Double Sonic boom

So last night was my turn to attend the running club board meeting.  Ali and I try to switch off in attendance although with Ali’s new training schedule I have been the one more often than not that has been attending.  The board meeting was going along as most of them do when a discussion opened up about the July 4th race we put on.

The initial discussion was regarding the very small proceeds the race generated, despite the large, almost 900 registrant participation.  This was the end result of the very low registration fees charged for this race, relatively expensive T-shirt costs and the lack of having more than one sponsor for the event.

George, the race director for the race and someone whom I like and respect was making a point that in terms of effort put out by the club, this race isn’t much different than any other race. I had pretty kept quiet on the subject up to this point.  I had already had several arguments about the philosophy of the fee structure for this race in the past.  I had no real interest in opening it up again.  The only thing I did point out to George that this race is definitely more work intensive on our end.

Even though we have made progress in getting more and more people to sign up early and online, we still had close to 300 people that signed up for the race on paper, about half of that number on the day of the race.  It is a very HECTIC race from a timing perspective.

Out of nowhere George launched an unexpected assault on my statement.  He said that there were additional volunteers available to me on the day of the race to do data entry.  He said that I basically told one of these volunteers to “Get lost” and that I didn’t need their help.  He said these volunteers were specifically picked out to help with data entry and I basically blew them off.  He went further to imply I was a martyr where I complain about the workload of paper entries but then I refuse help.

Well just like that, the safety was removed and I exploded.  In between expletives I told George that it is not practical to try to train someone on the spot to do race data entry.  I told him that it was never communicated to me by himself or anyone else that there were two “special” volunteers assigned to help us.  I also said that I certainly didn’t dismiss this woman in the manner that George described.  When the woman first asked if we needed any help, we didn’t, the crowd hadn’t hit yet.  Then like a switch flipped, the mob descended and Ali and I hardly had time enough to breathe, let alone teach somebody anything.

As George tried to rebuke my statements it just continued to escalate my anger until I was at full scale “Hulk Smash” mode.  I was screaming.   I warned George he better back down on this, I was off the chain with anger.  The rest of the board members were like referees at a hockey fight,  just standing back, letting us go at it until somebody hit the ice.  I am sure it shocked most of them as nobody in that room has ever seen me get angry like that, very few people do.

In total, I would estimate the debacle went on for a good 10-15 minutes.  I was genuinely insulted that with all of the work that Ali and I do in so many areas to make the club as good as it is, George, of all people, would actually throw something like that out there.  The idea of just walking out and saying “Adios, I’ll be dropping the timing equipment off at your door” was very close to being reality.

Finally enough steam blew off that we were able to discuss actual ways to get people trained to help with doing entries on the day of the race.  I said it isn’t something that is best done on the day of a race where time is short and stress is high.  I told the board I have been working on documentation outlining the process which could be used in conjunction with a “class” where I would demonstrate the basic functions.

Everyone agreed on the necessity of this happening and we moved on.  After the blow up I cooled off as did George.  I think we both felt bad for our part in the scene.

The meeting in one fell swoop more or less added three races to our schedule.  It was ironic since in the past there had been many discussions about the need to keep our calendar at it’s current level.  That talk seemed to be ancient history last night.  I didn’t make much stink about it as I view it as Camaro money at this point so as long as I do not have something planned I am ok with timing a race.  However there are a whole truckload of additional human resources that are affected by this decision that may or may not be happy with being called upon even more so than they already are.

Ironically towards the end of the meeting when I covered my subjects the board green lighted my perspective purchase of some used timing equipment that I found on a race director forum.  The equipment will give us the ability to offer a chip start on our larger races as well as serving as a back up for our existing timing system and even potentially time two events on the same day.

I didn’t get out of the meeting till almost 8:30 which is crazy late.  On the way home I called Ali about the blow out.  She was surprised it got to that degree.  She knows what happens when rage overtakes me.

She had gotten back from her conference earlier that afternoon.  I welcomed her home with a hug and a kiss.  Before very long we were retiring to our bed which was once again whole with Ali, Sadie and I sharing bed with Nicki comfortably spread out next to it.

This morning when I took the dogs out around 6 am I was startled by the sound of two rapid fire booms to the southwest.  I felt them in addition to hearing them.  In a few seconds I recalled that the shuttle was supposed to be landing this morning.  Ironically with my 11 years of living in Florida I never have been outside to hear the sonic boom made by the reentry.  It is impressive.

As soon as the noise hit the neighborhood came to life with the sounds of barking dogs.  Our dogs, who were trotting around the back yard came sprinting back to the door.  Both of them were freaked out.

It was ironic to me that my first front row exposure to the shuttle sonic boom would also be the last one I ever heard.