the chips

I do like Daylight Savings Time. I just don't like "losing" that hour of sleep initially. So I decided to try something a little different and forced myself not only to be out of bed by 7:00am, but also walked about a mile to where I needed to be. I remembered my iPod Shuffle, so it wasn't too bad. I even resisted the urge to stop and buy something sweet.

My task for today was to help gather up and put the chips (that tracked the runners' times) from The Shamrock Shuffle away in an organized fashion. We were told to arrive in front of The Congress Hotel by 8am. I managed to make it on time.

We then walked over to the tent that had been set up for us to do our work. At first, I didn't really like the tent. It was dark inside and seemed small and crowded. I didn't feel that way when the rain started. Oh no, I learned to love that tent.

I was given a metal pole, about 4 feet high and half an inch wide, and spent the morning slipping chips - all in the same direction - onto it. When I reached the notch at the top, I was told that meant I had 100 chips, and passed it off to the people who were removing them from the poles and onto brightly colored string (no idea what the neon colors signified, if anything).

A group of almost 20 people worked to get the job done - there were about 20,000 chips. Meanwhile all the runners crossed the finish line, and by the time we were finished there were few signs that it had ever happened. It was surreal.

We got to watch the first group cross the finish line, which happened about 22 minutes after the race started at 9:30am. The winner was a very tall and lanky guy. He looked quite funny next to the Mini Cooper that was following him. If that was one of the prizes, I think he might have to drive it from the back seat.

The next group came in about 20 minutes behind them, and continued steadily for the next hour, and then it tapered off again. The race was 8km, so the winners were doing four and a half minute miles, while the average people were going at a speed of about 11mph. At about the time most people were done, the rain started to come down.

We almost didn't hear it because it was drowned out by the crew that had come by to take down the fences and other equipment which lined Columbus Avenue. As I said, by the time we were finished, the only real sign that there had been a race at all were a few portable toilets in the park, and our little tent.

I opted out of the get together afterwards, as 1)it was raining and 2)it was out of my way. Plus, I was tired and ready to go home. I was hoping B would take a break from his reading and we could go have lunch together. It felt like we hadn't spent much time together at all, although we did have a nice dinner at a Spanish place called 1492 on Saturday night.

I wimped out and caught the bus back. Of course the rain stopped as soon as I boarded. Still it was amazing to take a breathe and think about all the work that went into the event. I am sure very few people had a clue.

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