Anyhow, what inspired me to write today is the Relay race that I volunteered for. It's a 199mi race from Calistoga to Santa Cruz that serves as a fundraiser for Organs R Us that promotes the need for organ donors. The race is to be completed by a team of 10-12 people, so each of the members runs about 10mi overall, which is not too bad, but through the whole race period (about 30hrs) all the non-active runners stay together in the van and follow the active runner, b/c every 5-6mi the runners must be changed. I've seen those people today after they've been in a race for >24hrs and had 0.5-1.5hrs of sleep max, and they have been extremely cheerful and polite. The mystery of human kind :)
Oh, and then we've seen this man who apparently does the whole race (199mi!) all by himself every year. For some midway points he orders pizza, quickly eats the whole thing on the way, and then just keeps going. Incredible! Such a determination and strength of body!
Together with 2 other people we were helping out at one of the numerous exchange points, so we had to coordinate the arriving/depating vans with the teams and make sure that all the runners cross the traffic safely. Sounds simple enough, but with the rain and heavier traffic it gets a bit tricky :) For the first time in my life I got to direct the traffic a bit though! With just one hand I could actually stop a car on Hwy 9 and with a wave of another hand let someone go :) I felt empowered. To be fair though, I did my best to never stop the cars on the road unless it was absolutely necessary.
And the moral of the story is..? There are some really great people doing some incredible things out there in the world. I've got nothing more to add.
1 comment:
u've said is enough, Mashuk:)pasib za tsenniy post
Post a Comment