The Importance of Being a Race Official

I was a race official this weekend at the Hood-to-Coast relay (and I have the t-shirt to prove it). I've run this relay twice before, but since I had the opportunity to participate in the event from a different perspective, I took the opportunity. My friend Brian (I've known him since at least middle school; we also worked together at Schreiner's, ran Cross Country together, walked together at high school graduation, etc. etc.) owns/runs/manages the company that acts as the official race photographer, and he needed some extra help this year.

At slow times when there were several minutes between runners, I took a few short video clips of my adventure. While my documentary is pretty lame, it acted more like a notepad because it would have taken too long to write anything down. I ran into the real documentary team a few times; they even stopped where I was taking pictures, took some video at the same spot and complimented me on my choice location (not that I decided the spot--I was simply following orders).



As for the job itself: it's harder than I thought it would be. When I woke up Sunday morning, my entire body was sore, from standing/kneeling thousands of times. At least the runners usually came by one at a time, so that allowed for me to better plan and frame each shot.

Here were the highlights that I can recall:

• Taking about 2500 pictures over a span of about 20 hours.
  
• Driving 375 miles and getting over 42 mpg in the Corolla--thanks to my nearly-perfected method of hyper-miser driving.
• Meeting so many people I know: 1) my old boss from my job at ATG; she was a volunteer at the finish line party, inspecting attendees' bags for weapons of mass destruction. 2) Mark Wangsgaard, who attended the same singles ward where I met Meg, and whom I have run into everywhere over the last decade (at intersections in Salem, at the airport, in the streets of San Francisco, etc. etc.). 3) Ron from the office. 4) Alan Rasmussen, a friend of Meg's from Sherwood. 5) And some person recognized me as I took their picture, but I'm not sure who it was--let me know if it was you, or even if you were on the course and our paths never crossed.
  
• Watching the cops bust a speeding team van right in front of my location on Friday afternoon.
• Watching the hillbillies do their thing on and around their property.
• Seeing people walking by my spot on Leg 5. These runners weren't even three miles into their race (and each person averages about 15 miles overall); I would have hated to be on their teams . . .
• Great weather: It was partly cloudy and temperatures in the low 80's; we were lucky to miss the 100 degrees of last week and the rain storms of earlier in the week.
  

And some of my favorite quotes from runners:

• "Don't take my picture: I just broke my ankle." I've sprained my ankle at least a dozen times from playing basketball--so severe at times that I could barely walk. This chick was running at a good speed and was putting full weight on both ankles.
• "Why didn't you take my picture during the first leg when I looked good?" For the record, there was an official photographer at each leg during daylight hours. And second, one of the few race photographs I have ever bought was of my finish in the Portland 2002 Marathon where my expression is of total agony--it was well worth the money.
• "I wish I could have your job." On the second day, I probably would have agreed to the swap--it was getting pretty hard to towards the end to kneel down on the concrete for every picture. While some people acted like I didn't know what they were going through, most of the runners were very polite and grateful for the encouragment (which I freely gave to all the runners).
  
• "Did you capture my belly jiggling?" There were very few overweight people on the course, and she was certainly not one of them. On the flip side, I was surprised at how many chiseled male runners there were--not usually a good physique for endurance running. Generally speaking, the runners I saw (and I saw just about everyone at some point) were of the type who like to look pretty in their workouts at the gym, as opposed to people who train for free year-round in the streets and on the track.
• "You just had to take my picture when I'm only wearing my bra." Well, maybe you shouldn't have taken off your shirt then. Gosh! It's not like the course is completely devoid of human activity.