Don't Sit Down!

After the trucks were loaded and ready to go.
We were done, done!

Tim Horton’s doesn’t serve breakfast sandwiches at 3:30am in the morning. 
It’s donuts, muffins or bagels only.
And coffee.

Many started at 2am. Laying out barricades and cones on the course. Signage as well. 
That team started even earlier.

Assembling the logistics for more then 1,000 cyclists rolling over 100km in one day took months of planning, and a lot of human power.

Before we knew it. It was go time.
We’re a different breed of folk. Proactive in our approach to life. 
We do before told. We see what is needed.

Don’t need to be asked.

Used to lifting, sweating, going without food and water for hours. Even time to pee.
We stand on our feet all day. In all kinds of weather.

The adrenalin rush of the day keeps us going.

We're an Event Team.

Not one single person slacked. It was all hands on deck.

At all times.
No worries. 
Our backs are covered.
By each other.

Hours after the last rider had crossed the finish line we gathered in the Events Communications Centre (ECC) for a quick meet-up before loading up the four big tonnage trucks with all that was needed to activate the day and make it shine. 

“Don’t sit down,” Doug kept saying as he paced in circles doing whatever. 

Whatever is right. I had my feet rested above my head.

You can never underestimate the comfort of shoes for event day.
Feet swell.
“I iced my feet twice today,” Stephan pipes in.
In the ECC there weren't enough glasses left for water. The ice had melted. Food was scarce. 
No matter. We weren't done yet.

I rumbled back to the action earlier in the day. Seeing the sweaty, smiling faces walking around with their Finisher Medals and RBC GranFondo Kelowna merchandise.

We grew a community. 
Local volunteers stepped up to help out. To engage. 
Our MC announcer chimed in on it nicely.
"The day is meant to challenge you," he said.
Then he so eloquently summed it up for the rider's especially.
"Tired of being an observer in life, be a participant.”
I then woke up from my daze as we all got up and shuffled outside to finish loading the trucks.