So here I am another year older and I’m not sure much wiser, you
wonder why I say that, I guess because I continue to take on more and more
hobbies, I mean you would think that adventure racing, mountain biking, running
and even an Ironman this year, would be enough to keep me busy, but nope, I
need to add race director to my list of hobbies. I mean for the last 4 years I have been
working as one of the 3 race directors for the Miles for Meso race. I know, where do I find time, but I always
do. This year was no different, we
started planning about 6 months out, getting ready for an even bigger and
better event than the previous year.
So I guess, I should really start by telling you what a race
director does. From the outside looking
in, you would think, well they get some people together, have a little race and
give out some awards, but heck it’s way more than that, especially when you put
on such a professionally planned race.
Ok, so I make it sound oh so hard, right? Well in some ways it is, it takes tons of
work by so many people, a race with a race director alone, would never be, it’s
the tons of volunteers that pull the race off.
Race directors, are strategic thinkers, leaders, organizers, and
engineers. The Miles for Meso race has 3
race directors, Mike, who is the strategic thinker and has way more
communications skills than should be legal, Robin, who is the organizer and let’s
get it done type, and Terry, who is the technical guy who can map out and build
anything. So if you put that in
corporate terms, Mike is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Robin is the Chief Operations
Officer (COO) and Terry is the Chief Engineer.
Now that we have that straight, let me tell the tale of the 2012
Miles for Meso race. After months of
planning, not just by the race directors but by what I would call the project
team, (Todd, Mark, Andrea, Sarah, Greg), we made it to the day before the race,
which is almost as crazy as race day.
Mike spent the day running to the airport and bus station picking up pro
athletes, Terry and I spent the day riding around on a Spider, marking the
course for race day signs and mile markers.
Terry and I had the better job, you would have thought that Terry was
Benjamin Button, if you had saw him, he had aged backwards to about 16 years
old when he got on that spider. He zipped me all over that course, my only job
was to be a backseat driver and tell him where to stop and mark each
intersection at. It was actually kind of fun, Terry was waving and talking to
everyone, I was just sitting there looking good on that bike.
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| Terry and Robin setting the course up |
After we finished our course marking, we did one last inventory of
our sings and cones then hooked up with Mike and a couple of the pro athletes
and headed out to Chubby’s, one of Terry’s favorite burger joints, and had
lunch. Surprising to me, the pro’s ate
burgers the day before the race. We had
some good conversation then dropped the athletes off at their hotel and Mike
went on another airport run.
Later Friday evening, Mike had 2 of the athletes over to his house
and some of the Metro Tri club members stopped by to meet them. We had some great conversations and got
insight into the life a pro.
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| Phillip, Robin, Christian, and Mike |
Sleep didn’t come easy for me and I found out later that Mike had
the same issue. We both got about 4
hours sleep and were up worrying about what we might have forgotten to do. At 6am I was at race headquarters, Terry and
Todd were next to show up and then Mike rolled in anxious and worried. Things were quiet and deserted, but that
would soon change.
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| The calm before the storm |
The volunteers were showing up just as scheduled and the course
marshals were picking up the course marshal tool that Terry build for each
intersection on the course.
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| Terry's course marshal invention |
This is a cool little tool that has caution tape and duct tape on
it, it is attached to a slip of paper that tells the marshal where their position
is. All the marshal has to do is walk out to their position, place the barricade
on the marked spot then tape the caution tape up. It’s a really great idea that Terry came up
with and it works perfectly. Mike is
trying to get him to patent it and sell it to warehouses that sell race
supplies. I think Terry doesn’t want to
deal with the money and fame, so he will just keep this contraption under
wraps.
I had a meeting with the water stop volunteers, otherwise known as
the Marquette High School Cheerleaders and pulled some of them to be mile split
readers.
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| Marquette Cheerleaders, awesome water stop girls |
They seemed to have a good grasp on their jobs so I moved on to the
kid zone volunteers, otherwise known as the Edwardsville High School
Cheerleaders. Todd was in charge of all
the kids zone stuff so I delivered the girls to him and he got them setup with
games, popcorn, balloons and too much more fun stuff to list.
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| Kid's Zone |
Next I ran around doing odd tasks that popped up and watched as the
drinks were iced down, the sponsors booths were setup, and food was put out.
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| Setting up race headquarters |
I went over to check on the starting line and discussed last minute
details with Mike.
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| Robin and Mike |
I checked on the 2K finish line.
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| A fun 2k finish line |
I helped hang some signs and checked on the ones that were already
up
Terry was busy with course setup, it’s just a good thing he had some
super volunteers to help him with it, Mike, Russ and Jim were awesome and did a
great job. As soon as the course was set,
Terry held a course marshal meeting and sent his marshals out to get into
position, then he zipped through the course one last time to make sure
everything was set.
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| The course is set to go |
I watched the professional film crew that had came in from California
just to film the race. They got video footage of all aspects of the race.
Really I was trying to spy on what equipment they were using, because I love
taking photographs and video and making movies out of it. I’m very much an armature, so I was really
trying to watch them and get some tips.
One of the guys was using the same camera and lens that I have, so after
I saw that I puffed my chest out like a rooster for a while, thinking, yeah, I’m
almost a professional. Well not really,
but some day when I retire, maybe that will be my retirement career.
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| Getting Emmy caliber video here |
It was soon time to start the race, Mike was fiddling with the race
gun, trying to make sure he knew how to use it.
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| How does this gun work |
The film crew was in place and ready to get some Emmy caliber
footage.
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| Camera Ready |
The police were out in arms and ready to make this a safe race for
all.
The national anthem was sung by someone, I’m not sure who, but it
was a great rendition of it.
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| National Anthem |
Then the race was off. One thing about being the race director is
that I get first dibs on the best jobs.
I wanted to take photos from the lead truck, so while my driver Larry
zipped around the course I stood up with my head sticking out the sunroof of
Todd’s truck taking photos. Oh, sorry Todd for standing on your seats and console
with my dirty shoes on. I probably owe
you a truck detailing.
This was the line-up, bikes first to tell everyone to get out of the
road, police next on a four wheeler to make sure no random traffic appeared on the
race course and to add a little authority, and Larry and I in the truck next
followed by the racers. And of course
the film crew where ever they needed to be.
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| Bikers ready to roll |
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| Police all set and rolling |
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| Getting the best shots |
It seems like it only took minutes to fly through the course, I was
getting some great shots and of course talking to all the course marshals as we
passed.
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| Awesome course marshals |
We pulled off the road just before the finish and I jumped out and
got some great shots of friends finishing.
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| Bruce, the Clydesdale winner |
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| Garrett 4th Place overall |
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| Scott |
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| John |
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| Alex |
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| Bob |
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| Andrea |
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| Gregg putting the hammer down |
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| Kerri |
When most of the field had finished, a Tumbling exhibition was put
on by the Jesse White Tumblers. They are
from Chicago and they are an awesome group of athletes. As they tumbled people watched in awe, they
were just that good. I was standing next
to John Simmons, he was thinking about running out and doing a somersault, I said,
why not go all the way and do a cart wheel into a somersault. In the end, he decided, maybe it wasn’t such
a good idea to go out and show all those boys up like that.
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| Jesse White Tumblers |
Next up was the pro race, it started quickly and finished just as
quickly, it’s amazing how fast those pros can run. Again, I had the best job of all, I was back
in the truck taking photos through the sunroof.
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| Pro Race Start |
It was a quick ride through the course this time the course marshals
were trying to get some picture of their own.
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| I want to get a good photo |
As we pulled to the side of the road just in front of the finish, I hopped
out and tried to get a few more shots of the pro’s finishing the race.
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| 1st Place Male Pro |
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| 1st Place Female Pro |
I know what you are thinking, an entire race report and not one word
about who won the race. Well that’s
because you are getting this report from a race directors view, not an athlete’s
view. If you want to understand a race from an athlete’s view, you have to read
my race report from Ironman Wisconsin, that one covers my race point of view as
an athlete. If you want to read it, just
click here. You can also view the full Miles for Meso race
results on the Fleet Feet Sports website.
Next up was handing out the awards and the best thing we did this
year was having the MC read the results rather the CEO Mike. Mike has the gift
of gab, so we would have still been there today waiting for him to finish the
results. Oh and the awards were some awesome glasses, if you were over 21 they
were beer glasses, if you were under 21, well they hold soda and milk quit well
too. I love competing in races that give
away useful awards. I have boxes of trophies
and medals just collecting dust, but every time I use an item I have won, I
just smile because I know I worked hard for it. And even better than that, when
someone says, oh what a cool glass that is, I say yeah and I won it. Of course
the big winners got cash, cash is always a welcome prize. I never complain about cash.
Cleanup started, again another big job that couldn’t be done without
the help of many volunteers.
Terry and I stopped to talk to Todd, we are kind of like the 3 amigos,
I thought I was the cutest of the three, but then again, some guys out on the
course kept eying Terry up and giving him the old “nice bike” line.
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| Terry, Robin, Todd - The 3 Amigos |
Here’s where I want to THANK everyone who made this race possible,
not just because it’s a great race, but because it’s for a great cause. This race raised 25K for Meso Research, that’s
pretty darn great. A race is just a race, but research that may one day help
millions, that’s something to be proud of.
So THANKS goes to all the volunteers, there are way too many to
list, but you all know who you are. I
have some shout outs that I want to give also.
To the Race Project Team, (Todd, Mark, Greg, Andrea, Sarah), this would
have never gone off without your months of hard work. To the Edwardsville Cheerleaders and the
Marquette Cheerleaders, you girls ROCK, the Kids Zone, Water Stop and Mile
Splits were well done and it looked to me that you girls were having as much
fun as the kids and runners were having. Plus I know girls your age would have rather been sleeping at 7am on a Saturday, so thanks for getting up early.
To the #1 CEO, Mike and the #1 Chief Engineer, Terry, it is always an
honor and pleasure to work with you guys.
To John Simmons, “who would have thought that our phone conversation 4
years ago would turn into something this big”, thanks for continuing to support
this cause and this race.
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| Mike, John, Robin, Terry |
So the carpets were all rolled up and all the people were gone, and
we were starving. We headed out to Mac’s for some lunch and hashed out the
changes for the 2013 race.
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| Ahhhhh.... It's over |
BTW, I was just about to give up my feud with Terry, and even
forgive him for beating me at the Wood River Triahtlon this year, I mean after
spending all that meaningful time together on the spider, I decided maybe we
could be friends, but you see, I found out that he found a younger girl (it may
have been his granddaughter, but that’s not the point) to take my place on the
spider. I mean one day I’m his princess
and the next day I’m just thrown out like the trash. Game on Terry, you’re going down, I’m a
runner scorned now.
See more photos from the race here.
