Say "Thank you!"

Most of you know that my incredible husband is a triathlete. Today was the Iron Girl Triathlon at Lake Lanier. It is an all women's triathlon- a long sprint (that's the distance for you non-tri-ers out there... ). Well, Chris was a mentor on the Summer TNT (Team IN Training) team and had a few mentees participating in today's race. I thought it would be fun to volunteer at the race (which it was quite fun).

I had to be at the race site by 5:15 this morning. Therefore, we got up at 3:30 this morning so that we could be there by 5. Do you know the last time I saw 3:30? I can't remember. Anyway, it felt like I had just gone to sleep when the alarm went off. We made it there and I think I was one of the first volunteers to check in. The first duty that I was assigned was Body Marking. This meant that I marked the race numbers on the participants. I marked many bodies, many were first timers. I really tried to be an encouragement to these ladies. All the ladies did say thank you when I finished writing their numbers on them with an industrial size Sharpie. Our friend Katie asked me after the race what I marked her with because it didn't come off in the shower.

This is Mary, the TNT coach body marking... Chris didn't get a pic of me body marking.

After the race was underway, I was given another assignment. If you don't know anything about triathlons, you swim, then bike and end with the run. There's an area called Transition area, where you keep your bike and you basically end and start each activity. Well, right where the ladies were to come out on their bikes and return on their bikes (the mount and dismount lines) there was a speed bump, not too far from it. Speed bumps can be dangerous to a cyclist so my job the rest of the race was to warn the ladies about the bump. So every time someone was coming, I yelled "bump" or "Watch out for the speed bump" or something similar.



Now, I didn't volunteer for the thank yous, but it definitely made me feel good when the ladies on the bikes said thank you to me for warning them about the bump.

Long story short, thank your volunteers, if you're any type of racer. It makes them feel good! :)