NC24 - Thanks

Frank Dwyer and Larry Orwin presenting the award to me

A year ago, prior to the NorthCoast 24-Hour Endurance Run start, I was presented with this award telling (accusing?) me that I was the 'Best Race Director Ever'. I was duly impressed and flattered. I said thanks and everything, but there was no time to reflect or linger; it was time to get the race started. Beginning this year, I've managed to pass the RD duties and overall race organization on. I wish Brian Polen and his new team all the best for this and future years. I have every confidence that they will do well.

 

It occurs to me that I haven't thanked our previous team enough. Yes, I have thanked them, but it can never be enough. I don't think I've ever dedicated an entire blog post to what I consider the 'Best Race Organization Team Ever'. I am therefore herewith going to do this now.

 

Here are most of the members of the NC24 Race Organization Team. These folks made the race the great success that it has become. They dedicated themselves to excellence, and they achieved it beyond our collective wildest dreams. In absolutely no particular order:

 

• Shannon Fisher put on the most and the best food ever available at any race ever conceived. Because of her and her team, NC24 was a veritable smorgasbord... that also had a race. 
• Scott Stuetzer arranged for awards and did almost all the back-breaking labor for set-up and take-down.
• Roy Heger rented the truck (and even put up with some damage to it one year), the power generation, and some of the awards. Roy also drove the truck, even when sleep-deprived after running the race every year.
• Frank Dwyer, our financial wizard and registration guru, was a right-hand man to just about everything. When I say I couldn't manage NC24 without these guys, I'm thinking mostly of Frank. He also ran the race every single year.
• Jan Roe helped Shannon with the food, check-in and the volunteer coordination. She would have also won the nicest person of the bunch award, had there been one.
• Charles Elkins purchased and developed our timing system after there had been problems in previous years. He did this entirely on his own, and the new system is the best in the business. Charles also arranged for drinking water (no small task), porta-potties and dumpsters.
• Felicia Fago helped with the food and the volunteer coordination.
• Crystal Friend also helped with the food and the volunteer coordination.
• Barb Clutter was abandoned as the only volunteer at the aid station  in the middle of the night one year. After that she became the lead volunteer coordinator and we never had another problem.
• Larry Orwin arranged the dinner for out of town guests.
• Debbie Horvath coordinated the post-run breakfasts, corralling a Boy Scout Troop for this in recent years. She also put up with the RD for 364 days a year.

 

Others have come and gone. Some of them have also done a whole lot of good stuff. And I haven't even mentioned the dozens of fantastic volunteers who have helped at various times over the years. They were/are the best of the best.

 

I always hesitate to publish a list such as this for fear of missing someone. If you served on the race committee, and I didn't mention your name, please consider that I'm an old man and I just can't remember everything anymore. It's definitely not that you weren't appreciated.

 

Thanks to all. And now let's all enjoy the new incarnation of NC24.