinking and I have only gone to the bathroom once, at any of our own events, ever, which is a shame as I would like to be able to use the porto-potties that our company pays for! More often that not race days come with a very very early alarm clocks and the day does not end until late afternoon, and it is mostly non-stop physical exertion. I guess the adrenaline gets my body through. I always try coffee (usually we are too early and coffee shops are not open so I have somebody bring me a coffee) but 9 times out of 10 I set the cup down somewhere and forget it even exists.
So I sit here today, on my couch, trying not to move, happy that the event is over and successful, but bruised, scraped and sore. I am not sure which is easier, running a marathon or race directing. They are both about equally as painful.
Next time you see a race director schlepping that heavy generator, cone, tent, water jug, table....take a moment and thank them for taking the abuse so that you may have a great race experience. You will probably hear a genuine "you are welcome" as we all love our jobs too much to quit!
Signing off, the ice cream and movies are calling me!
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Longest mile of my life
I have had some memorable miles in my running career. There was the last mile of the Honolulu Marathon, hot and humid and raining where I was trying to run a personal best and when the 25 mile marker came along and I looked at my watch and I had two minutes until my goal time I got so excited because my marathon math brain took over and told me I could run a mile in 2 minutes. Or, there was the last mile of my first marathon, where I was a sobbing mess full of emotions. Or, the gorgeous mile across the Deception Pass bridge at dawn on my 2nd leg of the Ragnar race. Or, the last mile of the Paris Marathon, which was made even longer by the fact that I took the sip of wine offered at mile 25.
Of all those memorable miles, yesterday I had the longest (in time) mile of my life, it was approximately a 2.5 hour mile! So slow a Garmin did not even register movement. And, I know it was exactly a mile because I was pushing a measuring wheel the entire time.
For every race in Seattle that impacts streets there needs to be neighborhood notifications. It is simply not good enough to post posters along the route anymore and the City has really cracked down on this process because of all the complaints they have been receiving. I get that. But, there has got to be an easier way than going door to door!!
Good thing the Earth Day Run is only a 5K along Alki. Alki, as you probably know only has buildings on one side of the street. Thank god, or else my 5K time would have been 5 hours instead of 3 hours!
I walked out with my measuring wheel to the half way mark. That part, not so bad, its flat, its gorgeous, it was a gray day but with no wind or rain. I ran into a friend. Really quite pleasant actually.
Then I hit the turn around point and got myself across the street with my bag of tape and notification letters. I started in. Condos were the worst. How do you get a full building of condos with tight security to see your notice? I decided to simply tape the notice to the front door. Something I am sure these buildings with their manicured lawns and fountains did not appreciate.
Houses were easy, simply stuck them in the mail boxes.
The problem was, every time another building came along I had to stop the wheel, kick stand it, go do my notifications, un-kick stand it and push it to the next building. Doesn't sound so bad, but when there is a mailbox every 10 feet you have to do that over and over and over and over again.
All in all, every single condo building, house, apartment building and business was notified and I feel really good about that. The result though, was the longest mile of my life.
Of all those memorable miles, yesterday I had the longest (in time) mile of my life, it was approximately a 2.5 hour mile! So slow a Garmin did not even register movement. And, I know it was exactly a mile because I was pushing a measuring wheel the entire time.
For every race in Seattle that impacts streets there needs to be neighborhood notifications. It is simply not good enough to post posters along the route anymore and the City has really cracked down on this process because of all the complaints they have been receiving. I get that. But, there has got to be an easier way than going door to door!!
Good thing the Earth Day Run is only a 5K along Alki. Alki, as you probably know only has buildings on one side of the street. Thank god, or else my 5K time would have been 5 hours instead of 3 hours!
I walked out with my measuring wheel to the half way mark. That part, not so bad, its flat, its gorgeous, it was a gray day but with no wind or rain. I ran into a friend. Really quite pleasant actually.
Then I hit the turn around point and got myself across the street with my bag of tape and notification letters. I started in. Condos were the worst. How do you get a full building of condos with tight security to see your notice? I decided to simply tape the notice to the front door. Something I am sure these buildings with their manicured lawns and fountains did not appreciate.
Houses were easy, simply stuck them in the mail boxes.
The problem was, every time another building came along I had to stop the wheel, kick stand it, go do my notifications, un-kick stand it and push it to the next building. Doesn't sound so bad, but when there is a mailbox every 10 feet you have to do that over and over and over and over again.
All in all, every single condo building, house, apartment building and business was notified and I feel really good about that. The result though, was the longest mile of my life.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
For the love of interns!
Nothing like a good intern to make you feel old and out of it!
We recently hired a UW School of Communications intern for some of our ancillary marketing and community outreach jobs, like putting together registration parties and writing press releases and working with running groups. But most importantly to handle our social media. Fiona is amazing!
I am the first to admit that I am a late adopter of technology, some might even call me a dinosaur. I only got on Facebook a couple of years ago, with a very twisted arm, still have no idea what the purpose of Twitter is and that is about the only social media I even know about.
So, eagerly, our intern took over some of the admin's on these accounts and has been doing great things with them. She started an instagram page and has done more tweeting in the last week than I managed to do in my whole life.
We were in a meeting the other day with a crowd-funding website we are using for Good Karma 5K called Projekt Karma and Fiona asked if we should post this to "^!%S(!))#@" or something! I looked at her funny and said "Huh!?" She said it again, "^!%S(!))#@". I told her I had never even heard of this thing she was talking about. I think it was Mobli? Or some other thing. I really cannot even remember.
Then later I was tinkering around with our new email software program and there was a button on linking your E Newsletter with your various social media outlets and I clicked on this link and it took me to a screen that just boggled my mind.
We recently hired a UW School of Communications intern for some of our ancillary marketing and community outreach jobs, like putting together registration parties and writing press releases and working with running groups. But most importantly to handle our social media. Fiona is amazing!
I am the first to admit that I am a late adopter of technology, some might even call me a dinosaur. I only got on Facebook a couple of years ago, with a very twisted arm, still have no idea what the purpose of Twitter is and that is about the only social media I even know about.
So, eagerly, our intern took over some of the admin's on these accounts and has been doing great things with them. She started an instagram page and has done more tweeting in the last week than I managed to do in my whole life.
We were in a meeting the other day with a crowd-funding website we are using for Good Karma 5K called Projekt Karma and Fiona asked if we should post this to "^!%S(!))#@" or something! I looked at her funny and said "Huh!?" She said it again, "^!%S(!))#@". I told her I had never even heard of this thing she was talking about. I think it was Mobli? Or some other thing. I really cannot even remember.
Then later I was tinkering around with our new email software program and there was a button on linking your E Newsletter with your various social media outlets and I clicked on this link and it took me to a screen that just boggled my mind.
Do you see how many icons that is!? What are they all for? What does it all mean!? Help, I am drowning in them!
I remember, back in my day, when all you needed was a good poster to get your event some attention! God, I feel old! Thank you Fiona for keeping me young and for getting us all those new participants!
Anyone have a suggestion on any social media sites you would like to see us on? Fiona would be happy to set them up!!
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Going International
Sorry I have been MIA lately, a lot going on around here. 4 major events within 2 and a half months and planning for next year's calendar can make a race director disappear for a while.
We kicked it all off with possibly the hardest event, The Biggest Loser Half Marathon and 5K, then two weeks later one of our most fun events, Run Scared 5K and then we just finished The Mustache Dache with over 2000 participants and in a couple of weeks we finish out the season with an awesome event, Girls on the Run 5K.
But, the upside to all this craziness now is a pretty good, well deserved break coming up. I am sitting here with my passport in hand signing up for international races! What fun! And what a different experience from signing up for local races.
Even though we come from a very litigious society where there are warnings on everything and for every event you sign away your life rights to the organizers, international events are not like that, but funny in a different way. I have been lucky enough to run in a few other international big events in the past and for almost every one of them I had to submit a doctor's note verifying I was healthy enough to compete. An interesting concept. What if a person gets the note, and then something happens, who gets sued!? The doctor?
Do we really think that this practice will reduce the number of medical instances out on the course. I have no idea really and would love to study the number of injuries and deaths in international races versus US races which typically do not require this step. But, quite frankly, I am too busy now to look into it, and I will just be happy to be eating a croissant on the streets of Paris after my marathon!
Another fun thing about signing up for a big international event is looking at the entrant's list, which one of my future events does post for all to see. Looking through that list and seeing only one Seattle, WA is fun. I guess I will have to run my hardest to represent.
It is thrilling to be planning my own personal running races, as opposed to planning them for you, my loyal and awesome participants. I love you all, but feels good to focus on myself for a little while. See you at the starting line, but please do not be faster than me, I really want to win my category of participants from Seattle, WA!
We kicked it all off with possibly the hardest event, The Biggest Loser Half Marathon and 5K, then two weeks later one of our most fun events, Run Scared 5K and then we just finished The Mustache Dache with over 2000 participants and in a couple of weeks we finish out the season with an awesome event, Girls on the Run 5K.
But, the upside to all this craziness now is a pretty good, well deserved break coming up. I am sitting here with my passport in hand signing up for international races! What fun! And what a different experience from signing up for local races.
Even though we come from a very litigious society where there are warnings on everything and for every event you sign away your life rights to the organizers, international events are not like that, but funny in a different way. I have been lucky enough to run in a few other international big events in the past and for almost every one of them I had to submit a doctor's note verifying I was healthy enough to compete. An interesting concept. What if a person gets the note, and then something happens, who gets sued!? The doctor?
Do we really think that this practice will reduce the number of medical instances out on the course. I have no idea really and would love to study the number of injuries and deaths in international races versus US races which typically do not require this step. But, quite frankly, I am too busy now to look into it, and I will just be happy to be eating a croissant on the streets of Paris after my marathon!
Another fun thing about signing up for a big international event is looking at the entrant's list, which one of my future events does post for all to see. Looking through that list and seeing only one Seattle, WA is fun. I guess I will have to run my hardest to represent.
It is thrilling to be planning my own personal running races, as opposed to planning them for you, my loyal and awesome participants. I love you all, but feels good to focus on myself for a little while. See you at the starting line, but please do not be faster than me, I really want to win my category of participants from Seattle, WA!
Saturday, October 19, 2013
I'll show you my cart, if you show me yours!
I assume if you are reading this you are somewhat into fitness and health. From that basic premise I assume that your shopping cart is filled with healthy things like apples, carrots and whole grain bread to fuel those long runs? Not so much here at Run for Good!
I do not know why, but I somehow get a perverse pleasure out of shopping in mass quantity for somewhat unusual things for races.
One of my most memorable shopping experiences for a race happened at a regular grocery store, which was kind enough to donate a gift card for volunteer food. I have been told by many good volunteers that what they crave in the early morning of a race is sugar and carbs. Well, take a look at this cart! I got so many stares, presumably from people thinking I was feeding this to what must have looked like my big brood of children. And, of course the comments from the checkout staff, "Wow, that's a lot of donuts!" Thank you, yes, it is a lot of donuts!
For Run Scared this year we are doing a candy corn tasting bar. So exciting! That is right, did you know there is more than one flavor of candy corn? I found 7 different kinds ranging from traditional to caramel apple to Starburst flavor. After doing extensive candy corn pricing (another fun race director job), it turns out that Bartell's has the best price. When they went on sale last week I took my cart and wheeled on down the Halloween aisle with glazed over eyes and proceeded to pile in bag after bag of candy corn! Do you know how hard it is to predict how much candy corn 1200 people will consume? I still do not know if I got the right amount, I would hate to run low on candy corn. You know this stuff never goes bad either so pile in the bags! I actually use candy corn as a source of fuel for my long runs, its the perfect amount of sugar my body needs (my stomach cannot handle Gu's). So really it is an investment into my running future, right!?
My mantra this week is, "Do not eat, do not eat, do not eat!"
I always feel slightly awkward about this situation, our runs are supposed to get people off the couch, motivated to be healthy and here we are feeding our participants candy corn. But, I guess running to earn your candy is better than just eating the candy without the run. We usually try to provide healthy items too like bananas and whole grain bread, chili and healthy energy bars. And, what is Halloween without candy?
What is in your cart!? I bet you it is not as fun as mine! See you in the grocery aisles!
Monday, October 14, 2013
2 of the best compliments paid to a race director
Yesterday marked the culmination of almost a year of planning for a big national event that we had been hired to help produce. Run for Good was hired to do all the very local stuff, including all things course which consisted of finding a course, getting permits, arranging for street closures and no parking, measuring the course, notifying residents and businesses that would be impacted, marking the course, cleaning up afterward, planning for water stations and medical, getting volunteers out to their positions.. So basically everything that makes a race a race, aside from the finish line festival.
It had been a year of back and forth with the City, hours of planning, hundreds of emails and phone calls. 3 days of going door to door for neighborhood notifications, 4 days of course measurement where literally I walked the entire 5K and Half Marathon courses with my trusty measuring wheel, doing very hard S.A.T style math problems.
It was our first time working for a national race series and it was definitely a learning experience.
After a very harried, very very early morning we had finally gotten everything done and set up, the race had started. My crew and I went back out to ensure that the course was, well, coursing. It was in fact. We saw everyone making all the right turns and volunteers exactly where they needed to be. That fact alone was great enough to ease my stress that had been building about this event.
When we happened upon the Mile 8 mile marker (which were beasts of things to set up) the banner had shifted in the wind so that participants could not see it at all. We stopped to fix said banner when the best 2 compliments came my way, right at the moment I needed them most.
The first was a woman runner, as she saw the mile marker being swung back into place, looked at her GPS watch and said to us, "You know, these have been dead on!" That made my 4 days of measuring seem worth it. The second came literally on the heels of the first compliment. A gentleman running with a Run Like The Wind shirt. Oh, what joy! I ran with him for a few paces and told him I was the race director for that event and he said, "oh yeah, I remember, that was great and so is this!"
A race director's job is hard, often times thankless, we have to take the fall for all the problems, listen to complaints, deal with stress and behind the scenes work that goes totally un-noticed. But, just sometimes, there is something that happens that makes it all worth it. Usually I see it at the finish line when people are smiling, happy and sometimes crying with the joy of accomplishment. Or in the thanks we get after we have donated all of our money. But, sometimes it happens out on the course, when you need it most.
Other compliments a race director likes to hear:
- Heard at Run Like the Wind - "That downhill mile was the best mile of my entire life!"
- Seen at Run Scared 5K - a wheel chaired man, being pushed by a friend, with a beaming smile as they crossed the finish line who said "thank you for allowing me to feel normal and have some fun!" He then made a large donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
- Heard at Run Like the Wind - "That was awful, I loved it!" (Sometimes you gotta be brutal on your participants!)
- Heard at Good Karma 5K - "That was my first race ever and I am hooked!" She then signed up for several of our other races.
There are many others, but it was a long day yesterday and my brain needs a rest.
So, to those two runners yesterday, thank you for easing my morning and I hope you had a great rest of your race!
It had been a year of back and forth with the City, hours of planning, hundreds of emails and phone calls. 3 days of going door to door for neighborhood notifications, 4 days of course measurement where literally I walked the entire 5K and Half Marathon courses with my trusty measuring wheel, doing very hard S.A.T style math problems.
It was our first time working for a national race series and it was definitely a learning experience.
After a very harried, very very early morning we had finally gotten everything done and set up, the race had started. My crew and I went back out to ensure that the course was, well, coursing. It was in fact. We saw everyone making all the right turns and volunteers exactly where they needed to be. That fact alone was great enough to ease my stress that had been building about this event.
When we happened upon the Mile 8 mile marker (which were beasts of things to set up) the banner had shifted in the wind so that participants could not see it at all. We stopped to fix said banner when the best 2 compliments came my way, right at the moment I needed them most.
The first was a woman runner, as she saw the mile marker being swung back into place, looked at her GPS watch and said to us, "You know, these have been dead on!" That made my 4 days of measuring seem worth it. The second came literally on the heels of the first compliment. A gentleman running with a Run Like The Wind shirt. Oh, what joy! I ran with him for a few paces and told him I was the race director for that event and he said, "oh yeah, I remember, that was great and so is this!"
A race director's job is hard, often times thankless, we have to take the fall for all the problems, listen to complaints, deal with stress and behind the scenes work that goes totally un-noticed. But, just sometimes, there is something that happens that makes it all worth it. Usually I see it at the finish line when people are smiling, happy and sometimes crying with the joy of accomplishment. Or in the thanks we get after we have donated all of our money. But, sometimes it happens out on the course, when you need it most.
Other compliments a race director likes to hear:
- Heard at Run Like the Wind - "That downhill mile was the best mile of my entire life!"
- Seen at Run Scared 5K - a wheel chaired man, being pushed by a friend, with a beaming smile as they crossed the finish line who said "thank you for allowing me to feel normal and have some fun!" He then made a large donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
- Heard at Run Like the Wind - "That was awful, I loved it!" (Sometimes you gotta be brutal on your participants!)
- Heard at Good Karma 5K - "That was my first race ever and I am hooked!" She then signed up for several of our other races.
There are many others, but it was a long day yesterday and my brain needs a rest.
So, to those two runners yesterday, thank you for easing my morning and I hope you had a great rest of your race!
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