A Race is Really Not About the Awards (part 1)

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I wrote a post in this blog. That's what being busy will do to me. I have so much to write about and yet there's just no time to sit and type. The thing that gave me pause this morning...the thing that was so burning that I couldn't NOT take the time to make the time happen was my experience directing a 5K that happened yesterday.

I came into directing races in 2014 when I had the audacity to put together a kids triathlon in EIGHT WEEKS!! If you have never directed a race before, that's just bananas!! No sane person would try to do that. I didn't know...and I had MAJOR help from an event planner! She really did all the hard parts and I got to do the fun parts that I love (coming up with ideas!). I got to hover high looking at the big picture while she did a lot of the logistical work to make the race happen (namely figuring out what volunteers we needed and then getting them all to show up!). I have always thought the real credit for putting that together went to her.

Yesterday was the culmination of about 4 months of work. It was the most difficult race I've ever directed. And, so far, it's the race that has taught me the most about myself out of all the races I've directed.

Back in maybe January my friend Daisy (not here real name because I try not to use real names in my blog) asked me to direct a little 5K. This race is put on by the Huntsville Inner City Learning Center.

I was exhausted from directing the Rocket City Marathon with my husband (!!did I tell you that we direct that now !!) but enough time had passed that the full weight of the responsibility had dissipated a bit. I was also in the beginning phases of trying to put together a training program for the non-profit I started the year before (!! did you know that? I started a kids triathlon non-profit called Omni Kids Tri! I'm the "executive director" and "coach" !!).

Here's the thing...I had been wanting to meet the director of an organization called the Huntsville Inner City Learning Center for quite some time. I had wanted to see if we (Omni) could scoop up some of their kids to scholarship into our program.

Side note: Omni's mission, simply put, is to enrich lives through triathlon. It's not about swimming, biking and running...that's just the avenue we use to enrich the lives of the children in our program, the coaches, mentors and volunteers that help us, and their families. A big component in our program is to make triathlon financially accessible to ALL kids.

As the Omni board and I had been trying to figure out where we would get our scholarshipped kids the Learning Center kept popping up in my mind. I had a friend who had told me she would facilitate a  meeting with the HICLC director but that had not happened when my other friend reached out to me about directing this race. My first, internal, reaction was just NO. NO MORE RACES. At the time the races on my calendar to direct were:

• 5 Splash and Dash races every week in the month of May (but those were supposed to be really small)
• The AL State Games Youth Triathlon on June 8th
• Beaver Shark Tri (a brand new kids triathlon in another town close by) on July 13*
• Kids Fly Tri on August 17th
• TRIblossomwood on August 24th
• Rocket City Marathon on December 14th

I am NOT a professional race director. Let me be clear...I am basically a volunteer. I do NOT get paid as the ED of the non-profit. I started it. I don't want to get paid. I want to get kids excited about triathlon (and only because I know how much they can learn about themselves and how much this sport can enrich their lives...and for a child who might not have a stable home environment, I believe triathlon can be a conduit to a better life). I only direct the kids triathlons that I do so that kids will have races to train for and participate in. I have NEVER done any of it to make money. And Dwayne and I volunteer as RDs for the marathon because he thought it would be fun! (HA...I think going on vacation is fun). I quit coaching adults (the job I used to make money to pay for my kids programs) because I simply didn't have time. The plan was to transfer the money generating responsibilities over to the non-profit so that I would have more time to devote to inspiring kids to learn about life through this sport that I love. Directing one more race didn't fall in line with that plan.

But...my friend asked me to just hear her out so I did. I had heard about this race (the Give it Back Track 5K) a long time ago but I didn't fully understand. All I had heard was that the race organizers wanted running buddies for inner city kids running a 5K. But I thought it was going to be on a track and that the kids were going to be super fast because they had been training to do this 5K all year. I had never done this race for those two reasons. I wish I had gotten more information... Daisy told me it's called Give it Back because they raise money for another non-profit organization so they can "give back" to the community that gives so much to them. (I found out later they added "track" only because it rhymes!)

She told me: they didn't care about how much money they raise because the amount wasn't the point, it's a very small race, the course is well established, the permit had been filed last year and then she brought out the big guns....it's for the KIDS.

UGH.

I thought it would be perfect...the race could raise money for MY non-profit. My board would be 100% behind it and help with it. It didn't have to be a money maker it could just be an outreach for us. And it would be a way for me to get to know some of the kids in the Center to draw them into the program I was planning. And...how hard could a little well established 5K be compared to kids triathlons and the MARATHON...

That sounds great, right?

Stay tuned for the next installment of "things don't always pan out the way you expect"... here are some scenes from the next episode:

"The non-profit the kids picked is Graces of Gurley"...

"Did you know there's been like 3 shootings on Binford (a street on the course) in the last 6 months?"

"If one more person says 'that's the way it's always been done' I think I'm going to lose my mind!"

"Seriously...train tracks on the course? Who came up with that? And WHY?"

"What do you mean you didn't make the right awards? That's okay, we'll figure something out..."

Thanks for stopping in and sticking around...

Hang on because we are going on a wild ride together!