Day 2 of the Centurion weekend was fun for me- I didn't race on Saturday, but I spent the day playing the part of the race announcer and of course watching the races.
The day started at 6:30am with me and my wife (who is forced to be my assistant whenever I am a race announcer) getting our instructions from the Centurion folks. Lots of notes on the day's schedule, race rules, sponsors to thank, etc. We went through the notes and set up our own little plan of attack. We had a couple of important times to be aware of...pre-race it was all about making sure everyone knew the rules and what was expected of them and of course getting in those sponsor mentions. After we started the race we thought we'd be able to rest for about an hour. It was a 25 mile race, so surely it would be at least an hour before the first rider came in, right?
Wrong!
About 50-55 minutes later, the first bunch of riders crossed the finish line- averaging more than 27mph! And it was a steady stream of riders after that. The next part of the day is trying hard to announce every rider as they cross the line. A bit of a challenge when they were coming so fast and furious. Sorry if I missed you or mispronounced your name. This was the big part of Laura's job as my assistant- she would keep one eye on the finish line and another eye on the computer and do her best to feed me names as people finished.
At one point during the race we noticed (or it was pointed out to us) that several people were completely missing the finish line- racing down the other side of the road and never crossing the line. This is a problem as the event is chip-timed. If you have ever been in a chip-timed race, you know that you are told over and over again "no chip...no time." In other words- if for some reason you are not wearing the chip that you were given, the timing system will not read that chip and you won't be timed. What they don't tell you is that if you don't cross the finish line, you also won't be timed. When we figured out what was going on we also realized that it wasn't the fault of the racers or of the race organizers. Somebody had parked their car in front of the sign that pointed the racers towards the finish line. The racers didn't see the sign (it was blocked by the car) so they just kept riding. When we figured out what was happening Laura had a new job- head down to the point where people were getting off course and get them back on course. And I had no assistant. Not a big deal, as everything in this race was computerized- so I just had to read names off the computer. The guy from the timing company had the really tough job- he had to figure out who missed the finish line and try to get a good estimate of their finish times- all while being asked the usual questions- "did I win?" "what was my time?" "is my girlfriend in yet?" etc.
As soon as we finished the 25 mile race and the race awards, it was on to the kids race.
Cutest. Race. Ever.
The kids had a choice- either go 1k or 5k. It's o.k. for Mom and Dad to ride along if you want. The 1k race was a short loop that the kids rode through once, the 5k race was a long loop that they rode twice through. The best part of the race itself was the littlest kids not really understanding what was going on. They would go the wrong way. They would not go at all. And most often, they would stop well before they made it to the finish line. One kid in particular stopped about 10 yards from the finish. His Dad and I stood at the finish line trying to coax him across. He stood there with a look on his face that said "wouldn't it be easier for you to come to me?"
The real fun started after the kids race.
AWARDS TIME!
Every kid gets a medal. Every kid gets to come up on stage and get their name announced. Every kid gets their medal placed around their neck by Graham Fraser (the guy who started Centurion Racing- and I believe Ironman too). Every kid gets to step to the edge of the stage and get their picture taken. Yes it took a long time, but it was a whole lot of fun. As each kid came to the stage I asked them to say their name into the microphone- of course 1/2 of them were too shy to do that, so they told me their name (or Mom told me their name) and I announced it and then tried to ask each one about their experience racing that day.
Me: "Did you go real fast?"
Kid: "Yep!"
Me: "Well, then you deserve a medal"
...and on to the next kid.
Well, on to the next kid after the papparazzi finished taking pictures.
And the next generation of bicycle geeks is born. Your welcome.
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