Livestrong Challenge – Rest Stop #1
I was so wrapped up in work this week that I almost completely missed all of the commotion for the LiveStrong Challenge only two blocks away from my office. I knew the ride was happening because I was signed up to work at the Austin Flyers rest stop, I just didn’t realize the extent of the transformation at Mellow Johnny’s. I walked over on Friday to see if I could get my stuff for volunteering only to find the street completely shut down. The expo and packet pickup are usually at the convention center 12 blocks away. For whatever reason, this year it was moved. I always find these transformations interesting.
Today it was a very early wake up call to get over the the rest stop, themed “Texas pride”. We were there quite a bit earlier than we needed to be but when the rush finally came it was all we could do to keep up. At one point my gloved hands were covered in a mixture of peanut butter and jelly. It was how hard a time we were having with the PB&J construction. Part of the issue was that we had preserves instead of jelly so the first third of the jar was just huge chunks of fruit that wouldn’t spread. The second issue was the lack of real knives. The best was Rhe breaking all our plastic knives with her super human strength and over-zealous PB&J making. We finally got a decent assembly line going and, with the three of us, almost caught up to demand.
We also had fun cheering on the riders and watching the main group go by with Lance and other Radio Shack celebs. The best was the actual cancer survivors. There was a little girl, maybe 7, who was in remission. She was doing the 20-mile ride on her little kids bike with the basket and all. Last year she was in treatment and her family pulled her along behind. Her family was doing everything they could to help her but she was having none of it. She wanted to walk her bike up the hills herself, and get her own food. She was fantastic.
Towards the end of our shift it was getting hot. Lance had already come through twice and the string of people was thinner and thinner, Since we were only 6-miles away from the start/finish, those who did stop on their way back were mostly using the Porto-poties. I rode back to my car with Kate, Kim, Diane and Meredith. It was a super fun day.