Yes, it’s the day after (I always seem to post these things the day after instead of the day of the event) the Subaru Western Series Sooke Triathlon. This year, I was a volunteer and I had a lot of fun doing it. Two years ago, Miranda and I wandered over to the District Hall to watch some of the bike racing and running for the Triathlon and I was surprised to see that there were a number of finishers who where at least ten years older than me and no more or less fit. A bit of inquiry later and I found that there was a Sprint distance for casual entrants, along with the much more demanding Olympic and Half-Ironman distances. So I filed that away for reference, thinking maybe someday I would try to take part. At a 750 m swim, 20 km bike ride and 5 km run, I could envision getting fit enough to tackle that. I had another thought at the same time: it would probably be a good idea to volunteer for at least one year to get a feel for how things work in behind the scenes before blundering onto the course. 🙂
Last year, Tammy and I were in Vancouver, Washington for the Scorpions concert on the Triathlon weekend. This year there was no such conflict, so I signed up a couple weeks ago via their online volunteer form. I requested to be either a run course marshall or a bike course marshall. I got an email back a few days later telling me I had been accepted as a bike course marshall. I got a guide and maps; I was assigned a location on the bike course where a side street crossed the race course and I attended the orientation meeting last Wednesday night.
My designated spot was Cormorant Way and West Coast Road, on the far side of Jordan River. Quite frankly, it was like being the guy assigned to guard the rhubarb (reference to a Far Side cartoon, look it up), but for a first stab at things, I was content to be one of the little people. So I packed up my folding chair and a cooler and bug repellant, and staked my spot at the intersection early Sunday morning. I worried that I would be bored silly, but once the first riders started coming by, it was pretty much constant for the next two and a half hours. In the absence of any actual traffic trying to get onto the course from my side road, all I had to do was cheer on the riders, which I did. It was neat that most of the riders themselves yelled back thank-yous for the encouragement and for the volunteerism. Lots of smiles and feedback. It was great. Eventually the last riders went by and I was dismissed by the sweep truck. I packed up and headed home, with lots of great memories, and a new t-shirt and a thermos as well. 🙂
I am definitely going to volunteer again next year, and every year I can, unless I actually get off the pot and enter myself. I’m looking forward to seeing the coverage on TSN when they televise it next month. The cameras never came out to where I was (they were focusing on the shorter Olympic distance, while I was on the half-Ironman bike course), so I don’t expect to see myself on TV. I really want to see the swimming, transfer and running sections of the race.
