My Race Director job is over ): Race was today; it was a big success I think! I thoroughly enjoyed myself in my element directing the finish line. I had a great food crew, a great flagging crew, a great timing crew, a great band, and great prizes and awards for many runners! I also had great weather, which is something we can never take for granted. I was out at the finish by 5:30am to meet the timing chip guys; while they were setting up, I jogged a bit on the trail. By 7:30, my set up crew arrived, and I had them go to work building the finish shute, hanging sponsors' banners, and placing cones on the highway where runners have to cross to reach the finish line, and setting up food tables. By 8:00, the massage team arrived and set up their own area; the band arrived and got the stage ready to go. By 8:30, the band was playing for the rest of us! By 8:30, all the food had arrived, and the prep crew was cutting oranges, melons and bananas, filling water jugs, and putting out the other food. At 9 sharp, I got the call that the start had started, and waited anxiously for the first runner to arrive! At this point, I had so much adrenaline pumping that it was almost like running the race. First finisher arrived in about 42 minutes, and was greeted by applause from a huge spectator group, lively music, and a lot of great food. By about 10:15, I started awards, even though we still had finishers coming in. We just had so many awards and prizes to give out, I thought we had better get started. I had invited the young girls' group that I coach to come out and be prize runners, so they would hand the prizes out to the runners as they were awarded. They are all 9 and 10 years old, so this was pretty cute and well received. There were also about a hundred Gatorade plastic drink bottles that the Parks department had given us, so we would periodically throw these out to the crowd and they fought over catching them. Our last runner arrived by around 11:00, and some fresh volunteers arrived for tear down. The band continued for a bit, as runners made their way to the buses that would take them back to town. Some run back, but most take the buses. My husband arrived with the huge truck, having already driven along the course, taking down water stations and mile markers. We loaded it all up, drove to the storage locker, unloaded everything, returned the truck, and WHEW!! I will make up my long run tomorrow! | 