So, we officially put on the largest cyclo-cross event in United States history. Total of 2075 registered riders. My part in all this? Assistant registration coordinator—officially. Unofficially, I ended up being the crisis gopher.
Whenever something when severely wrong, I got the lovely task of running, jumping and doing whatever it took to fix it. A sample of our weekend:
Electrical snafus abounded, requiring much cajoling of our heaters and wiring to get power to everyone without pissing off our on-site electrician too badly. I made friends with this rather gruff personality because we worked together throughout the event.
I broke into our own cash box because we locked the spare key inside it and lost the main one.
A generator powering an air compressor to inflate a giant inflatable arch ran out of gas. The result? The arch collapsed in front of several riders. Pick it up, refuel the generator, radio for help putting the arch back in place.
The stakes holding another inflatable arch collapsed in the middle of a heated race. This arch was directly over the course. It disrupted our staff & volunteer meeting since some of us had to go running to fix it.
Other fun tasks included running results and start sheets back and forth, locating missing people, conning the announcers into public service announcements and impromptu valet service to prevent towed cars.
All of this and tons of little problems were available for my exhausted exertions. What don’t you see? Like a good magician’s trick, we showed up with all the rider registration data, releases and number packets before the event. However, I spent the week prior stuffing and labeling envelopes to make it happen.
All in all, a great week(end). Photos from the sweetheart and I to be posted shortly.
