The aftermath

It’s exhilarating to have twelve months of preparation unfold as planned, the exhausting part of being a race director is the month following Maritime Race Weekend. Mental and physical fatigue hits soon after the last runner crosses the finish, but the work is far from over.

Within an hour of race weekend finishing, three cube vans arrived at my house and the unloading began. My garage quickly became a 400-square-foot junk drawer. Everything from boxes of left over swag, water cups, tents, tables, marshal vests, tarps, zip ties, hammers to duct tape were now in my garage. My yard was filled with two hundred empty water jugs, piles of pylons, garbage cans, cinder blocks and signs.

The day after the race, I sent out a desperate plea to volunteers – my back went out and I couldn’t bend, let alone lift. Within hours, fifteen enthusiastic pirate crew members arrived at my door eager to help.

Typically, sorting out the garage takes me a couple weeks. This year, in only five hours the pirate crew sorted all the gear, counted left over swag, washed and moved all the equipment to storage and completely transformed my garage!

It’s hard to believe it’s been two weeks since race weekend. I’ve been swamped. Catching up on emails, returning phone calls, paying bills and trying to clear-out extra swag has consumed most of my time. My post-race to-do list is only about 50 per cent complete and I still have to organize my office, write volunteer thank-you cards, follow-up with sponsors, mail awards, pick the best water station, announce best pirate costumes, order sneakers for medal winners and upload contest photos from race-kit pick-up. When this is done, I’ll take a week off to recharge.