We had beautiful weather with a 60 degree morning and low humidity. Luke's Locker and The Woodlands Community Associations did a wonderful job with the race this year. Since I did not plan on running this year I volunteered to organize The Woodlands Running Clubs (TWRC) volunteer commitment of mile timers on the course and chip removers at the finish line. Sounds easy enough....but when you have a first class local race that everyone wants to run the volunteers are a little tougher to find. The crew was a mix of TWRC, WoodlandsFit, and Light The Night. Everyone did a great job.
I was at Market Street at 4:30am to make sure I could park close to the start finish. Market Street was already busy. The start and finish were already set up, cones were in place on the streets, registration and chip pickup were all getting ready for the morning. I went to the volunteer check in to pick up my groups packets which included a backpack with a bottle of water, a breakfast bar and volunteer t-shirt. My crew wasn't arriving until 6:30.
The Management at Market Street had offered to set up the TWRC tent for us the week before which was nice. I had dropped it off to them earlier in the week. The Market Street crew was perfect setting it up for us which was a big help.
My volunteers all arrived on time, our club had a great turnout. (my first pass for Deer Tracks has 70 TWRC finishers.) Add in the WoodlandsFit runners and walkers and it was an energized morning. The WoodlandsFit tent was placed next to our TWRC location so it was perfect for me being available for everyone.
Twenty minutes before the start we loaded up the mile marker volunteers in a van that would run us out to our locations. We all set our watches at zero and awaited the starting horn. Once the race started we were taken to our locations, mile 1 for me so I could get back to Market Street to organize the chip removal volunteers. The van would do one lap dropping the timers and then catch up to the sweeper vehicle and pick up the timers from mile 2 - 9. I would jog back to Market Street as it was a little faster than waiting for a ride.
Working the finish line was fun getting to see everyone finish. I'm very sore today from the several hundred squats to clip off the chips, maybe it could be considered a version of cross training.
The event was first class and the party afterwards was even better. This years event had about 1100 participants which is a up from last year.
(photo's courtesy of Donna Ryals)
Sunday - USA Space Alliance 10 Mile - Clear Lake
We had a little road trip today to support Kim Hager who was running the USA 10 Miler in Clearlake. We car pooled from Luke's Locker in Market Street meeting at 5am. Jon & Waverly Walk and Juliee Sparks would also be part of the support crew.
We arrived at the University of Houston Clear Lake at about 6am and Kim was off to get her packet and chip. Another TWRC runner, Nancy Prejean, would also be running. Club members Greg & Gena Alvarez and Delia Akers also drove down to support Kim. Club member Dick Esselborn brought some of the Kenyan runners he helps. We had two TWRC members running.....and a support crew of eight.
Kim did very well placing third overall in 1:01:51 considering she's been sick all week. Nancy won her age group (60-64) in 1:16:08.
We did see a few of the Texas Independence Relay Battling Bloggers, Jessica, Sarah, Joe, and James. I saw James finish but didn't get a chance to say hi. Since Greg, Gena, Delia, Juliee, Kim & I are all on the Texian team we did a quick group picture. ( missed James in the photo ). Gena did mention that the Texian team is standing in front of the bloggers in the photo.
1 comment:
Sorry I missed you and the photo. I was sleepy tired after (and during) so we just left right after I finished.
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