Volunteering at Baneasa Trail Race 2013

Running brain of a volunteer :-)
Băneasa Trail Race, 10 km,  2nd edition, 14th of December 2013.
  89 ladies
243 men 

Best time men: 34min24sec (Marius Busca)

Best time ladies: 43min43sec (Antoanela Manac)

As I was very positively impressed by the new leading of this race - an initiative of Lucian AlMarii/Sport la orice vârstă Association - I decided to volunteer :-) Last year I also volunteered, but "not official". I was on the entire trail, taking pictures off everybody. It was a lot of snow and much colder.... here some pictures from 2012 .... (I deleted all the about 300 of runners pictures as I had not enough space on my google account anymore...)

So, on the race day, Saturday, I woke up at 6 a.m. for my 3rd official volunteering project (2009 - Prima Evadare, 2010 - MIB). Awful time to wake up in a week-end morning, right?! Yes, I know :-)

Meeting point was the start point, Băneasa Forest, Restaurant Casa Albă. Meeting time for the team: 8.00 a.m. Race start was planned for 11 a.m.

Almost everybody was almost punctual at 8 a.m. We were a team of 40 volunteers during the day.

The weather promises to be wonderful, cold, but sunny and dry!

And we started to do all kind of stuff, as volunteers are always supposed to do, right ? :-)

An empty place was supposed to be arranged for a race having over 300 participants at start!

The list of ”TO DO” stuff could be too long. We were many of us, so the tasks were assigned and we seemed to be quite relaxed :-) I knew from an e-mail one evening before that my main task of the day was to lead the runners on the right path after 9th km, one km before the finish. So, I had to be appropriately dressed, as standing in the same spot for two-three hours could become pretty cold at about 6 degrees Celsius, right? The feet were the most important ..... so I choose some ugly, but exceptional warm boots I had bought 3 years ago:

As an active runner, the most frustrating thing about volunteering is .... not to run, of course! Except this, a masochist stuff seems to be going there, where the race is taking place, volunteering and being away from all what means start and finish! So, you see nothing from the entire atmosphere :-(

I had to occupy my spot about half an hour before the start. I could go there, being so close to the start/finish point, also after the start, but being new in the team I didn't want to worry the organizers, as they do not know me at all. So, I just had to listen and to follow the plan.

I was introduced to my new "work office of the day":

 I began to study the area, to look after some signs of life, maybe some aliens, dogs or what ever :-) Some are convinced about me that I am a sort of willing hermit, but they are wrong. Hey guys, you have no idea actually!! 

So, I found a nice place for my red backpack, I had my hot tea there ....

The forest was wonderful in the morning game of lights and shadows ....

I continued to investigate the area, of course, to see where are the runners coming from and to  try to mentally predict how tired they will be in order to plan my repertoire of jokes or silent ....

So, after I accommodate to my new office, I started to have a small .... issue .... I had to pee, verdammt noch mal!! The problem was that some people were walking through the forest. A couple just come closer and seemed not to be in the hurry. And I had to pi!! What to do?! I couldn't left the post, no way! What an easy life have you, guys!!!

So, I decided to think about feeling boring .... so took a picture of my boots!

In fact I was very proud of my whistle, although I had no idea what to do with it! But not at all! What else to do in order to ignore my need?! 

Imagine I am in a fairy tale .... and I do not need to pee, I do not need to pee at all, all is only in my sick imagination ....

But I still needed to pee, people!! As the walking couple and their dog moved away I checked all my around to see how alone and lonely I really was!! My God, I needed to be alone and lonely for 2 minutes only!

But the time of the two minutes was not now .... so I went along the path to see the way where the runners will come from .... and to look back to my "working place": 

 

 Great job, congrats for "Traiesc sanatos" team!

At the moment I was sure I could afford my special minute .... a man was coming to me! Shit!! And SHIT again as he stopped in the same place I was .... he had a list of questions about the race .... so, while answering him, my brain was again in the fairy tales world ....

The conversation took some minutes which felt as hours for me .... shit!!

The good news is that .... finally I could pee without being seen by anybody :-) Now I was happy and could be relaxed again about the idea of standing on the spot for the next two hours :-)) And I also had a quiet friend now:

 The start had been already given, it was already 11:25'! I expected to see the first runners in about 10-15 minutes .....

WRONG EXPECTATIONS!!

The first runner appeared so unexpected on the corner after only 30 minutes after the start!!

So, now starts the party!!

As I saw the cyclist first, I realized now I had to pay attention for real. So, besides whistling and showing to their left, I started to take some pictures ..... not so many .... only about 270 images :-)

The second ranked runner disappeared as quickly as appeared, deep in the forest .... he was worried ... 

 about the third coming ....

So, a very fast race and a very tight competition for the first places ....
My time for this trail is 50 minutes so far, the best time of mine, so I can judge what is meaning to run this race in 35 or 45 minutes!
I have to say that for the next hours I had plenty of work and it was fun :-) And short, only about one hour. You are not able to recognize the faces of the people you know sometimes, but then I recognized them in the pictures :-)

 Something is very clear: more and more runners are better and better prepared for the races, the running population started to seriously train and you can see this not only reading the race finish time, but also from their attitude one km before the finish and from their equipment actually! Many from the fastest trail runners didn't started the race this time, but the race itself was a very competitive one and this is impressive indeed.
Actually, watching them, although I might be tired after so many hours, I was in the mood to "run my own race" through the forest, so after I finished my work, I changed and I run ten km :-)
Here are the pictures I took.

(to be followed, my job is not finished yet :-))