Large quantities

Last night I stopped at Staples to look at 9×12 envelopes.  We are planning to use these envelopes as packets to hold all of the race information for runners at this years half marathon.  Well I really didnt look into what these envelopes cost ahead of time but when I saw 16 bucks for a pack of 100 I was surprised.  If I multiply that out times 25 to accommodate the roughly 2500 runners we are expecting it added up to a big chunk of change, nearly 500 bucks just for dumb envelopes.

When dealing with a race of this size, even seemingly minor items can add up to significant expenses.  I have Cindy looking at other sources for the envelopes.  I’m hoping to be able to pick them up for less than $10 per 100.

The race size also gets big and ugly when it comes time to produce handouts for the event.  Have you ever tried printing 2500 copies of something? It takes forever, consumes over a carton of paper, a ton of toner and fills whatever area it is being printed in with enough toner dust to give you black lung.

All of this prep I am doing is for a “party” Saturday morning where a number of kind souls will be helping us create these 2500 race packets, stuffing papers, race bibs, timing chips and other accessories into each packet which then will be affixed with a label, which I also created.  This race is the most labor intensive of the year.  I have a long and detailed mental checklist of items I need to make sure I get handled.

So it looks like Ali will finally be getting back home tomorrow afternoon.  It will be weird not having the two black furry faces greeting me when I wake up or get home Friday.