ENDURrun 2017: Pre-Race Meeting

It's that time of year again.... ENDURrun is here again!
(I had the Oktoberfest song in my head for that.... if you live in KW, you know what I'm talking about.. you kind of have to stretch out ENDURrun, but it kind of works....)

Today.... Saturday, August 12, 2017... is pre-race meeting day! Right now it's 3ish pm and I'm at home, getting some stuff ready for the week, but soon, I'll head to Conestogo to meet up with runners and volunteers at the RD's house. It's always a bit of a reunion, since there are people who come to this event year after year (both runners and volunteers), those who are returning for the first time in a few years, and those who are new to the event, who will soon feel like they've known everyone forever.

At the meeting, we pick up our numbers and swag bag, eat some fruit and maybe some chips, mingle, and then it's time to get down to business. The details of the week are outlined, along with any course changes, etc. It's a great opportunity to get a good feel for the event and all of the hard work that goes into putting on this week. The head volunteers explain their roles and provide any instructions to the runners, such as what to do with garbage, recycling, and organics, what types of signs to look out for on the courses, etc.

While the meeting is not mandatory, it's definitely beneficial to attend.

9:26pm and I'm back home from the meeting, going out for food and a quick shopping trip for some food for in the house.

Revealing the new Volunteer Shirts

Lots of food at East Sides

There are no major changes to be aware of so far, but it has been noted that there is a tree down on the course for tomorrow's stage. I guess we'll find out just how much of an obstacle it is in the morning.

And now.... the swag bag.

I should stop writing in here now and actually get my stuff together for morning and get to bed at a decent time. Racing requires sleep!

Good luck to everyone running this week, and a giant thank you the Schmidts and all of the volunteers for making this week possible!

Good night!

ENDURrun - Pre-Race Meeting

ENDURrun starts tomorrow!
Which means the pre-race meeting was today.

It was great to see and catch up with some people that I haven't seen in a long time and also good to hear the updates on the course changes, volunteer duties, etc.

To keep with tradition of previous years.... here's a photo of the swag bag o' stuff.

Links to follow for the week:
http://endurrun.com/
http://results.runwaterloo.com/endurrun

ENDURrun Stage 0 - Pre-Race Meeting

It's that time of year again... ENDURrun time!

This year seems to have absolutely flown by! I can't believe it's already August 8th and I have already been to the 2015 ENDURrun Pre-Race meeting at the Schmidt house.

Pre-Race Meeting at the Schmidt House

As you can see from the above photo, there is a large field this year. Now, that group of people also includes some spouses and friends, some Sport Contenders, relay team members, guest runners, as well as the Ultimate Contenders, so it is a little inflated, but there are also people who were unable to make it to the meeting tonight. We will not truly know the total number of athletes competing in the event until the stat of the race tomorrow morning at 8:00am.

There were 67 people registered to compete in the Ultimate, however, it is already known that 8 are unable to start for various reasons. This brings us to 59 ultimate contenders expected to compete in this event.

Last year was the biggest year so far, with 46 Ultimates toeing the line at Stage 1 and 42 completing the entire event. Unless an additional 13 people do not show up tomorrow morning, it looks like this will be a record setting year!

As usual, I will be blogging daily, providing some brief updates, some photos (they tend to be of the food...), maybe some links to various sources of info, etc.

For today, I will leave it at this... I look forward to seeing all of the happy/excited/nervous/anxious/terrified faces tomorrow morning morning in Conestogo!

The Swag. You gotta love the swag.

ENDURrun 2013 – Pre-race meeting

It’s that time of year again… time for the ENDURrun! The 7 stage event officially starts tomorrow morning at 8am, but unofficially started tonight, with the pre-race meeting.

As usual, the race was held at the race director’s home in Conestogo. This year, to be sure the meeting began on time, it was suggested to come early if you wanted to socialize. I arrived a half hour before the meeting start time, which allowed a bit of time to catch of with some people that I had not seen in a year, some that I had seen last month, some a few days ago, and some I had never met before.

In talking to various people, I discovered rather quickly that I’m not the only person who feels that they have not adequately trained (or trained specifically at all) for this event. It made me feel a bit better about my readiness (or lack thereof) and I’m interested to see how the week plays out.

We picked up our bags containing our numbers and some other goodies and headed to chairs for the meeting. The official meeting included an introduction to the volunteers/race crew, some announcements, and some general information about the week to come.

After the meeting was over, I noticed a few more people that I hadn’t had a chance to talk to yet, so more catching up was done before heading home to eat and get ready for tomorrow.

Now that I have filled up my tummy, I should get my race stuff ready for the morning.  Have a great evening, and good luck to everyone at the start line in the morning!