Being the Triathlon Manager at Team in Training, this was a weekend I had been planning for a long long time. There were two main components. Friday was the Inspiration Dinner, where we inspire (duh) and carboload the athletes. And Sunday was the race, plus the Victory Celebration. Both days take equally as much planning.

 

For Friday… We had around 400 NYC athletes and around 50 from the other chapters, along with their coordinators and coaches.

 

 

 

We are never sure until the last moment about how many people would be attending, so it was a guessing game as for tables/chairs/plates… I also had to coordinate with all the other chapters, which adds a few levels of complications. We had to prepare the speech for the dinner, the slideshow to accompany the speech, decorations for the tables and rooms, booths and staff to take care of it all. I had ticket takers and guest lists, I had people manning a solutions desk, and all mentors and coaches doing a red carpet (basically a sound tunnel!!) for when the athletes arrived, which is always super exciting. I was a nervous wreck.

 

 

 

 

Even though I’ve managed 2 events already, this was the first local one so I was in charge of it all. And it was a pretty big one (regular events have 50, or a 100 athletes… we had over 400 people there!). 

But, as crazy type A as I am with planning, it all went great, and I heard people had a great time. And most were inspired and very teary. It’s never inspiring if you’re not crying by the end. During the dinner itself, I was manning the slideshow and my boss was the MC, she’s fantastic at it. I was very nervous about the slideshow as everything needs to be timed PERFECTLY, and I have a very very hard time staying focused on one thing… Somehow, I pulled it off, and then it was all over. During one of the speeches, I even had time to pull out my nutella and have a few spoonfuls (I was doing my 20 miler very early the next morning, remember?).

When it ended, we picked everything up, packed it up, and brought it all back to the office, emptied the rollies, and packed again for Sunday morning. Rushed home to gulp a few cupcakes and pass out before 6:30 am call for the long run.,.

 

Sunday, an early morning too, I was in the park setting up early. There were around 7 of us by the finish line to check people out. Basically, every athlete needs to be accounted for.

 

So we positioned ourselves by the finish and made sure they all saw us. Team in Training athletes definitely dominated the field so it got complicated and busy a few times during the day (and it was hot too!). The rest of the staff, was cheering on the course, along with all our coaches out there! By 12, everyone had finished and we had to start calling the few people who hadn’t checked out. One was in the hospital from a bike crash, and it was my job to make sure she was ok, she had someone with her (or I’d be responsible to go) and locate her bike and dropped-off bag. 

 

Sunday night… was also the Victory Celebration. We had it at an outdoor bar/restaurant by the Hudson, there was food, there was drinking, and definitely lots of celebrating, bragging, and talk of all the dead fish floating in the Hudson that morning (there was a storm the day before and killed a lot of fish!).

 

 

Everyone looked tired but very happy. I got home around 10 pm. I sighed hard. Then I passed out.