I went and did it again today. This time I was solo. James forgot to set his alarm and Mila "pulled a Mila." I volunteered at the San Angelo Roller Girls 5K Walk n Rollathon. Not only did the proceeds go to the Roller Girls (San Angelo Roller Girls Facebook) but to The Concho Valley Home for Girls and Children's Emergency Shelter (http://www.conchokids.org/) as well. About a month ago, when I was itching to find some runners in San Angelo, I looked up upcoming races and threw my name out as a potential volunteer. Kendra, who seems to be one of the SARG leaders, enthusiastically accepted and let me know that she had little experience in race directing. In the two races I've volunteered at, it seems like I'm inching closer to eventually directing my own race. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet up with the ladies prior to the race, so I showed up to Unidad Park around 0700 this morning.
Unidad Park has become kind of our default running location. As I've said previously, the positive and negative of the Red Arroyo trail lies in its openness. You really don't need to worry about anyone sneaking up on you, but as soon as the sun comes out, there's no hiding from it. Pretty annoying for an insta-burner like me.
Anyway, I ran around and tried to help out as much in set up as I could until Kendra gave me a job.
I was to be the time master. I had underlings this time! (the Saras without the h). We had several stop watches and notepads to get the job done, so we made sure to marry up everyone's bib numbers with their first name and age group. As the trail crosses a couple roads, I took a group of Army students from the nearby base out to serve as road guards and course marshals.
The race itself had 2 heats, a competitive heat and a non-competitive fun heat. (heat being literal by time that second one rolled around) Competitors had multiple options too. They could walk, run, roller blade, roller skate, skate board, or cycle. As time keepers, we had to separate out who was running, rolling, and riding. The race was small also, both heats had about 15 starters each. Here's the start of the 1st:
I did my best to get pics while also doing the timing with Sara, but I can't promise anything. I'm going to throw them all at the end here. Who knows, maybe this blog will turn into the San Angelo version of Scotty Dog's blog in San Antonio (https://scottydogreports.com/).
The winner of the first heat ended up being a woman that started late and was roller blading while pushing a double stroller. What a savage. A roller skater won the second heat, in a race that was actually quicker. All in all it was a fun time. I had a good time just sitting and talking to the derbiers (is that what they're called? It is now anyway)and learning about their sport. I'd like to try and make it out to one of their upcoming games/matches/meets/competitions. Here's a video of them competing and then the pics! I apologize that most of the runners turned out to be ant sized.
Day 4 was "supposed" to take place mainly outside. The forecast called for rain most of the day and, well, it looked like we would be running ourselves ragged to make the self-imposed time hacks. So, we made a little adjustment. We still decided to go to a couple different gardens. However, we needed breakfast first (let's be honest, it was second breakfast for this hobbit). We went to Confiteria La Ideal for a fantastic breakfast. I had thought it was a smaller place to grab a coffee and snack and then be on our way. However, we walked in and realized it's not that type of spot. The cafe originally opened in 1912 and was long considered the best example of porteno (coming from Buenos Aires) gastronomy for the best part of the 20th century. They closed their doors in 2016 but reopened in 2022 after a massive restoration project. We also saw that we were way underdressed. Luckily, we could play the ignorant tourist card and, if need be, I could always speak horrendou...
Good evening Jordan, it's Sunday and this series comes to you in at least 3 parts. We'll see how long these posts get with the preposterous amount of pictures we were taking. Now, I can say that I started my post on the day we bot back. I will have to take a day or two organizing and editing pictures, so I'll be right back. Promise you won't even know I've left. See? Bueno As has been the ongoing theme for a while now, our planned vacation spot was Peru. This would be attempt #3 to go eat lomo salteado and hang out with alpacas, but as we were starting our initial planning phases, Macchu Picchu was closed down due to protests. With that being such a center piece of a Peruvian plan, we decided to hold off. again. However, we decided to keep it to the same continent. Our highest rated spot was Argentina (yes, we have solo and combined updated top 15 vacation destinations lists) and Gabriel had gone there the year before, giving us some good ideas. I was in school thro...
I had decided that I would try and get all the pictures edited before getting started on writing this up. After over a week, I'm a bit sick of adjusting the "pop" and "tint" slider bars and need to write a bit. Our days weren't exactly themed as I mostly grouped things by distance and their schedules, but there was plenty of art and futbol on these two days. Sitting just next to our hotel was Teatro Colon. After a pretty solid hotel breakfast of pastries ( medialunas being the classic Argentine breakfast pastry) ham and cheese sandwiches, and coffee, we walked briskly through the rain, hiding under awnings as possible and made our way to what we thought was the front of the theater. As we were to find out the next day, the theater was built before the avenida 9 de julio and so the back of the theater is to the main road. Walking in, we saw a large group of elementary school-aged children and a sign announcing that the main hall's lights were being tes...
Comments
Post a Comment