~:[CH12 - Day 154]:~ Heated Competition

 

~:[CH12 - Day 154]:~ Heated Competition

It wasn't hot, but compared to the rest of the week, it was. It was strange that the only day I spent considerable amounts of time outside would be the hottest of the week. Of course, the weather matched the heated competition of the day. It was fun to start the races for the elementary track meet. I saw a number of students, alum and others that I knew. It was great having a quick catch up here and there. My starters pistol was giving me trouble and on top of it all, I haven't been able to find replacement blanks anywhere (although I got some tips at the meet). The races went pretty smoothly aside from the fact that giving instruction to elementary students is a challenge in itself. They're energy is all over the place and their attention, well, let's leave it at that. In the end, it was fun to see the effort of all of these students. At the end of the meet, there were some errors in the results, which caused some delays in the meet. I was a little sad to see parents complaining about it while they tried to sort it out with one even calling me over due to the delay. While this meet was not a meet I helped coordinate, learning from previous experience, I hope that they understand how difficult it is to run something of this sort. In the past when organizing events that I didn't need to, people also complained and ultimately, I decided that it wasn't worth my time or trouble to volunteer my time to organize that event. Similarly, if we constantly complain, especially when it's coordinated by volunteers, we're going to lose out on so many events that we could have had if we just worked with them by showing patience or by trying to fix things in the right manner. Instead of adding to the problem, let's be part of the solution. The delays were actually quite minimal especially when comparing them to the delays we faced all of track season this year. Of course this moment could not ruin a day where there was so much enjoyment and an experience these students will remember for a long time. For some, they may never run track and field in high school, but for those that do, it will be fun to see how much they changed since they had this opportunity. My body was drained when I got home as I was not used to being out in the sun, as I've been locked up editing and coordinating. I ended up plopping down for a bit before getting back to work, but as I thought back to the day, there was no doubt that it was a day well spent.