03 October 2010

STG Marathon twenty-ten

So after volunteering for the Ironman (which I STILL can't remember how exactly I got involved with that - I think I just read about it somewhere) I got an email from Kami to the IM captains looking for a few more people to captain up some things at the marathon this year. After 10 years of living here and wanting to somehow get my hands on a STG marathon volunteer t-shirt I thought, "here's my chance"! I seriously wasn't quite over the IM yet, but some of the things on her list seemed pretty harmless so I told her sure, I could look over athlete food. I knew it was better than the IM crappy pizza so if nothing else I'd be roaming around enjoying blue bunny and great harvest bread! But Kami had something bigger in mind... after replying to her email she called and asked if I'd help Kirt out because he's a staffer and is retiring and needed some help (I think he just needed to do more work than he was allowed to be paid for... so needed help) It was the night I had returned home from girls camp so I was just too tierd to say No. (yah, that's the type of person I am - yellow/red, A, however you catagorize it... I have a hard time) Kirt doesn't use email, but we met a few times and I started to get a vision of some of what he needed me to do. Arrange U-hauls, recruit kids for clothing retrieval, and LMT's for the massage tent. They've been doing this long enough that it's all gonna get done... thank goodness. The volunteer registration for the IM was awesome! I knew exactly who was going to be there and could communicate everything I knew with my team. This was different, it was like... yah, those guys will be there... um, pretty sure they'll be there... does anyone know who's going to run the massage tent? Very vauge. Anyway...
Apparently "needle in a haystack" means nothing in this man's Spanish speaking country. He left his energy goop in his bag and thought he could find HIS bag. I had to kick him out. Not as bad as the chick who left her ipod in her bag though, seriously? I told her she's have to sing to herself.The crowd.Here I am posing with what's in the truck while the bag tossing slowed down during the national anthem, long enough to take a picture anyway.
This is Brandon, who I work for. It was his first marathon, he's training for the IM! He did awesome for his first one, and he's pretty much a Lance wanna-be on the bike, so so long as he can keep his body temp good during the swim I think he'll do awesome at the IM! Can't wait!And here's all the studs of Troop 489! They did an awesome job of helping us get the trucks loaded and loading their truck with everything dropped along the course! And I think they had a ton of fun doing it! Thanks guys!It was an another awesome day. Even longer than the IM. (but I'll say for the record the IM was better) I had volunteer'd Daniel and the scouts to be my 3rd truck and figured they could camp out and that would free up another weekend for us as a family this month! So on Friday morning I went and picked up the U-hauls with some city people and loaded one of them with mylar blankets (LESSON 1: we should have kept an empty one at the rec center that night for the stuff that needed to come over from the expo at the Dixie Center) Daniel, Michael, and the scouts camped out near Central and Haleigh and Mya had a sleep over with Lisa and Autumn. I had to be present at a meet & greet for the massage therapists at the rec center in the evening, which was awesome to meet all of them. They were all so nice to me, I was a little nervous to be over seeing all the veterans at this, but they were very friendly and it was a ton of fun to meet them. Then I hurried home to shower and try and fit in some sleep. Julie and Jen came over to sleep too and we were up at 3a.m. and out the door at 3:30a.m. to grab our u-haul at the rec center and head up to the starting line. Got there about 4:15 right when the first athletes were getting there. We unloaded the mylars... and watched as the thousands of people started gathering! We met Ed Rogers the announcer (very cool guy) and then when he went back and started announcing to the runners to start putting their bags in the clothing retrieval trucks we got a shout out as The Frahmettes! Aunt Robyn called us that growing up, and I always imagined us on stage in front of thousands of people with that being announced! Well it finally happened, who knew our stage would be the back of a u-haul truck! :) Then the bags started coming, and coming, and coming... and pretty soon it was mass histaria! INCOMING! We filled that sucker to the brim. Daniel, James (my 1st truck driver) and his 2 daughers (Emma & Isabel) and me and Jen and Julie started with a fire pale type line and then by the end the younger girls and I stepped out of the way and I let the others keep filling. I kept an eye on the start and as soon as the wheelchairs and hand crankers where gone we shut the door and James and the girls jumped in and took off! Then the door on the 2nd truck went up and the rest of the bags were packed into the front. We hung out for a little bit and picked up around the starting line for about 30 minutes. Jeremy Johnson showed up in his helicopter to pick up the start clock and the dudes who started the race (including my IM friend Kent Perkins) Then me and the girls took off in our truck. We picked up only the mile marker boxes where some of the athletes had left their extra clothes for the first 6 miles... however LESSON #2: We should have left those boxes for the scouts to put the loose clothing between mile markers in and then brought down the boxes. There wouldn't have been such a HUGE pile of loose clothing at the end to go through, well there would have been, but it would have been marked by the boxes for which mile they would have dropped it in. We pulled up to the park JUST as they were finished unloading the first truck. We had done SUCH a good job loading the first truck that we really didn't have much in ours in the way of bags that needed to be sorted... and note to self: I really don't think I'd like to sort the bags. I was SO glad that was done before I got there. The rest of the day was spent checking #'s down the rows, sorting loose clothing with Colin and Leslie Jack, and checking on the massage tent (which thankfully went awesome and they really didn't need anything from me) I just loaded them up with icecream and bread at the end of the day! I finally left the park and rec center at 4pm. And today my hamstrings feel like I ran a marathon yesterday! :)

2 comments:

David and Jill said...

Good Job to you and the Scouts and all of the helpers! I know St. George couldn't run the Ironman, the Senior Games or the Marathon without you all!
Frahmettes ROCK!

Roth Family said...

Good job. I would love to come down and help sometime. You are one busy girl:0