For the community

This weekend, Mike and I volunteered at a local triathlon. We put in a couple of hours on Sat, and yesterday we put in about 51/2 hours. Mike was on the bike transition, and I was assigned to the finish line. The event had 1,100 people entered, so it was not trivial. We both did not want to do body marking. My only concern about the finish line is that the crew often removes the timing chips from people's ankles. Before I bought my own soft strap, the velcro would always leave me bleeding. I packed some latex gloves with me in case I ended up with that duty. I think they reuse the straps, and that is pretty gross.

It is funny when you are wearing a crew T shirt. People assume you have all the magical answers. Mike got a lot of requests for directions to the city. Some of these questions are not a problem. Many others were not answerable. Here are some samples:
1. What is the average run time?
2. Has number 1288 finished?
3. How many people have finished so far?
4. (A woman who arrived to the bikes 20 minutes after race start)Where is body marking?

I reported to my station, and I was assigned to be the backup timer. I was stressed about that, because it was a ton of responsibility. I just wanted light responsibility. I suppose it may be that I was one of the only adults on the finish line team. So my job was to write numbers and the time as finishers came in case the champion chips did not work. While waiting for the pros to finish, so uptight dude ran through the finish gates and told me, "There is some gravel when you are running up to the town park. It may be a safety issue." To be honest, I did not see any bloodied finishers so I think it was fine. What did he want me to do honestly? All I have to say is that thankfully they did not need many of my back up times. Many finishers were wearing their numbers backwards, or the numbers would flip up and you can not read them. Another lady helped me by calling numbers so I could write them without having to look up too much. There would be big groups of people finishing simultaneously, and that is pretty impossible to get them all down. Then they gave us 2 numbers to look out for since the competitors lost their chips. Somehow I manage to see them both and give them times. I only saw the one man since his kids ran the last 100 feet with him and had his number written on their shirts too. So it was fun despite the stress!