Picking up from yesterday –
I guess I knew someone knew kids weren’t running of course, because someone instructed me to hold them up on the walkie. But it was a crazy day, and I was just afraid that information wasn’t going to get back to me. And I didn’t want to be holding kids up for no reason.
So, I waited with anticipation with my co-captain. Eventually we heard we should let the kids start running again. So, off they went!
Another thing that was crazy about the day was that as much as I thought the only problem would be people pushing forward and desperately trying to start as soon as they could… the opposite problem actually also existed. I’d excitedly tell people it was their turn to run. But then, the adults would decide the group needed to hang back because they had to wait for one person or another.
At the beginning of the day, we were told by the volunteer leaders, “The schools mix up. People are sat in order of how they arrive. It’s first come, first serve. If people ask where their school is, just tell them we’ll be running in mixed heats.”
Well, this sounded like a fine idea in theory. I was completely ready to follow the instructions. Little did I realize how important it was to people to run with their schools… Of course, thinking about it now after seeing how important it was to everyone, how would I not have realized that ahead of time? Of course as a kid (or a teacher so proud of all your kids), it’s important to you to run with your buds and the people who’ve done this with you.
I was thinking about it with my adult mindset of wanting to meet new people all the time – and of not being a part of any tight-knit groups right now. I almost always go places alone and am fine with enjoying the company of new people. I had totally forgotten the days of being in your super tight-knit loving group where you spend SO much time together and you just want to be in the presence of each other as you accomplish your goals.
So, as much as it was somewhat annoying to tell people to go, just to realize that basically that whole group was not in fact going to go yet, it actually didn’t slow down the day that much. And it was their day. So, they basically could do whatever they needed to do (assuming it didn’t completely stop or interfere with the day’s events), as far as I was concerned.
Overall, the event happened. Everybody made it to the finish line.
I met some extremely nice volunteers. And I got to help out with a group I can completely get behind. What a lovely day!