FLCC> Hollenbecks THANK YOU!

Tue May 6 19:19:41 EDT 2008

Sara,

A lot of the THANKS goes to you for taking on the responsibility of Race
Director. It takes a lot of time and energy to put on a race.
Congratulations!

Todd Lemmiksoo

-----Original Message-----
From: flcc-bounces at icycle.org [mailto:flcc-bounces at icycle.org] On Behalf Of
Sara Barker
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 11:02 AM
To: flcc at icycle.org; Communication among Cookies
Subject: FLCC> Hollenbecks THANK YOU!

Hi all,

Once again I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to all the amazing volunteers who
came out this weekend to help run another great bike race for our club. I
can't say enough how much I appreciate everyone's help.

Sunday ended up going extremely well after a bit of a rocky start. 
I've run this event for many years and have never once thought that we might
actually need to cancel it on race morning. Saturday night, when Aidan
decided again that he wasn't interested in sleeping, I had a sort of
premonition or nightmare that I'd show up on race morning and there would be
no porto-jons. You can imagine how shocked I was when it actually came true.
In my mommie mushy brain haze I tried to figure out where the heck 200
people where going to relieve themselves before 10:00am. After many phone
calls, a friend's husband convinced Greek Peak to open their doors and the
police called the fire chief who drove over and opened the fire hall
bathrooms. With the Virgil fire chief and Wes Kryger's immense generosity we
were back in business!

While I was figuring out where the new dump stations were located, Tania
stepped up and organized registration which was a huge relief. 
Tania you may be moving to New Hampshire, but we need you back for the first
weekend of May next year! All those who showed up early that morning were
fantastic as I barked orders. Glenn, Marcia, Peter, Don, Dave, and Jack
showed up with all kinds of gear which literally exploded out of their cars.
Guided by Glenn and Peter, tents were going up all over the place just as
the rain started to come down. We even had Mr. Results' Mini Cooper parked
under one I believe.

Ernie and Brian Lee were in charge of the signs and making sure the roads
were clear that morning. Nice that I didn't even have to think about that
aspect of the race.

The registration crew of Tania, Holly Monkman (who placed second in the Cat
4s!), El Prez Ruppert, Shelley Mulvaney (back from Wyoming just for the
race), Sam Kolins, Erin Bohman, Henrik Spoon, Lilynn Fluff, Jess Walden,
Brian Lawney, Tim Reissman, and Vivian Hoffmann were ready and waiting. I
believe Ms. Fluff only got rained on once when part of the tent collapsed.

Mark 'Results' Rishniw and Wayne his sidekick were unbelievable with results
this year. I don't think we've ever gotten them out faster. 
Mark maybe it's time to try that new software you've been developing,
although the old system seemed pretty flawless this time around.

A huge thank you goes to Jeff Poulin who graciously volunteered again as our
official. He not only officiates for us, but runs his own races in
Binghamton, and does a ton for NYS racing in general. Jeff, we really
appreciate all the time that you generously give to cycling in this state.

Marcia Swan, our volunteer chief, helped me organize and outfit the massive
number of corner marshals (overcompensating for the lack of last year) as
well as drove the course backwards to find a few lost souls. Charles
Eldemire, Joe, Don Ten Kate, Daniel Blakeley, Dave Heck Sr, Morgan Miller,
Chris Castellano, and Ali Gruber were joined by volunteers from a Cornell
student group called Cover Africa. They all were fantastic, communicating
regularly with me via cell phone. 
Even Deputy Gary told me how impressed he was with the people on each
corner. By the way, Deputy Gary was out driving the course for us all day!
He was probably the friendliest officer that I've ever met. He entertained
us multiple times at the finish and we certainly appreciated his presence.

The pace car drivers and wheel vans ran or rather drove like clockwork.
Steve Bowman, Peter O (thanks Steve and Peter for driving the marathon
distances!), Tania, Todd Lemmiksoo, Steve Edgar, Karl Best, Jim Bondra, Don
Smith, Alex Specker, Jon Decoste, Paul Monkman and Hobit Lafaye kept a close
eye on the racers and ensured their safety. Hope you guys had some good
tunes out on the road or at least a decent NPR channel.

So the rumor is true that someone who was not racing that morning did decide
to move the finish a wee bit farther up the hill, but for a good cause I
promise. It made scoring so much easier and the merriment at the finish so
much more entertaining (sorry Glenn!). :-) I couldn't have asked for a
better crew at the finish. Shelley Mulvaney, Sam Kolins, Erin Bohman, Henrik
Spoon, Bill Lodico, Jess Walden, Marcie Robinson, Andrew Glosenger, and our
driver Steve Powell were all incredibly efficient and good at picking
numbers. 
Steve was also our volunteer down at Greek Peak to "man" the bathrooms.
Thank you so much Steve for agreeing to do any task at the last minute.

Mark and Amanda Shenstone were responsible for the amazing cookies and other
delicious post-race food. I asked Brenda to be the "food police" and she did
a fantastic job as we actually had a few cookies left over at the end of the
day!

Mike Ludgate and Ludgate Farms deserves a big thank you for the yummy apples
as well as Gimme for the coveted coffee.

I apologize if I forgot someone as the list is so long! Hope to see you all
out on the road very soon. Till next year...

Cheers,
Sara

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