What's Harder than Racing? All the Other Things...

Research has shown that people who volunteer often live longer. -- Allen Klein

As a spectator, you get to watch everything, but I'd much rather be playing than watching.  I'll have time to watch later in my career. -- Landon Donovan

This past weekend was super busy...and pretty amazing.  I wouldn't trade it for the world, but it shocks me how incredibly tiring it was - because I didn't race.  I did everything but...

Sunday was the East Coast Triathlon Festival, an all day affair featuring junior & youth elite, CAMTRI elite, and then regular folks - adults and kids.  So much great triathlon in one place in one day.

Because it's local (and my daughter trains with the group that sponsors the races), I volunteered to help with set-up...which meant a really early wake-up call on Sunday morning, followed by over 2 hours of unloading hay bales from a semi to set up corner barriers of hay walls.  I didn't feel it at the time, but since then, my arms/back/shoulders have reminded me that is a lot of work of the type I'm not used to.

When the course was set up, I went home to rest (and get the hay out of my hair/clothes/shoes...and not terribly successfully, I will say).  Then some breakfast, a quick 6-mile run, and back to the race site with my daughter to watch her training mates doing the youth elite races.  Next year she ages up and is eligible for these races, so we wanted to really watch them.

After the youth racers, we saw the adult elite - future Olympic-level athletes from around the world - so interesting!

Finally it was time to watch my little athlete.  I mom-spectate at races (and soccer games and track meets) all the time, but I will say, triathlon spectating is the hardest, since I race from the swim start to transition to somewhere on the bike course to transition to a corner of the run course...and yeah, well, you get the picture.  On top of that 6 mile run, I walked/jogged/jumped/skipped about 6 more miles over the course of the day.

No wonder I felt exhausted...and I hadn't even raced!  My first tri of the season...this weekend!