The race experience was great this year despite the rain and cold. Janet, Rachel, Tammy, Raya, and Nat made up a family relay team, Jessica, Tricia, and I ran the half marathon, and Aaron ran the marathon. Aaron also organized two student relays and for the first time ever in the history of having student relay teams, BOTH teams finished and got their finisher shirts and medals. No one missed the buses to the relay spots or missed the person handing off to them. Maddy got to attend the race for the first time and hang out with Uncle David. He was very gracious to watch her while we all ran. Sadly, things did not go as smoothly post race.
Before the race Aaron had brought a box for people to put sweats or whatever in that they didn't want to carry. Why he didn't just have them do bag check or let Uncle David watch the box, we don't know. Anyhow, some of the students left their clothes in the box but also decided to leave cell phones and wallets. Aaron had warned all of them not to put anything in the box they cared if they lost. Last year he left a box of clothes by the cotton bowl and nothing happened to it. No such luck this year. When people got done with the race they went to check the box and it had disappeared! This necessitated a trip to lost and found, which necessitated people splitting up, which led to confusion for everyone because many had lost their phones, had their phones die on them, or didn't have phones with them.
Tammy, Raya, Maddy, and I were going to head back to the car, but Aaron didn't know where we had parked. I finally had the sense to give Tammy, and Raya the key to the Isuzu and have them take Maddy with them so that they could all warm up and I waited in the rain while Aaron went to lost and found with some of the students. Nat had put his wallet in the box so he went with Aaron. Neither Nat nor Aaron had their phones with them so Uncle David, Janet, and I were standing in the rain outside the building so that we could catch up with them when they came out. We couldn't go inside the building because lost and found was in the finisher building and they are very picky about letting people back in after the race is done. Anyhow, Uncle David finally told Janet and I to go wait in the building that was open to everyone and we didn't argue. We still had our wet clothes on from the race so we were really, really cold. Aaron finally used someone else's phone to call me and tell me that the guy who had left his phone in the box had figure out a way to track the phone on GPS and that it was still in Fair Park and they were going to try to go track it down. So we called Uncle David and told him he could come in from the rain. He was very happy that we called with that message. When he got in he bought us some hot drinks to warm up (thank you thank you thank you!!!!) and we found some chairs to wait for Aaron and Nat to get back.
We spent quite a bit of time waiting and finally Nat and Aaron showed back up, but the students were still chasing the box, or at least they one guy's phone. Aaron had to come back because he was so sore from the marathon he couldn't keep up with the students while they were running around. After more waiting, I said we really needed to go because Maddy, and Tammy and Raya were probably getting tired of waiting in the car and they were probably all really hungry.
Before all this happened, Jess and Tric had gone back to our house to shower and they had gotten some sandwich stuff for everyone. Well they needed to leave, but we were still at Fair Park and we had some jackets and Jess's phone with us, so they had to come back to the park to get their stuff. They were super awesome and made sandwiches for everyone and brought them to us, so we didn't have to wait to get home to eat.
By the time Jess and Tric got back, everyone, including the students, had given up on finding the phone, but the students who had stayed to look for it had lost their ride so everyone but Maddy, Aaron and I went back to our house while we took the students home. I just thought they had given up on the phone. The guy saw on GPS that it said his phone was at the finish line so Aaron drove over there and he and the student ran off to try to track it down. Again, no luck. So we dropped them off at their apartment and headed home.
When we were almost home, Aaron saw that he had a text from another student. That student had gotten back to campus but didn't have the keys to his truck. He thought the keys to his truck were in the box and didn't have a spare set. GREAT! So Aaron called him. I knew that one of the girls said that she had this particular student's clothes that he had handed off to her at the relay point, so I told Aaron that so hopefully his keys were with her and not in the box.
So everyone finally got home and got warm and dry, but a few got back minus some pretty important stuff. Lesson learned: DON'T TRUST THE BOX. I hope that that incident didn't turn the experience sour for the students who ran. And that the weather didn't turn them off as well. The relay has been a really positive experience for many of Aaron's students in the past. I saw one of his former students at the race who ran the half this year and Aaron saw another student on the marathon course who was running a relay. So hopefully at least some will continue to come back and do the race from year to year despite the fiasco at the end.
It was great to have some many family members to come do the race this year. We really enjoyed having everyone here and I hope everyone is ready to do it again next year after the memory of the cold and wet and the extremely sore muscles fades.
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brittany