WHEW !! it's finally done.
Saturday saw the running of "T5.5": the fifth iteration of our annual "TipToe Thru The Tulips" road rally. on which zeroband and I have been thrashing since early January.
No one who hasn't actually done it can ever fully appreciate how much work goes into putting on a rally. First there is all the running of roads, searching out checkpoint locations, and working out the route. And then begins all the administrivia of formally measuring the course, publishing the general instructions, the contestant's route instructions, the checkpoint worker's instructions, checkpoint slips, and award certificates. Then comes the actual running of the event, doing all the registration paperwork, and trying to keep everyone on course. Then at the end comes collecting time records from the checkpoints, and working out the team's final scores. Whew.
But then comes the really fun part: handing out awards, schmoozing with the teams, and hearing that everyone had a good time. That's the part that has kept us doing it for five years. Every time we finish one, we look at each other and say "Do we really want to go through this again?" And then long about November we start having ideas about what we could do if ... and then in January we start it all again.
Right now we're busy enjoying the afterglow of a successful day. Ask me about another one sometime after Labor Day!