We are busy preparing for the first ever marathon on Texada Island on August 28th. With less than two weeks to go the preparations are taking on a slightly frantic pace and now is when all the glitches start to appear and co-ordinating the event starts to resemble one handed juggling. Already met our target for numbers, how many more T-shirts can we get printed at the last minute? Is the van which is being counted on going to be available if we can’t get a company employee to drive it? Can my wife come along on the free transport for runners from the ferry to watch? Can I change events? Can we have something other than gatorade for sport drink because I don’t like it? By the time the horn goes off to start the race I will probably be able to fill a book with these last minute challenges and innane questions.
Fortunately we have a great team that has worked together to organize the race under very tight time lines. Everybody is sharing the workload and thankfully the few stressful issues have been resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. We are also getting great support from the community. Businesses and individuals have made significant donations, and many people are prepared to give up much of their Sunday to stand out on the side of a hot road handling out water or controlling traffic. It is wonderful to see how an event like this can pull the community together.
But it won’t happen without a lot more work right up to 2:30 p.m on the 28th when the race will officially close. So for the next two weeks I will be rather distracted and won’t have as much time to devote to this blog or fund raising for Nepal (although I will have a donations jar and Running for Nepal flyers at the finish of the race…just in case someone feels generous or is still high on endrophins).
However, this experience does reinforce for me the incredible logistical challenges the Everest Marathon folks have to tackle. They have to get 70 runners and additional volunteers from all over the world to Kathmandu. Take them on a 16 day trek all the way to Everest Base Camp at 17,000 ft.. Then put on a marathon and get everyone back safely to Kathmandu. To do this they have a team including 4 group leaders, 6 medical personnel, and all the staff necessary to stage a successful trek from Team leader (Sidur) and porters to cook and kitchen staff. It is a mind boggling effort which may partially explain why the Everest Marathon only happens every other year. It takes real dedication to be Race Director for something like this, and to do it and contribute all the profits to charity is highly commendable. Hats off to Penny and her helpers.
Running for Nepal 