Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race!

I did not race Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race - I was too busy helping run the race. This year the race was a timed stage race with a time trial Saturday morning, a crit Saturday afternoon, and a road race on Sunday.

The best thing we did this year was hire a race director - Erik Anderson. It made things so much smoother. I helped out last year - but putting on a race has a steep learning curve. We tried to do better in many places this year. Our number one problem last year was a shortage of volunteers and that made everyone crabby by the end. We still had challenges this year but we got help from members of many of the other teams including Apex, Cucina Fresca, Bike-Sale, Starbucks, Greggs, Herriott Sports, Cycle-Therapy 4-corners, Lenovo, Footworks PT, and Olympic Othopaedic racing. I am sure I missed somebody. And of course my team, Blue Rooster/Sports Medicine Clinic did a great job with everybody putting in some long hours.

The weather wasn't the best. We got a little sun at times but other times it just poured.

We got a lot of positive comments from the racers. It was nice to see our efforts were appreciated. The race takes more than 90 volunteers. We also got help from the local community. The local Presbyterian church put on a spaghetti feed for the racers and the local high school provided volunteers to help in the feed zone. We also had volunteers from Mutual of Enumclaw to help make sandwiches for the volunteers and to help corner marshal. The volunteers come from Mutual of Enumclaw come out every year to help.

Our prize list for the race was $10,000. It was fun to give out so much money. In addition we handed out $1,200 in primes at the crit plus some cool prizes like tickets to a Sounders Game, gift certificates to Speedy Reedy, and free Massages at Living Lotus Massage. We stayed around after the race to hand out the checks. That was the most fun part but had to wait for the official results. At one point one of the Juniors came to get his prize with five family members in tow, all very excited. I felt bad that the check wasn't ready yet so we did a fake presentation for a photo op - and I handed him the check and shook his hand while all of the family took our photos.

Some of the riders don't get their own checks. One of the team managers came in and had us make out all of the prizes for his riders out to their team and then the team pays the riders. Maybe that is the way the pros do it?

We had a great turnout of riders for the race - our largest attendance ever. We had a great showing of riders from Canada - at least 10 teams came down. Also riders from Idaho, and Oregon, and probably a few even further out.

Well next week - to recover - we are putting on another race! Fremont Criterium is next up!

Enumclaw Omnium Corner 2

My team put on the bike race this weekend, the Enumclaw omnium. The race is the closest stage race to Seattle city limits and it's known for being a very challenging course. The team donates half of the profits to the Special Olympics so it's a win for everybody.

My job today was to corner marshal for the road race all day. I put my chair down at my station and of course right there was a four-leaf clover!

I was stationed on corner two - right next to the Scottish Highland Cattle. I was a little worried since I was waving my red stop sign around right next to bulls with horns. The owner came out though and told me a little about the bulls. For one thing they are color blind and can't see red. So they attack based on motion, not color. Two of the bulls next to me were actually grand champions that he had showed. The one with the nose ring was the male. The ring is for control. I was protected by the electric fence so I wasn't in too much danger.

Congratulations to everyone who did the race. I can tell you that from my perspective there was an awful lot of suffering going on out there!