Texas Independence Relay

This afternoon I made my first volunteer appearance at a race. The inaugural Texas Independence Relay was being held this weekend, with teams of runners starting in Goliad on Saturday and finishing at the San Jacinto Monument today, a total distance of about 200 miles. I arrived at a street corner in southeast Houston and made my way to the red tent with a replica of the "COME AND TAKE IT" banner from the Battle of Gonzales dangling.

The tent marked one of the last exchange points for the teams, who were all fairly worn out at this point and were ready to get the race overwith! Unlike other races, us volunteers didn't have to worry about serving water or distributing post-race snacks; the teams were carrying provisions in their vans. Mostly, we were in charge of "babysitting" the tent and cone markers when runners or race staff wasn't around, as well as making sure the outgoing runners knew which direction to start running. Being at the exchange point was sort of like being at an airport terminal. Vans would pull in and team members would come over to anxiously wait for their arriving loved one, er, teammate and then encourage the next one on his/her departure. While the teams waited I got to chat with many of them. One of the runners actually recognized me from my posts on Runner's World forum and admitted to being mostly a lurker. (HI!)

In a volunteer assignment, you might find yourself doing some pretty unexpected things. Today was an extremely windy day, with a strong 20 mph breeze from the southeast and occasional gusts of 30 mph! And wouldn't you know it, the arriving runners were having to go directly against that wind for their leg of the race! Kudos to them for dealing with that at this late stage. As for me, I spent much of the time with my hand firmly gripping one of the tent posts to make sure the wind didn't "come and take it." A couple of the teams had remarked that this had actually happened to tents at previous exchange points, with one tent getting dumped into a fountain.

There was some rain, too, and while at this intersection, I observed that many drivers don't know well enough to just slow down. Many spun their tires gunning their accelerator on green lights. The rear-wheel-drive vehicles were REALLY making me nervous. A pickup truck lost control on a turn, spun around, hopped the median into the opposing lanes, and somehow remained upright and didn't hit anyone. The driver of a blue car making a left turn lost control, started fishtailing, and for a split second, I feared that she would rollover in our direction! This volunteer assignment had a sense of the unexpectedly dangerous to it!

The last team -- the all-female "Victorious Secret" -- gathered under the tent at around 3, and we chatted as they waited. Finally, the runner they were waiting for appeared and made the handoff:

I was told that she was the youngest participant in the event at eleven years of age. Wow! And with that handoff, the sag wagon showed up and I assisted with taking down the tent.

I look forward to additional opportunities to volunteer at races. It's a different perspective and races just wouldn't be the same without them, would they?

Here are a few more pictures for this post....

Teams huddle under the exchange point tent to seek relief from intermittent rain:


A member of "Baytown Runners" finishes her leg by arriving at the exchange point ...


...and her teammate heads off on the next leg!


I think this is Team "I'm On A Beer Run To Shiner" waiting. Or is it "120 Toes"? Or "One Po'Tatur"? There were so many teams coming and going that I couldn't keep them all straight!


Team van of "Chillin' & Grillin' Our Road Killin':


Team van of "Team Stinky Feet":


Team van of "The Dirty Dozen"


Team van of "Victorious Secret":