Most-fun promoter duty:Bestowing awards upon deserving racers
Even better when they're attractive and fast!
In the parlance of these times, I straight ran out of bandwidth last week. Besides the usual stuff going on at work, things were ramping up for Spa:CX, and I was suddenly out of time for anything. Strangely, or perhaps not, it was a pretty joyous sensation, to be so totally consumed and distracted by a task outside of the usual, day-to-day stuff.
The first part of the week got me settled into a steady rhythm: Spend the day at work, doing work stuff and checking our bike reg page every few minutes to watch the number of riders increase. I'd come home after work and cook dinner, then spend a few hours exchanging emails with John about the race, in which we'd rehash well-trod details. There wasn't really much for us to do -- all of the preparations were set, we just needed to wait until it was time to drive stakes and assign numbers.
On Thursday, I left work, loaded the car, and made the trip up to Saratoga. We spent Friday overseeing the first of the set-up duties: A big, 20x40 tent, and prota potties. We made some adjustments to the course, installed barriers, and parceled out prizes. It was all very fun. Later, I assigned numbers, then John and I ate our combined weight in pizza while assembling registration binders. It was a bit of work, but all part of the fun of promoting a successful event.
The real work began on Saturday, when a crew of volunteers joined us to drive stakes and run tape. The course went up fairly quickly, and after a few drinks at the end of the day, and some time spent riding the course in jeans and without a helmet, I convinced myself that racing was probably even a good idea -- provided everything went well.
Sunday started out early, with some more volunteers arriving to the venue in the pre-dawn dark. Registration went smoothly, t-shirt sales went smoothly, the first races went off more-or-less on time, and kids made use of both the kids' course and bounce-house all day. Can you ask for a better combination? Probably not.
I showed what bike racers are all about by simultaneously giving an interview to a local paper and changing into my kit, and then proceeded to embarrass myself for an hour. Two things I know about racing 'cross: those damn pedals are hard to clip into, and standing on your feet for three days while drinking heavily is not a recipe for successful racing. About halfway through, I got lapped by the leading trio, and then just about everyone else. Forgetting that others were actually racing while I was just there to please my adoring fans, I took a beer hand up, and nearly took out someone lapping me while I concentrated on drinking instead of riding. Oops. Sorry!
Promoter's prerogative, or whatever.
The race ended, and despite crashing twice and having enough bobbles and stutter steps to rival the entire C race, I managed not to be last. So, that's something.
Also, the course came down quickly with lots of help, and the race committee ended the day basking in the sun and enjoying some of New York's finest. Wayne, you may not have won, but you earned our respect. Jenny and Aurora, I can't understate how cool it is that we had two Saratoga winners this year!
On Monday, as I oversaw the removal of the potties and tent (and spent hours trying to make the balance sheets balance), John pointed out that work just wasn't as fun without our big extracurricular going on simultaneously. It really was true, though I didn't feel it until today, when I went back to work (to a mountain of stuff to catch up on!) Good thing there's next year to look forward too.
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