All week in the office we joked about not getting sleep, the disasters that could happen race morning and crying. I knew there would be some things that would be pretty unavoidable. We had this running joke that it was like planning your wedding, making the guest list in-between 30,000-40,000, taking over part of the city, not eating for like 36 hours, and not sleeping for 48 hours. So it’s the worst day of your life. Though it wasn’t the worst day, it was by far one of the craziest and most memorable days I’ve ever experienced.

Saturday night, after the carbo load dinner we got some coffee and did some errands. We packed up our hotel room at 1 am after quick showers and got ready for a night/day of craziness. We got down to the volunteer tent area and had a list of things that a co-worker and I were in charge of. I had the list on my iPhone and we just worked on checking off certain things throughout the morning. I finally got the nerve to get on a gator and drive it around, which sped up the process tremendously. After cruising around on it all morning in the dark I was getting pretty edgy with it and we were flying all over the place. We put up the signage at the tent in the finish line festival area. Got the finish clocks hung and start clocks hung. We got all the age division awards to the race results tent and kept checking on the people who were slowing arriving to set up. Timing company. Race Results. VIP parking list. Water Station trucks. Every one was working at 100 mph hour. We set up the personal item tent and it was finally 4 am. The bike tour started at 6:00 am. We saw our first runner shortly after 4 am and that was when I realized it was finally happening.

All the planning was leading up to this. It was funny because all week we were ready to get it going and then race morning I still felt like there was so much to do! Finally everything was starting to get set up and in place and I felt like we were as ready as we were going to be. People were using the huge bridge we had erected to travel to the running group section and other portapotties on the festival side. Bikers were arriving and donning their helmets. I was so nervous I thought I was going to throw up. I couldn’t eat anything. I desperately wanted everything to go well. For people to like the race, the vibes, the bands, the new start line, the t-shirts, the medals. Everything I had worked so hard on the entire time I had been working there. The bikers were all lined up and finally it was time for them to take off. We had a separate corral for them to finish in, store their bikes and head over to the finish line festival for everyone if they so desired. I was up on the starting podium for a while and seeing them all lined up and realizing all these people were here to do what we had worked so hard on was pretty breathtaking. I double checked everything over there was good to go. The medals were being unwrapped and everyone was ready for the bikers to come back into the corral. Though it would take them a while I wanted to make sure all was good for their arrival.

The bikers were all lined up in the starting area. When they finally got started, I was down off the starting stand and saw them all start to whiz by. Then I was back down to the results tent and back to the bike area.

When I was down back by the start line again, checking in to see how everyone was doing and what else needed to be done we figured out that there was no one there to drive the media truck. I was asked to drive it and was really nervous but it needed to be done. I made sure my other job of the elite gatherer and results would be taken care of and got the truck ready. Then before I knew it I was off following the cops. This was my view for the next 26.2 miles.

It was actually really scary. I didn’t like doing it at all and was really nervous for what I was suppose to do once I got to the finish line. Everything was going okay until we met back up with the half marathoners. That’s when I got stuck behind a lot of runners and the cops kind of got away from me and I got way stuck on the side of the road. I felt horrible because I could only imagine that the runners I was almost running over thought of me. I really didn’t want anyone to get hurt and I was in a huge truck! Gah what a morning. After that I was a little shaken up and I think I was nervous for the rest of the day. I finally decided to park the truck on a side street and walk back down to the finish line area. I was so upset with the whole situation and how I got lost and felt like I let everyone down that I work with and those who were running. HELLO giant truck running over people.

I was lucky enough to catch a crew guy to give me a lift back down to the finish line. I got back over to the VIP tent and saw a huge line throughout the festival area and had no idea what all these people were waiting for. I also saw about 100 people walking around with a million frozen pizzas? I was so confused as to what had gone on and the finisher for the full already had come through so a few full marathoners were starting to trickle in. I asked a few people what they were waiting for and they said the bridge. WHAT. So everyone thought that was the only way over to the other side. I tried to tell a few to go around and it was no line? But no one was listening and I had other things to take care of. I checked in with those at the volunteer tent and then was off to get the awards and race results to the VIP tent for the elites. At this point it was 10 am but it felt like it was 3 pm. I had no idea what time it was and was just getting everything done that I was suppose to do to complete my list.

I finally figured out that Little Caesars was giving away free frozen pizzas. That explained the pizza everywhere. Random. I also heard that the 5k went really well. For a 5k, I think we put on a good race with Bubba Gump. Everyone gets a medal, a t-shirt and a free meal from Bubba Gump just for them. Yet people still complain that they don’t get everything that the half and full marathoners get. To each their own. If I ran a 5k like that I would be stoked.

Then I got the race results to the VIP tent and helped with the award presentation going on there. The awards we gave out turned out really good. It was now quickly approaching 11:30 and that’s when I heard about the chaos over at the personal item storage tent. It was really unorganized and everyone was screaming at each other. We were trying to get it under control and I realized it was the same type of thing that happened at the kids run, but multiplied. It’s weird, when people aren’t patient they start to attack each other and it’s almost cannibalistic. Just like at the kids run people just started yelling and attacking. We couldn’t get it under control in time and then it just spiraled out of control. That was a big bummer because it left a bad impression on some. People kept telling me what a problem it was, but I was so busy doing everyone on the other side of the festival and I knew that there were people over there dealing with it. The bridge line was gone but I knew it was still a long day left as it was only noon!

I think everyone just was exhausted. I still hadn’t eaten and I was working on picking up trash and helping out the recycling team and organizing more volunteers to be dispersed places. I had been on my feet since 1 am and was starting to feel it. My phone had been dead for more than three hours and I was so worried about a few people that I told to call me if there were any problems. My nextel radio kept beeping off about random things and I kept hearing about the personal item storage issue. I worked hard on my side but that and the truck issue really got to me. I saw a friend in the bridge line and she smiled and just had finished her first marathon and I was so happy for her and so emotional and tired I just started getting teary. After that I was teary for the rest of the day.

More picking up trash and checking on all the little different aspects like medical, vip tent, cops, road closures, sag wagon and the pick up truck. It was just a lot going through my head. Finally, around 2 things started to slow way down. The recycling team was doing an awesome job of cleaning up after everyone. I will forever be grateful for their hard work. The personal item storage tent was under control again. The PF&F line was going well and we still had lots of medals left. The bridge was open and flowing well and the volunteers were finally getting to eat. I finally just started feeling horrible that all my friends who had come down to run the race had the worst time ever. I was so sad that I felt like I had failed them. It was really a hard feeling to deal with and though I hadn’t talked to them yet, I just was so scared that they would be so upset with me.

I finally found a place to plug in my phone. I immediately texted a few people and apologized for any problems they might have had. I was shocked when all I got back was praises. That’s when I just kind of cried for 5 minutes. I think it was a long day for me and I was just so happy that they had a great time and enjoyed it. I felt so much better after talking to them and hearing that they liked it and felt good and didn’t have any problems. I still feel horrible for all those in line at the bag check and all the complaints and emails… They all come to my inbox.

Since the race I have felt tired up until this weekend. I finally started to feel back to my normal self and after we had a debrief meeting for 5 hours on Monday morning at work, we all finally could breath a sigh of relief. It wasn’t perfect, and there will always be complaints.

I actually really like the shirt this year and think they looked awesome on everyone running in them. I worked really hard to get them to be sized correctly and there was actually a lot of thought put into them. On the front are many different parts of Long Beach that you run by during the race. We also chose Grey because so many races did blue this year.

The bibs all had the lighthouse on them as well, and I think they looked awesome and the medals. Le sigh. I am in LOVE. They turned out better than I ever though and I’m so proud of them.

The ribbons they are on are so cool and I really just like the overall look of everything. It’s crazy being on this side of the “tape”. I can’t believe I used to complain about getting to a race at 6 am and think my life was rough, because now I’m the crazy who was there at 1 am driving around the gator and putting up all the stuff and getting everything ready. Who made countless trips to home depot and now know that I loathe that place.

It was one of the best days of my life because seeing everything come to life was amazing. Though I can definitely wait until next year for another one of these, I know I’ve learned so much during my entire time here and I know exactly how to improve myself and we all know what went wrong. I was actually really bummed that I couldn’t run the race since it does mean a lot to me. It means a lot to all of us here at work.

I’m so thankful that the city of Long Beach came out in full force and everyone was so excited about the race this year. That’s was really important to me. I’m so thankful for everyone I work with and so thankful for all the runners who descended upon Long Beach and I truly hope everyone had an enjoyable time. The most thanks goes to the volunteers. All 2,500+ who came out and helped us all. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

xoxo

When Saturday morning  hit I knew I wouldn’t be snuggling back into my bed until late Sunday night. It was really hard to get out of bed and get going but I was still very nervous about the weekend. First up was the kids run at the Aquarium of the Pacific. We’ve been working with them since I came on board for the kids run and I knew it was going to be awesome. There was so many things going for the run and by August we had doubled our numbers from the previous year. We were giving out medals and finishers certificates to each finisher and the medals were ADORABLE.

When we arrived Saturday morning it was drizzling out and we were a little concerned about the kids running on the concrete and slipping. So we tested out a few different areas, started setting up tents and getting everything ready. I realized that we didn’t have a print out of the 1,600 kids that pre-registered but thankfully the Aquarium was open early enough and I was able to sneak inside at 5 am and print off the list.

People started arriving at 6 am to pick up their kids bibs. HOLY COW PEOPLE! It wasn’t suppose to open until 7:30. People are anxious! So we shoo’ed them away until 7:30. 7:30 the onslaught of people came and the line grew and grew and grew. Most were thankfully preregistered but there was some crazy long lines and they grew quickly. Parks and Rec brought over 250 kids and some other small programs were bringing kids by the bus load as well. I got really overloaded in the sign in tent and there were some angry parents letting me know about the line. Finally we split up the line and got everyone signed in and ready to go.

The start of one of the waves at the kids run.

The Aquarium had their special Cockatoo bird lift it’s wings to start the race!

All the kids taking off!

Make sure to check out more pictures here!

One of the most important things about bib pick up is signing up kids to have their parents sign a medical release and that was holding up the lines a lot. Once we figured out how to expedite the process, the line was gone and the angry mob of parents were off to the starting line. Thankfully, as soon as they had their bibs they were very happy. When a lot of them quickly got to the front of the line after we changed the pick up process, the few that were yelling at me and borderline hysterical in line wouldn’t look at me because I could tell they felt bad. Ohhh the nerves of their first child running I guess.

Once the line was gone, everything ran really smoothly! People were happy and the kids loved the medals and everything went pretty smoothly from there on out. After the kids run ended at 12 and we cleaned everything up until 1 it was back to the expo to help everyone out over there and then before I was there for long we had to go over to get the carbo dinner set up. That was started and I finally got to eat. Actually more like gorge myself. I ate so much pasta and it was delicious! I was surprised. That was over about 8. We went to 7-11 to get coffee on our way back to downtown. It was weird because we both looked at each other and said, “Man there’s a lot of people out and about right now!” Then we realized it was only 8 and we both thought it was around 11.

Coffee was downed and then it was back to the Expo to clean everything up and pack more stuff up. We finished that around 10 and went over to the festival area to check on the crew guys and see how that was all coming along. After discussing the plan to meet in the early morning hours, we left around 11 and went back to the hotel, showered and watched TV for about 40 minutes and packed up all our bags and left the hotel for the last time. I had a granola bar and we met everyone out on the festival area at 1 am.

One of the most scary things I’ve ever done is go in a portapotty to go to the bathroom in the pitch blackness of night.

Tomorrow it’s the big race recap!

xoxo

So I basically had always been told, you haven’t done Long Beach yet, since I started working with Run Racing in February. Which was true, I hadn’t. It is the biggest event we put on with about 23,000 registered participants and then about 45-60,000 people all coming to one place in one day makes for complete insanity. I literally had no idea what I was in for, but I am overall proud of us as a company and can’t believe I made it through it all. Seriously. Everyone is crazy.

I’ve realized a few things throughout the weekend. One of the biggest things that I realized is that you can NEVER make everyone happy. That is really hard for me to do because I want everyone to be happy and this is something I truly am passionate about. There are some people that just don’t listen and will always complain. That being said, onto the weekend events!

Thursday was the last day at the office and we were getting everything updated, packing everything up and scurrying around . Registration closed the night before and we were all excited. I feel like the whole last week I was so nervous and everyone had the feeling of lets just do this and move forward! All the guys had already started the manual labor part of the weekend and I truly love all our crew guys and all the girls in the office were doing all the last minute things in preparation. I was getting really nervous. Thursday night it was hard for me to sleep and I tried to keep updated on our Facebook and Twitter. There was just SO much going on and I felt like we were all firing on all cylinders. Finally I was done emailing and answering questions around 11 pm at night and felt like I had all my stuff ready for the weekend.

Friday morning came way too early as I had to be back down in Downtown LB at 7, that means a 5:30 wake up call. The medals were arriving and I was excited that after failing a lot x-rays in the port of Long Beach, they were free to come over after being inspected! We had t-shirts and medals, so the race could go on!

I was really stoked on the Sign Making Area that I set up and had at the Expo. A girl I work with and I were really excited and hope it got a lot of traffic, we set it all up and were excited for people to see it and use it. All weekend we were more than excited to see it packed with people checking out the signs and making signs as well.

The last thing that really was something new and exciting that we had been working on were the mile markers for the race. Just seeing them with the artwork was awesome and I was so glad that they came out looking as good as they did. All these mile markers were decorated with special artwork from special patients at the Miller Childrens Hospital in Long Beach. They are all up for silent auction and I truly love all the artwork on all the mile markers. I think they’d look so cool in an office or gym or something!

Before I knew it, it was 12 and the Expo was open. There were so many people there and SO many questions. I felt like I was running around all day long and lost complete track of time, which seemed to be the theme of the weekend. With the Aquarium of the Pacific Free Kids Fun Run early the next morning I knew things wouldn’t stop from this point on. After the expo closed we had the VIP dinner and it was great to finally meet some of the people I communicate only through email. After that was over around 9 it was back to the Expo to close it down and then we did a few errands for set up and for the crew. Finally crawling into bed at 12, I knew the alarm for 4:00 am for the Kids Run was going to kill me.

I was really excited and nervous as I worked hard on planning the kids run with the team and was really excited for all the kids to come and the parks and rec kids to come out and enjoy the race. It was the first year we were doing the new format and we were all interested to see how many kids came out.

Tomorrow I’ll recap the Kids Run and working on Saturday!

Also, winner of the Not So CliShea Giveaway are Angielou Harris, Rinat and Megan! Please email me at [email protected] when you get the chance with your address and I’ll get each one in the mail asap! Super excited you guys won!

xoxo

So this past weekend was by far the craziest, most rewarding, hardest and emotional weekend of my life. I don’t know how to even combine all the feelings and thoughts together. It was insane and fun and great and horrible all at the same time.  I have the over 400 emails in my inbox to prove it and slowly am weeding through them and responding. Being my first “Long Beach” it was pretty much insane. We had made a few small but very important changes to our area which had some unforeseen problems associated with it, but it’s pretty easy to fix and we obviously know it was problematic.

It blows my mind when people are like, “Did you know that was a problem?!” I’m like yes, that’s why I was sitting on the side of the road crying. We are crazy, not sleeping people and there is no rest for the weary. It’s our crazy time at work and I want to talk about everything that happened this weekend and I will do so over the next few days, starting off when I stopped sleeping which was Thursday. Thursday was our last day in the office. We got everything we needed and headed down to the expo to check on progress and set up our stuff around 12 and finished up in the office around 8. Got home and went to bed for the last time until Sunday night.

I’ll leave you with my portapottie stress “ball”……

More to come tomorrow, along with the winner of the Baby Clothes giveaway!

xoxo

So I had my birthday part of last week and this week and I got some wonderful dinero to Forever 21, a sweet PANINI GRILL so I can make caprese sandwiches to my hearts content, and an awesome easy bake oven that I’ve ALWAYS wanted since I was a young girl. Yes, the lovely Sheabee got that little gem for me. So now our kitchen is christened with a ton of appliances and I can’t wait for race week to be over so I can grill and bake stuff! Bake is used loosely since it’s all done by a light bulb and is doll sized. I also was treated like a little special penguin at work.

Yes, I’m wearing one of our lovely event parkas since I work in a stinkin’ igloo. Also, notice the lovely Long Beach Maps behind me and the marketing mascot the octopus who sits above my desk and watches me work. I know. Crazy. Also, I’m not 52 but this was a joke in the office.

Nothing too crazy on birthday evening, besides consuming a little too much wine, but my big birthday bash was on the calendar for October 8th. It was a night at the Los Alamitos Race Track, which was a little out of the ordinary and fun. All the girls who showed up wore big hats!

Two of my Best friends, Stefana and Shea! So loved the hats and the derby dress up! It was so different wearing such a big hat and yes, I couldn’t see out of it all night long.

The little broseph and I! So cute and yes my dress had pockets. Major score. Thank you Shea for letting me basically live out of your closet!

My two lovely cousins and I at the race track. Too bad I spent so much time on my eye make-up only to realize that you can’t see it in any pictures. Or the fact that I have like 3 pictures from the entire night. Must get iPhone4 with Flash!

Last but not least, the lovely girl I work with. Everyone gets us confused at work and calls us by each others names. Weird, but true. A few people from work came and it was really fun.

So thanks for all the birthday love and I’m stoked that I kicked off 25 with a marathon and now it’s race week and I’m prepping for everything for the race that won my marathoning heart! Can’t wait to get this show on the road this weekend and fingers crossed that everything goes off without a hitch! It should be awesome and I get to see my pretty medals tomorrow! I’ll do a post tomorrow with some stuff for Long Beach that has basically consumed my life.

xoxo