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Sunday, October 26, 2008

volunteerism

view from our new favorite bar in Kona

Yesterday was the Suncoast sprint tri which I have never actually competed in. I let the RD know early last week that I wanted in, I can do a sprint tri two weeks out from Kona. Yeah, sure... with who's body. Certainly, that was a crazy idea. I ran four miles on Tuesday and the last two felt just like the last two in the marathon of IM. Later in the week, decided I would volunteer and give something back to one of the best RD's out there! Anders ended up staying home this week so we have had some nice time together reintegrating into work life. So, up at 4am, we drove down to the Fort to volunteer. It was pissing rain and it's hard to body mark wet bodies. There were a lot of brave souls that showed up, even I was surprised. After body marking, we headed to the boardwalk to keep the spectators off the race course - fun to boss folks around there! hee hee. Then, I went on to the run course to cheer people on. It was fun and I got to catch up with a few friends. The Dane and I then went for a 5 mile run while they were giving out awards. We got back from the run and one of the original Mad Dogs (www.stpetemaddogs.com) walks up and hands me an award. I thought she had certainly mistaken me for someone else! It was the prestigious Ralph Perry award for volunteerism. I was informed that they did a nice speech about my race in Kona and I was speechless to hear all of this had happened. What a cool thing to get a volunteer award and completely unexpected! I really really appreciated it and we had a lot of fun down there, especially giving advice to first-timers and cheering on complete strangers! You tend to forget how all of this just comes so natural now. I could have used some advice when I was a first-timer! The water was rough, winds were blowing and rain was falling but I saw so many smiles on so many faces - makes me certain I selected the right sport for me! It was a rough week getting back to work, the usual payback for being gone! The Dane is here though and that makes me happy. I got in a couple swims, three runs, a couple weight workouts and bike ride today. I can only take so many days off before I start going nuts. There is a beach biathlon on Saturday (2 mile run, 1/3 mile swim, 2 mile run) which I'll do if the weather is good, otherwise we'll be out riding. Nothing hard or serious, just keeping it fun. I mentioned that we are doing IM Canada in August, but didn't mention that we also intend to do IM 70.3 in New Orleans in April, that should be fun!
Go Rays!

1 comments:

emmyfrailing said...

Congratulations on your award! I've always thought the volunteers were pretty great people. Sounds like volunteering was a lot more fun than participating in that race under those conditions. Back to the old grind!