My SM100 VOLUNTEER report, no I didnt race.

I volunteered for the SM100 this weekend. A lot of boring details ahead, but if you never volunteered for the cooking part and want to know whats involved , heres your chance.


Saturday 9/3/05
I got away from the house about 8:45 for the trip down to Stokesville for the Shenandoah Mt. 100 mile race. Uneventful drive other than my new technique I’m tryng out to save gas. Drafting. I figure if it works for roadies on bikes why can’t I draft big rigs? I’ll let you know how that works out.

Arrived at the site 3 hours later. I was told to look for a MORE banner so I could camp near the other MORE people. I didn’t know the layout of the site and couldn’t find them right off so I drove up a small hill and found a decent level camp site. I figured I’d better claim my spot as I wasn’t how sure quickly this place would fill up. I got the bike out and went to find where the MORE people were and to explore around a little. I found them right off a small road I hadn’t look at before. It looked pretty filled up back there so I decided to go ahead and just stay at my premium spot I had already staked out. They were only a 3 minute walk away anyways. Just about everybody was still out on the ride they had went on that morning so, I’d meet everybody later.

I’ve been having sporadic bottom bracket noise issues which I hadn’t gotten around to taking care of yet and of course this weekends it starts to act up real bad. I’m trying to just cruise around and check out the place and people and the whole time my bottom bracket is making a loud ass “click…..click…..click”. It was loud enough where people were turning their heads and looking. I decided that this was too embarrassing and cut the exploring short.

Went back to “Gorilla Homebase” and set up the site. I had only set my new tent up once before with the help of my daughters. I was a little worried that I’d need a 2nd hand to help but that wasn’t the case. So, set the tent up, throw the bedding inside, throw the cooler and folding chair down and my home is ready. I head down to the pavilion as its nearing 2 and that’s when I’m supposed to start helping. I don’t see anyone I recognize and start asking “you with MORE”. Nope , they’re not there yet. So I’m watching the promoters unload stuff, and start to help them a while. Biking people are not set up for lifting and carrying heavy items. I have to admit its kinda funny watching them struggle with some of the heavy items. I know, I’m an ass, but they’d probly think it was funny watching me climb some of the hills around there.

I meet Alexis (I’m pretty sure that’s his name). It ends up he’s with MORE, I find out later. We help the promoters until Ann shows up. Shes going to take over as “The Boss” as Scott is actually racing this year. It seems like most of the volunteers have done this before and have some sort of idea of what to do or what needs to be done. I just sorta jump between jobs giving a hand here and there. I try to do a lot of the heavy moving of items as I’m more suited for it. I carried a lot of water containers Saturday.

So MORE’s job is to prepare the dinner for the evening. This is gonna be spaghetti with meatballs. Sounds easy. But MORE takes the job seriously. They have this big ass procedure for sautéing onions ,meatballs, spices, and the sauce. They use a combo of tomato and spaghetti sauce. It must do something. I did manage to get a plate later and those were some tasty meatballs. Dinner starts at 5 so we’re boiling spaghetti noodles and storing them in those big “drywall compund buckets”. We get 2 whole ones filled up before dinner evan starts, but I’ll be damned if we run out of noodles later and had to play catch up. It got kinda hectic. Racers are waiting in line and we have no pasta for the sauce. Theres not a damn thing you can do. The waters not going to boil until its ready.
I was going to learn the next day what hectic really is though. But that’s for tomowrow.

Ok, I’m getting tired of typing. I’m going to break this up.
TBC
Seeya