Croixathlon: Volunteer Report

This is a race report lacking pictures and a race report.  You see, today I was a spectator/volunteer at the Croixathlon.  Katie actually did the race, and there's some big news at the end of this post, so keep reading.  This post will mainly be my experience as a volunteer.

Croixathlon took place at a YMCA camp on the St. Croix River in Hudson, WI.  When we got there, we parted ways as Katie went to set up her transition area, and I went to get checked in.  Little did I know that I wouldn't be seeing much of Katie over the next few hours.

They sent me out on parking lot duty first.  I stood at an intersection and told people to keep driving.  Later, they gave me a bright yellow flag.  I worried about some of the people showing up around 7:10am, because transition closed at 7:20am.  Do these people not plan ahead?  The job ended up slowing down, and became rather boring.

I left that job and was put on tunnel duty.  The cyclists had to cross a busy road, but they had a tunnel to go through.  The main part of the job was that when the first cyclists were heading back, I would holler through the tunnel to make sure no one was coming the other way.  The message was relayed along the course much like the Twilight Bark from 101 Dalmatians or "Call the locksmith!" from Robin Hood: Men in Tights.  I did manage to see Katie very briefly as she was heading out, but the tunnel was dark, and I didn't notice her until she was right next to me.  She was looking great!

Once two-way tunnel traffic wasn't a threat anymore, they hurried me over to an intersection on the bike course around mile 13.  I needed to make sure the cyclists turned left.  I probably got a little too into the job, and did some fancy "turn left" moves including some karate kicks.  It's also amazing how much some drivers don't understand "STOP".

They relieved me from that duty at the end, and I got to find Katie back at transition.  She had just finished about 5 or 10 minutes prior, and was chatting with Mike and his wife.  As Katie went to clean up her road rash from 2 weeks ago, I decided to check out the "beach path".  This is a path all the triathletes had to ascend from the beach to T1.  Boy, was it STEEP!  And uneven.  And long.  Probably not so fun after a 600 yard swim.

At the awards ceremony, we had a bit of a surprise.  Katie placed 3rd in her age group!  What a fantastic job she did!  This was only her 2nd outdoor triathlon ever, and she placed.  Mike ended up getting 2nd in his age group, so victories all around!