Got home around 8pm, which is earlier than I expected. Worn out. Not just from being outside from 5:45 am to 7pm-ish for two days in a row in 100+ temps and in the street at that, but also from the stress of the weekend. I'm completely aware that some of this stress is self-induced, and more than that, I probably worry about it more than is necessary, but that doesn't make it any less.
Saturday's (TX State Age-Group Criterium Championships) race went smooth. Apart from having a low turnout (due to about a dozen valid reasons), not much about the day was stressful other than the low turnout and that I decided to race and felt horrible from "go" and got worse from there. I pulled the plug on that half way through the race to save some sanity. All things considered, though, when the day was over, I was glad I didn't lose money for the team, even if we didn't make any. Not that it is Jim's fault, but he got sick mid-way through the day, and he's my woobie at these things. So next time Buddy wants to take a toy into the grocery store, I'm gonna let him.
The very bright side is that LSW family had a great day (I'll post up about the day on that blog later).
Yesterday was a beast. The Downtown course has so many more challenges than a typical race that I'm not sure it is worth the trouble. And I care too much about things going just the way I want them, when in reality, there's only so much I (or anyone) can do.
For many of the same reasons we had a low turnout on Saturday, we had a low turnout on Sunday as well. Jim will let me know the final real -$ number, but we got hit hard. We all have real jobs, so in the end, it isn't that big of a deal, but I really want this particular race to succeed. All the pieces are there, but it's like a jig saw puzzle with some pieces that are blems, but that you don't know they are blems until you are finished putting it together. All that work and you can't actually see it finished just right because of a couple little pieces with imperfect edges or the wrong color or something.
The "volunteers" (" " because their organization gets a donation) we had...there was some miscommunication, and that led to first not seeing
anyone in their spot, even a few minutes before the first race was to start. Being downtown and all that it entails, starting late creates a whole error chain of things to get jacked up. I mean, it really isn't that big of a deal to cut two to three laps off of a race to get things back on track, but what folks don't tend to realize is that every time that happens, there's an associated number of emails and otherwise complaints that have to be dealt with. And I really, really would prefer that everyone got to do their race as expected, and I really X's 3 don't want to have to respond to emails from someone upset that now they can't upgrade because the criterium was 18 instead of 20 miles. And there's also the contstant "Are we on time?". Someone says "No" and then the word spreads, even though it isn't the case, so then I spend the next hour answering the same question "Are we on time?" or "When are we starting?" when nothing is actually wrong. Folks start showing up late to staging because they heard from "someone" that the races were starting late, which slows up the actual start, and makes us...late. Then when things run an hour over, and there's four police getting paid $X an hour, and turnout was low in the first place...as I was saying, I was just waiting for the volunteers to show up to their spots for the first race.
I was assured that they were in place, even though I could look down the finishing stretch to the place I was most worried about (in hindsight it was as bad as I feared, yet, not the problem place at all) and see no one. Finally, I asked the four bike patrol police officers to ride down to that spot and check on it. It was easy to ask all four of them to do anything since they were always together, but I digress. One did ride down there, said the place was "fine", and I assumed that it meant it was covered and that maybe the volunteer was just sitting out of my line of sight or something.
Because I didn't want anyone to say that they didn't get to see the course before racing, we started each race with a sort of neutral lap. This first race was no exception. They went all the way around the course, and when I saw Kyle on the scooter leading them out of the last turn, my heart rate calmed down, I was able to breathe normally, and started to think about what needed to be done next.
Kyle pulled off at the S/F line, the whistle blew, and the race went off. There was an immediate attack, they were strung out by turn two, and it was ON!
45 seconds later, a car pulls out of that spot I was most worried about. DAMN! A car on the course on the first lap, and it is coming from that one fuggin spot I just spent so much energy worrying about AND sent a police officer to secure. First. Damn. Lap.
But then I was kicked in the nuts, because the car turned left, which meant it was heading in the opposite direction--head on--to the race, and it was less than 100 yards from a turn the racers would come flying around and not be able to see until it was too late.
And this was the 10-14 race with Noah in it.
When I saw the car turn left, my reaction was to start running after it as if I could somehow catch a car 200 yards away that is driving away from me and divert it. It doesn't matter that I was a fast runner in high school (see, that's funny because this weekend was my class's 20year reuinion, even though I only graduated 8 years ago). I made it 20 or so steps, realized the futility, watched it go left of the barrier and drive over a bunch of cones, and...that was it. It took another 45-60 seconds for the riders to come through, which doesn't seem like much, but at that moment, it seemed like an eternity to the extent that I thought maybe there was something else happening to stop them.
They did come through, though, and when I counted Noah and the rest to make sure they were all there, I took another ten steps behind a building and threw up.
We're now on lap 2 of the first race of the day...
Pretty much the only problem the rest of the day was one particular part of the course that had cars just driving over cones or around barriers, gunning it down the street and off of the course. I kept telling the police and the volunteer coordinator about the issue, and I kept hearing "we'll take care of it" and "we've taken care of it", but I kept getting calls from teamnuts that cars were getting on to the course there.
Eventually, had some friends go down there for me, as I could trust that they'd actually go. But they called several times to tell me cars were getting on to the course. Maybe it was all 4 or 5 times throughout the day. Maybe it was the 50 that it feels like. Never the less, there was a problem, and my feeling was that we should stop the races until it was resolved. I said this to the police officer and my go-to guy with the city. They drove down to the spot in question (we were between races at that very moment), came back and said it was now secure.
During the next race Ken calls me to say a car got on the course in that spot. Barriers around the perimeter of the course one and two blocks out, barriers on the actual course, 300+ total cones out there, course marshals out there, and people will still drive around or over the very things there to say "don't go". But get this--a few times, it is cars with bikes on them.
By now I'm regretting that I've got my friends down there on a trouble spot, and for what seems like that 100th time, I walk down to the tree where the bike patrol police are hanging out and ask them (maybe I told them) to go to that spot. I was informed that I needed to be aware that I couldn't actually order them to do anything. My response may have sounded something like, "Well, y'all can go over to (that spot) and stand under a tree and help us out, or y'all can be the first responders when there's an accident." Feeling like maybe I should walk away at that point, I just stood there while they stood there and looked at me. One of them acts like he's saying something into the radio (I was 3 feet away and couldn't hear him say anything), and then hops on his bike and rides over. The other three follow.
I turn to walk back up the finishing hill and see one of the race officials standing behind a building, evidently on a smoke break.
My intent is to put on a race that the racers feel is a "must do" for the next year. I try to put on a race that I'd want to do. But the parts that make up the actual course and distance of the race are such a pitifully small part of actually putting on the thing that I always have to take a few weeks post-race to seriously ask myself if I want to mess with it again. Then again, it may be solved for me, as I have no idea what our team policy is when we lose money on a race. We've never lost money on a race before. Heck, I may be voted off of the island, which would really suck, because my only cycling socks are team socks.
Couldn't sleep last night. Kept having thoughts of the emails from folks who want me to mail them their $5 prize money check, and the ones asking me if I found their water bottle near the S/F. And then there's the big ones where I think of things that will require reimbursement from the team, thereby hitting the bottom line even harder.
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