These pictures are not very good, because of the dim lighting in the room last night for the volunteer training, but eh, I still uploaded them. This freaking volunteer effort for the USATF Half Marathon Championship race tomorrow is a lot more involved than I thought. Wow. Very different than volunteering at a race where mere mortals are 'racing'. And we have to do a smash up job because basically this is the trial run of the effort and tasks we will have to do next year when Houston is hosting the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials!!! One of the bigger reasons why I wanted to volunteer for this year so that I am automatic for next year; plus usually the 1/2 marathon championship race (which has been here the past few years) is always on the same day as the marathon, so I've never gotten to see the Elites actually race this race/distance. Not to mention they get to actually race on the official course of next years Olympic Trials!!!
I would mention that in addition to the Elites, there are a ton of VIP's which really means that this year they let people pay anywhere from $1000 to $1500 for a 'package' deal which got you in to actually run this championship race with the Elites. Now you start in a later wave obviously and you got entry to this year and next years marathon, Finish line bleacher seats for family, etc., plus you get to run the new course and get all the treatment as if you were a full fledged Elite runner. I thought the package deals were a cool deal, and if you had cash to drop for something like that, cool. Of course there was a time limit, be able to do 13.1 in 2.5 hours or less. Doable for most. I hope I dont see any of these VIP's walkin' ... that would just be embarrassing if you ask me.
I am truly very excited and hope to get some great pictures at the race tomorrow to share here!
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| Volunteer shirt; nothing great about it really, but I do like that I now have one! I think I will keep this one for a while! |
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| Keith Wilhelm in this picture looks like he should be in Black Eye Pea's video with all that light up he's got going on! (which obviously is really just reflective 'tape' on his jacket and cap); Middle dude is from the Chevron Houston Marathon; new guy and his name escapes me. |
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| Powerpoint Presentation begins! |
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| Learners ready to be learned on what is what! |
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| Pony (I wish you could see that big ass rock of a diamond ring she got for 25 years of wedded bliss! It freaking blinded me last night!) and Faithy (and a bit of Jon who just sent the course record at the Big Bend 50K with something like a 3:47!!! for 31 miles AND on trail and rock!?) Hes one of Houstons finest and fastest runners!!) |
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| More learners! There is Jon again along with Chip in the white and oh heck the dude in red, I forget his name right now! |
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| Sample fluid table set up; although in this picture it just looks like a table with some water bottles and a bunch of other crap on it :O) |
5 comments:
Very interesting, I might be out there tomorrow taking some pics. The dude in red is Andrew, also a Strider. Seems to be a whole bunch of them there!
yes Andrew! I kept thinking Alex but I knew that wasnt right. Yes a lot of Striders there (my old running club :O); now I bleed purple for BCRR. :)
very cool. Wish I didnt have a conflict this weekend!
That's a cool tshirt, and Keith looks like he should have been in Tron. Now that I run more, I would love to see a Championship somewhere - pretty cool.
Keith's a good dude. I used to run in a group that he ran with from time to time. He and a few others took over the Just For Kids run when I moved to Germany--about a month before the event--and did an awesome job.
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